“And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to this good work.” (‭Nehemiah‬ ‭2‬:‭18‬ NKJV)

When I traveled to Teen Challenge Cambodia for the first time on a mission trip in October 2013, I was amazed by the size of the property, the beauty of the Takeo Province, and the natural resources on the TCC site. Our team from Calvary Church (Naperville, Illinois) listened to the TCC Executive Director talk about their vision for the TCC site/program to become sustainable through implementing a renewable energy project involving a biogas digester and enhanced agricultural practices. Their vision resonated with what I have hoped that missions programs around the world would embrace.

When I returned home, I petitioned my senior pastor to give me approval to organize a missions construction team to travel from Trinity Church (Miami, Florida) to build the biogas digester system at TCC. Over the last ten months, I have stayed busy planning for this project to become a reality.

When our 28 member team
arrived at TCC, we were all thrilled to see the progress being made on the biogas digester. Seeing it under construction is so encouraging to me personally because it represents not only renewable energy and sustainability, but also collaboration and shared vision.

This renewable energy project is a unique collaboration between TCC, Trinity Church, and the Cambodia Biogas Programme. The picture above shows the partially built biogas digester, as well as the outline of the new toilet/shower facility.  Waste from the toilets, along with manure from the pigs will be used in the biogas digester to create methane gas.

When the biogas digester is operational it will end the use of firewood for cooking and circumvent human waste from being released into the environment.

In this collaboration the biogas digester is being installed by the Cambodia National Biogas Programme. Trinity Church and this mission team raised the money to complete the new toilet/shower facility, an expanded piggery, a gas stove, additional sows, and their travel funds for this 12 day itinerary.

After spending the day at TCC, confirming our team’s plan of action for the next week, we traveled back to Phnom Penh to have dinner at a popular local restaurant.

I am looking forward to how our mission trip will unfold this week!

(Photo credits: Andrea Avendano took the photo of the pig inside the piggery at TCC. The other photos were taken on my iPhone on September 8 and 9, 2014.)