CRM - Empowering Leaders

Jump on a plane, learn a few phrases, win hearts, win souls, develop the memories of a lifetime, and return on time for fall semester. This is the way many of us want missions to work. If only it were so easy.

Unbelievable as it might seem, we’ve found that God has been calling attention to Himself long before any of us got here. This means that our team hasn't really brought Jesus to Cambodia as much as we’ve been trying to discover what Jesus has been up to in these parts. Our goal is to join God in His work rather than ask him to bless ours. This process takes humility, patience, and an abundance of time.

So, if you have a desire to explore Cambodia with an eye toward long-term (3+ years) missionary work among the poor, let us know. What is needed is love for God, love for the Church, and desire to humbly love and serve the poor. If those things are in place, we’ll do our best to make things work.

Ryan Zondervan
Sept. 2006 — Mar. 2007

A year ago I found myself in a unique position – a financial industry drop-out who happened to have a lot of free time on his hands and a desire to learn more about serving others, simplicity, and Christ's love for the poor. That yearning would take me halfway around the world to Cambodia for a six-month internship with InnerCHANGE.

I had little faith in being able to offer my teammates anything of value during that time. Fortunately the Lord had other plans, stretching and challenging me beyond what I imagined was possible. Some tasks were labor intensive and complex, like working with Hayden to produce a promotional brochure for Treasures from the Heart (one that was literally completed just hours before I boarded my plane home!). Then, there were the little things, like playing with a teammate's 3-year-old son, washing dishes or making carrot cake for a team meeting. At one point I thought of dubbing my time in Cambodia "The Carrot Cake Internship," because I was so obsessed with conquering Susan's oven (the door didn't shut properly) and finding crème cheese (at one point having to barter at a Christian NGO restaurant called Jars of Clay for a hunk).

I studied Khmer and quickly was able to converse with my neighbors – something I thought would never happen. God opened many doors, revealing all kinds of new things I could do with the help of the Spirit. My six months in Cambodia were rich, blessed with meaningful relationships, personal discovery, spiritual growth, and humble service. Riding my bike through the streets of Phnom Penh, at times I would remember where I was, all that I'd been given, and simply look into the deep blue sky and offer a prayer of thanksgiving. Life in Cambodia was almost never easy, but it was certainly blessed.

Mike Scott
Jan. 2006 — May 2006

I was in the middle of a year off from med school when I arrived in Cambodia to intern with the InnerCHANGE team. Specifically, I was to work at Preah Ket Mealea clinic as I explored the idea of using my medical skills to provide care for the poor in the future. About two weeks into my stay, Dave Everitt had to inform the majority of the staff that the clinic would be closing down indefinitely and that he would not only be unable to pay them while the clinic was closed, but that there was no guarantee that their job would be there when the clinic reopened.

Not surprisingly, many of the staff were upset, but the source of their disgruntlement was not the one that Dave or I expected it to be (namely, the sudden loss of their source of income, which many of them depended on for such luxury items as feeding their children). Rather, it seemed the majority of them were upset and confused; you see, while Dave was trying to break the news that they no longer had a job, what they were hearing was that their ministry, their avenue for serving people (and specifically the poor), their arena for glorifying God, was suddenly being taken away from them. To see people who had just had their main source of livelihood taken from them concerned about both who would be taking care of these people that came to Phnom Penh so desperately in need of help, and how they would find another way to minister to those same people, was a very strong and meaningful example of just how much presence God has in that place.

This is just one of many stories I could tell to illustrate all the work that God has done through the InnerChange team over the 12 years they have been in Phnom Penh, and it doesn't even mention the fact that these people opened up their lives and their homes to me; they made me a part of their team and family, for four months, despite the fact that not a single one of them had so much as spoken to me on the phone, just so that I could go and try to learn more about the work God wants me to do in the future. For that, and many other things, I will always be grateful to them.

Joyce Chang
July 2005 - Dec. 2005

Working at 5 cents an hour.

Lately, there has been more work at the factory, so the girls have been working until 9pm, which has given me some more free time.  One day, I met this grandma who cuts the colored sections out of scraps of paper in order to sell the white parts for recycling.  The one son of Grandma's that is still alive is now mentally ill, so she provides for her grandson.  The way I felt like God was showing me to love her was to work with her in my free time at night, at 5 cents an hour.

Sometimes, it feels silly because I know that I could easily give her a lot more than what I can earn by cutting paper, but somehow both grandma and I are a whole lot more blessed this way.   It's always neat how God uses these little silly things of love to lead to unexpected breakthrough.  Many more of our neighbors started to join us to help Grandma cut paper.   Several of the neighbors approached me wanting to know more about Jesus, and one of them even received healing after asking me to pray for the abdominal pain that she had suffered from for four months.

None of these encounters did much to overcome the huge problems and deep darkness that Cambodia faces.  However, I was reminded that God has called each of us simply to be faithful in whatever he has entrusted us.

Ben Mester
Sept. 2004 — June 2005

One of the things that I most enjoyed in Cambodia, turned out to be something that I hadn’t expected.  After I had taken language classes for 5 months, I found that meeting people and talking with them in their native language was something really great.  There was one time that I remember better than any other time.  During the middle of the day one day, I went to one of the local markets to grab some lunch.

As expected, when I arrived, I was barraged by a small group of people who wanted money.  Usually, beggars at the markets gravitate towards tourists because they know that the tourists are more likely to give them something than Cambodians.  Usually when the beggars see a white face, they expect an embarrassed smile and a few words of another language that they don’t understand.  That I’m sure, is what they were expecting with me.

Instead, I said hello and how are you to them in their own language.  Immediately they all got a big smile on their faces and their eyes lit up.  They started asking me questions wanting to know how long I had been in their country and other kinds of things.  Before long, I told them that I was on my way inside the market to have lunch and instead of giving them money, I was happy to buy them lunch.

They all agreed and in we went.  Soon, more people arrived.  Some others who were asking for money had seen their friends walking with a tourist and eating with him and so they came over to try their luck as well.  By the end of the meal, I had gotten the chance to feed ten people for under $5 and hang out with them for a few minutes.  After the first time it happened, I tried to go at least once a week to have lunch and find some people to invite.

It took a really long time for me to feel comfortable enough with the language to have conversations with people but once I did feel comfortable enough, knowing the language at least somewhat turned into a real blessing.  I found that speaking with people in their own language showed that I respected them and cared about them, because I didn’t expect them to know English but that I was willing to learn their own language.