“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (‭II Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭7‬ NKJV)

This evening, our mission team is leaving Cambodia and heading back to the United States. It has been an eventful two weeks. We spent time at Cambodian Care’s Light of Future School #1. The children joyfully received their school supplies on November 10th. It was the first day of school for many of the children who live in the slum community, Tuolpongroo. A few of the children are being sponsored by Cambodian Care with a scholarship to replace the income they had been earning for their families. Some of these children were the family’s sole wage earner. So, for them to attend school, their families would suffer financially. This unique scholarship system allows children who might never receive an education an opportunity to come to school.

Our team attended chapel this morning at the Cambodian School of Missions, led by Pastor Nora Catipon. Cristian Troz and I had the honor of being guest speakers at their final chapel service of the semester. Afterwards, we were able to give a financial gift to Pastor That to build a water well next to the church she planted in the village of Ang Tsoam. Our September 2014 Missions Team conducted a children’s evangelism program with Pastor That and learned that her village had no source of clean drinking water other than rain water. This unexpected gift will provide a water well at Pastor That’s church that will bless the entire village.

Finally, our team completed its work on the biogas digester project at Teen Challenge Cambodia. For me, our meeting with the Cambodian National Biodigester Program representatives was a historic moment. They came out to the site to discuss the project’s progress. It was really hard to get all the guys to smile at the same time, but everyone was thrilled at how well the biogas digester is working.

When I started planning for this mission project over one year ago, I was definitely walking by faith. Planning a renewable energy/ministry project on the opposite side of the globe was something I had never done before. When I wasn’t planing, I spent a lot of time worrying about questions like:

1. Is my team project budget adequate?

2. Will our September mission team project schedule connect with the Cambodian National Biodigester Program project schedule?

3. Have enough people signed up to be on the mission teams?

4. Do we have enough money?

5. Will methane gas come out of the new stove in November?

6. And seriously, do we have enough money?

And honestly, I could not answer those questions with 100% certainty.

To keep myself sane, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what success meant to me and whether my definition of success came close to what God expected of me. What if no methane gas was produced? Would that make the entire missions project a failure? Would that make me a failure? I finally had to decide that walking by faith in obedience to God would always yield success in God’s eyes.

“What inspires you to “walk” on the edge of your faith?”

While our team was in Cambodia, Trinity Church hosted its annual Men’s Conference. Several men from our Cambodia September 2014 Mission Trip team shared their mission trip experiences on this brief video: