Last week is our one-year anniversary for our move to Cambodia and more significantly for Amy and I to start serving God full-time as missionary. You probably want to ask us how does it feels to be living in Cambodia for a year. Well, Phnom Penh is certainly not on any list of “best places to live in the world”, but we can tell you with certainty that we love being here. We love being here because we are certain that God called us to be here to serve Him. We love being here because if we scrap away our normal view of life essentials and focus only on Him, there’s really no better place than Cambodia or in the mission field. We love being here because it teaches us to find satisfaction in serving God and find the ‘joy’ mentions in the Bible. Cambodia helps us rely solely on God as there’s not much distraction here -- no nice shopping mall, no good restaurant, no TVB, no fashion billboard and not even friends with nice stuff constantly flashing in front of you and etc. :)
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Our Due Diligence
The first year here is a great training for us as we learned many valuable cultural lessons that would be hardly comprehended if we did not experience firsthand. One of the most important lessons we learned and continue to be corroborated by other overseas missionaries living here is --- “Do not be fooled by the courteous smile, humble expressions and their tragic background!” This seems to be the general warning given to us by many of the missionary friends whom we met here. It sounded very harsh and ‘unloving’ if you hear it from a pastor or missionary, but it is no doubt the best recommendation for a new missionary like us. We wish we understand and appreciate what it means sooner. In Cambodia, aid workers/organizations are the target for many locals for fast and easy money. The love of Christian missionaries and churches is certainly being exploited. There are many real-life stories within a small circle of Christians that we know in Cambodia -- a local 'Christian leader' receiving overseas’ church support but not taking up his responsibilities; a ‘pastor’ sold the land where the church located and disappeared and many other embezzlement schemes.
Last week, Mrs. Campbell graciously brought us a copy of the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong English newspaper) during her visit. In one of the news article, a comment jumped out and caught my attention: “Most worryingly, the information often sits unnoticed among the thick bundles of accountancy records but is ignored because of a lack of diligence or outright stupidity by those who choose to believe the story spun by grand public figures rather than the boring sets of figures that prove the story’s faults.” (scanned article below). Obviously, the Bible warns us against false teachers that lives among us but since we are too lazy to study God's word, we cannot differentiate them. At the same time in the mission field, we sometimes choose to believe the story spun by a great story teller because we are too lazy to dig deeper into the issue or the person's lives, we choose to help by giving them money and fall into an embezzlement trap.
Are we doing our due diligence? This very issue that many of us (missionary or organization) encountering strikes us at heart because it is our main work experience as an auditor and a fraud examiner to try to prevent and detect potential vulnerabilities. In many of these incidents, issues may be avoided if proper administrative controls and oversight are in place.
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Article from South China Morning Post on May 7, 2014
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Keep moving forward
With our initial projects coming to an end after a year, we will be getting more involved in the following areas:
* Please pray for us to have the wisdom to safeguard, better use of God’s resources, and help others to do the same. As Matthew 10:16 said: "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
(2) Personal Level – in our last two blogs, we mentioned that we are putting together a plan - dormitory discipleship program - to nurture and disciple young believers who came from the village to go to universities in the city. It is a partnership with a young dormitory leader we met nine months ago. An initial plan has been drafted, and our plan is to raise funds for this dormitory in the next few months in order to relocate the current dormitory before the new school year (October 2014). We need funds for the setup cost, housing assistance for the students, basic operation, and scholarships that would allow 20 students to be nurture in a God loving place. We are preparing fund raising materials and will be sending to you soon. Please pray with us and let us know if you are interested to learn more and get involved.
* Please pray for the fund raising for this dormitory discipleship program in the next few months.
~ Thank you for all of you keeping us in your prayers! ~
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