Beating a Dead Horse

So, my girlfriend's sister, Katie, has a pretty cool blog that she keeps up (significantly better than me). It mostly pertains to daily epiphanies and various international adventures (hers and others). She's also a writer, so it's probably all a lot better than what you can find here. While I can't say I consistently read it, what I've read has been good. Anyways, she asked me if I would write a post about my trip to Cambodia back in January (here's my post on her blog). I promise to stop beating the horse after this one. This will be more Q & A (it's like an interview with myself, eh?) rather than me free writing a bunch of nonsense. These are some things Katie asked me to touch on:



How did you see God work?
     Well, I need to start of by saying that it wasn't exactly a "mission trip." It was a class at Calvin College, but the focus of the class was development. Over the three weeks we were in Southeast Asia, we spent two nights in Thailand and the rest in Cambodia. Those first two nights in Thailand were to show us what a more developed Southeast Asian country looked like as well as to help us get acclimated (jet lag, climate, etc). The rest of the time was spent in Cambodia where we primarily visited various development and relief agencies (most of which were NGOs). Some of these NGOs were connected with a church, others weren't religious at all. Most of them were doing great work (I say most, because of this). I think that God was working even through the ones that weren't Christian organizations, absolutely.

What did you learn about third world ministry? How can we apply this?
     I think something that I've come to believe (whether as a result of this trip or growing even before it) is that ministry shouldn't be so much about sharing the Gospel, but rather helping people. Now let me try to explain what I mean by that heretical remark (Baptist friends: I swear I mean it in a good way). If we're only focused on "giving people Jesus" or "spreading the Gospel" and the only way we talk to people is to talk about religion, they probably won't be terribly responsive. It's like seeing a homeless man on the streets and saying "Oh, I'll pray for you." Well, that's all fine and good, and I'm not saying you shouldn't, but maybe he was put in your path so that you could physically help him. Am I off base here? I don't think so. Why can't we just help people and then tell them about Jesus. Makes sense to me.
     I digress. A huge factor in the success of the organizations we visited seemed to be ownership. Two of the best ones we saw had nearly all local, Cambodia workers and they didn't really give things away. They came up with such a system that even the poorest in need of their services could pay (whether money, service, crops, etc). This created a sense of ownership for those people. One organization, RDI (sidenote, I really like what RDI was doing), put in wells for communities. They charged money. This way, if the rope pump on the well broke the community would care because it was theirs. They paid for it. On the flip side, if some relief agency just threw in a well and said there you go, when the rope pump breaks, the community just says, "Oh well. We didn't pay for it, we didn't really lose anything." It's all about ownership.

What did you learn about Cambodia? The people? the culture? Yourself?
     What did I learn about Cambodia, it's people, and it's culture? No room for all of that here. It's a radically different culture than the States. It was a great experience. The people are so dang friendly. You wouldn't guess that many of them are dirt poor. They are always hopeful, too. Despite the Khmer Rouge setting their country back decades in development and lives (numbers vary from 740,000 to 3.3 million), they still have hope for the future.
     As for myself, one thing I learned about myself is that I am a cheap person, relatively. Explanation: In the states, seven dollars really isn't bad for a (cheaper) meal dining out. In Cambodia, a good full meal out is no more than three or four dollars. Yet, seven dollars to try kangaroo/alligator was too expensive. Therefore, I am cheap. Relative to my setting. Not too impressive for self-discovery, eh?

How can we best be praying for Cambodia?
     Cambodia has many needs, but I think one major thing is for leaders with integrity who will do what is good for the people. Really though, while Cambodia has come a very long way, it still has some work to do. They need to find a sustainable place in the global economy.

Care to spare a specific story about something you did?
     I don't want this to be too long, so I'll point you here.