Finally, as a family we were able to do another trip to Cambodia. With Samuel in his final year of high school, who knows if we will be able to do that again. It’s both astonishing and fulfilling to see the huge changes in Cambodia over the years. What started for us in 2002 with several staff visiting back and forth, then taking teams, and then eventually moving there to pioneer life-changing (and city-changing!) works in Battambang, has since grown to a YWAM campus, churches planted, a local business, sports ministries, a preschool/elementary school, and school classes for the youth of the city, serving literally hundreds of people every day.
This trip was a short 2-week, but as always very full. As a family we joined medical work going on in a village located on a city dump, helping in a local YWAM-run cafe, work projects at the campus, helping with kids and more. As a couple Molly and I were key speakers at a week-long leadership training seminar. YWAM training staff and leaders traveled from various campuses in the country to be with us for the week. Some of those involved we first met when they were just teenagers, single, and new to Christianity. Now, so many are married, with kids, leading whole schools, ministries and campuses themselves. But, perhaps the most rewarding for us was hearing them refer to us as “elders to their mission” there. In reality, while we have contributed the little we could over the years, it is our privilege to say we have worked with them. These are the true heroes of the faith to us.
Below is a quick time-lapse video of the “Bamboo Train”; a low, short “train” made of bamboo and steel. Followed by some photos of “before” (2008/9) and now (2019).
GoWests! 