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Why Cambodia?
Why Cambodia? During the last few years, friends and inquirers haves asked this question numerous times. But not everyone means the same thing by it. For some, the question is “Why Cambodia instead of Cameroon, Brazil, or any other so-called ‘mission field’?” A few others have wondered why we would go to Cambodia when millions in our land are dying without Christ.
… instead of Africa?
Providence
Long before our college years, both Bonnie Ruth and I had planned on ministering the gospel cross-culturally. Bonnie Ruth was heading toward orphanage work in Russia. I was thinking along the lines of Africa or South America. Then, in my final year of coursework for my graduate studies, a friend, Josh Jensen, invited me to join him that summer on a short visit to missionary J.D. Crowley in Cambodia. At that time, I had little interest in Asia as a potential place of ministry, but I had heard of J.D.’s linguistic work with unreached peoples and was very eager to meet him and to visit a third world country. So, in the summer of 2002, I set off with Josh and another friend, Brian Kane, on what I thought would be a typical short-term missions trip: I was ready to spend the better part of two weeks helping the missionaries with manual labor and ministry responsibilities. As it turned out, none of us lifted a finger. Instead, J.D. devoted nearly the entire time to us-sharing his philosophy of ministry, missions, and life; discussing the biblical patterns for these things; and exhorting us concerning our own growth in grace. At the time, it seemed to me that J.D. was making a huge sacrifice for us. But from my vantage point seven years later, I realize that J.D. was simply investing: he sacrificed his work week and the opportunity for about 150 free man hours of work. But now Brian and his family have been working in Cambodia for two and a half years, acclimating themselves to work long-term alongside J.D.; my family and I are beginning the transition to do the same; and Josh is studying linguistics in preparation for translation work among the tribal peoples of northeast Cambodia. I pray that J.D.’s investment will prove profitable.
I returned from Cambodia in 2002 with much to think and pray about. For the first time, Asia and its unreached millions weighed heavily upon me. So, my soon-to-be fiancé, Bonnie Ruth, and I began praying regularly for Cambodia and our possible ministry there. In 2003, we were married and our firstborn, Abigail, came a year later. At this time, I was in the early stages of my doctoral dissertation, expecting to finish as quickly as possible and depart for some mission field soon after. Then, Northland International University called and offered me a teaching position in their Old Testament department, asking for a commitment of three years. The timing was right, as this would enable me to continue writing while gaining valuable teaching experience. So in the summer of 2004, we moved to the far north for what has proven to be a most profitable “detour.” Two years later, my doctorate was complete (Old Testament Interpretation from Bob Jones Seminary), and by the end of our third year here, we were seriously wrestling with the possibility that our role in the Great Commission might actually involve more “teaching” than “baptizing” (Matt 28:19-20). We were torn. So, in the summer of 2007, I returned to Cambodia, this time with Bonnie Ruth, in order to survey the needs and opportunities there and also to pick J.D.’s brain about our future. Through much prayer and the guidance of our pastors and other counselors, the Lord confirmed our original desires to serve Him through ministry to unreached peoples.
Opportunity – freedom
Buddhism is the state religion of Cambodia and is intrinsic to Khmer culture. Thus, in the minds of most Cambodians, conversion to Christianity is an unthinkable social, as well as religious, decision. However, in terms of religious freedom, Cambodia is somewhat of a rarity in Southeast Asia in that the constitution grants freedom of religion, and the government generally respects this right. Such bright spots are rare in Cambodia’s sad history, and we pray that the Lord will keep this window of opportunity open and even use Cambodia as a springboard for the gospel into Southeast Asia. (For a moving history of the Cambodian church from the early 1920′s to more recent times, see Don Cormack’s Killing Fields, Living Fields.)
Map of Indo-China
Springboard to Laos
(read more at Our Vision)
Finally, Cambodia is important as a potential base from which to reach the people of Laos. Bordering Cambodia’s Stung Treng province in the northeast, Laos is a country of nearly 6 million unreached people who live under a heavy-handed communist regime. The underground church there faces severe persecution. Our prayer is that the Laotian converts that God grants us might become instrumental in reaching Laos. While any kind of permanent access to the country is very restricted for foreigners, ethnic Laotians may enter more freely. Ultimately, we are praying that Laos will open to the gospel and allow missionaries to proclaim it openly. Interestingly, this is how the gospel first entered Cambodia in the early 1920′s. Missionaries living in south Vietnam working with the Khmer Kraom were praying for the opening of Cambodia’s closed doors. When the Lord heard their prayer, they and many of their Khmer converts were ready to enter the country with the gospel. (Read more about the peoples of Laos at the Joshua Project website.)
… instead of our home town?
Others rightly point out the vast need for evangelism, church planting, and on-going discipleship right here in our own (post-Christian) home town (i.e., the U.S.). In so many ways, we are already well-equipped to minister the gospel successfully here: we are fluent in the language, instinctively understand (most) cultural customs, and have numerous well-established venues for making new contacts. Why spend thousands of dollars to move thousands of miles away to learn languages in which fluency is at least a decade away (and never attained by the majority of foreigners) to try to overcome cultural barriers which may prove just as difficult as language barriers? Why not finish the work for which we are already equipped before moving on to other, seemingly impossible tasks?
This is a legitimate question, and on a very practical level, it has weighed very heavily on me and Bonnie Ruth, perhaps because of some of the blessing the Lord has given us during our time at Northland and Norway. In His grace, the Lord has richly prospered our ministry in the church and in the classroom. Many times during the past year, after teaching on some aspect of the gospel (or on the aspect of the Hebrew verb, for that matter), or after a time of fellowship with some students in our home, the hard reality has dawned on me-never again (or at least not any time soon) will I be able to express the truth so effortlessly. (Okay, teaching and preaching is not exactly effortless, but you get the point.) If God has already chosen to bless us in ministry here, why move elsewhere, where the opportunity for blessing starts off with some major handicaps?
The answer is always the gospel — the story of God’s mission to restore His fallen creation, all of it, to its rightful place (read more about God’s Mission). Thus, as we look at the consummation of the ages, we find individuals from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation worshipping Christ (Rev 5:9; 7:9). And to achieve this undeniable end, He commissions His followers to make disciples from all people groups (Matt 28:18-20). Therefore, God seems to be concerned not only with the quantity of the redeemed (though this certainly seems to be one of His priorities), but also with the diversity of the redeemed. One measure of true greatness is the breadth of the superstar’s loyal fan base, and God intends to glorify Himself by redeeming worshippers from every ethnicity and language. Therefore, we conclude that it is legitimate to leave a place where the gospel is readily available to go where the gospel isn’t. This seems to have been one of the primary factors in Paul’s ministry focus (Rom 15:15-24), and we believe that God is leading us in a similar direction.
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