Restart Missions MEC@Cambodia
美佳之窗 His Window 104 (Oct - Dec 2023)
Text by Rev. Matthew
Since it’s inception in 2016, MEC has been conducting short-term mission trips to Cambodia annually. This was then halted when Covid-19 hit the world. This year, the MEC committee decided that it was the right time to restart our mission trip to Cambodia, hence, the date was set for the 31st of August to the 3rd of September (4 days, 3 nights).
Previously, the programme would consist of running youth camp for the local youths and then 2 days of medical clinic in the rural villages. However, this year we had a different set of objectives. Rewind to 2019, the “last” trip before we took a hiatus. During that trip, our Cambodian coordinator led our team to a remote village called, Boeng Lvea. It took the team 2 hours to drive to this village from our mission base in Baray, and it was there that our local Cambodian coordinator introduced a piece of land in the village of Boeng Lvea. There and then, Vincent Lim, decided to purchase the plot of land with the intention of then building a church for the villagers. MEC was supposed to return the following year to discuss and finalise the church building project, but, this trip had to be put off till this year.
Present day, one of our key objectives for the trip was to revisit Boeng Lvea, speak with the local leaders and assess the viability of building a church in that village. Our second objective was a solar panel project to provide street lighting for two villages namely, Boeng Lvea and Song Sang. The third objective was to give discipleship training to the local church leaders, also in the above- mentioned villages. And so, with the objective set, we formed our team. This year, Rev. Matthew Samuel Cho led the entire mission trip, assisted by Pang Kar Mei. Philip Tan was also onboard to give advise, especially in the area of the church building project. Our team comprised of 13 adults and 1 child. Unlike previous year’s teams, our group comprised of over 75% new members who have never been on a Cambodian mission trip hosted by MEC.
When we arrived in Phnom Penh, as usual a visit to the Killing Fields Museum was mandatory to help the team understand the context of Cambodian history. From there, we proceeded to our mission base, 3 hours away from Phnom Penh. Our lodging was in this beautiful and comfortable homestay called Khmer Homestay, operated by Esther Ding, a local Malaysian who emigrated to Cambodia to be a entrepreneur-missionary for over 20 years now. The next day, we drove for 2 hours to the village of Boeng Lvea to begin our first day of ministry and project works. Our team was split into 2 groups, one group would do discipleship training for local church leaders, while the other would carry out solar panel project. In Boeng Lvea a total of 13 local church and cell group leaders joined the discipleship training. Philip Tan and Rev. Matthew conducted 2 sessions for the church leaders. It was touching to see the hunger to learn and to hear the struggles that some of these leaders faced, ministering to their own villagers. It was also humbling to see their resilience and perseverance to serve God in spite of the challenges they faced along the way. The MEC committee also took time to have conversation with the local church leaders to assess the need for a church building. Among the sentiments expressed was that the local villagers ridiculed the Christians because it seemed as if a promise was broken when after 3 years, still no church was built. The local church leaders also expressed how a church building would certainly help in the gospel work in the village as it would provide the Christians a proper space for worship and also to be used for other purposes, i.e. kindergarten and youth work. The MEC team decided that the need was certainly great for a church building and there was a potential harvest field for the gospel with 200 families residing in the village of Boeng Lvea.
Our team had a chance to look at a church building that was being built and using that as a reference, we could set an estimated budget in order to build a proper church building in Boeng Lvea. We also decided that apart from simply being a church, the building would also serve as a mission base for future MEC teams, so that we could stay in the village for longer periods of time, ministering to the villagers. Upon returning to Malaysia, MEC presented the need for a church building to our LCEC team and after much deliberation and discussion of the way forward, all agreed that we would sponsor a church building with a budget of RM150,000. It was also agreed that our partnership with the church in Boeng Lvea would mean that we would increase the frequency of our visits to Cambodia from once a year to at least 3 times a year.
Back to Cambodia, day 3 of our trip brought us to Barea, 45 minutes away from Baray. As in the previous village we set up solar panels for street lamps, conducted discipleship training for the local church leaders, visited families in their homes to pray for them, and conducted children’s ministry. While everything was supposed to go as planned, heavy rain drenched majority of our team, as they rushed to set up the solar panels. However, though soaked and cold, it did not dampen the spirits of the team members who continued to serve joyfully the rest of the day, running children’s ministry and visiting the families to pray for them. Day 3 ended wonderfully with a scenic ride through the paddy fields on a farming tractor, followed by a sumptuous dinner at the homestay with friends from Singapore.
As the curtain for MEC’s trip to Cambodia drew to a close, the work is not finished. In fact, it is only the beginning. A beginningof a new project, which would set the tone for the development and growth of Christianity in Boeng Lvea. We are excited as we look forward to the potential completion of this project, we also want to invite all of you reading this article to provide us your support in these few ways. First, pray for the Christians and church in Boeng Lvea. Our prayers certainly provide the spiritual support that they need. Finally, join our team for a trip to Cambodia. We always need people to see the need and have a heart for the Cambodian Christians. Our trip dates will be posted up and announced when we finalise our plans for the following year.