crossroads

i'm back! alot of thoughts, a lot of lessons learnt in the trip. the trip was fun, and living with the students gave me a good insight of cambodian life. frankly, i would really like to go back again, but this time on a holiday instead, to the waterfalls and mountain biking. hmm.

That aside, living with the students opened my eyes. It was humbling to witness their faith in our God. the first time we worshipped with them, i cried. through their worship, I felt their faith and love for Him. and it touched me that in a coutry once so broken, in circumstances so unfavorably against them, they have such great faith and love that I don't think I had.

the lessons with pastor David opened my horizons as well. though I learnt lots of different things, the one lesson that I really take away from him is that we shouldn't be hindered by man's rules and structure in fulfilling the great commission - to go back to the Bible and to stick by it, teaching the truth. I think I sound like shehui/jc in their sosci talk, but I think I learnt that I should see God and the Bible just as it is, beyond institutionalised religion. (though i think they're gg to argue on the defi of institutionalised religion.)

in these 8 days, the team spent a lot of effort trying to connect with the uni students we stayed with. it was gratifying when they were willing to open up and share their lives with us.

looking back at myself in singapore, i feel really blessed and humbled. from this trip, I learnt that I should hold the mindset and attitude of a missionary in my everyday life too. in my role as a SM, as a small group leader in church, i should be much more active. just as how i actively pursued the friendship and trust of the girls in cambodia, i should do the same here too.

there're many other thoughts as well, especially when we left cambodia today. so many things were running through my mind. i'm not gg to put them down in words one by one. but i think each thought has made an impact and changed me. it might not be immediately apparent, but i know that God has spoken to me and moulded me through this trip.

the 'deep' things aside, this trip was an eyeopener in other ways too. i handwashed my clothes, walked on filthy floor, ate a hatching duckling!, ate fried grasshoppers/cricket (i can't rem which it was), ate bbq-banana, played frisbee on soil, climbed 3 flights of stairs at least once everyday, sat on a motorbike with 3 pple (meaning 2 pple sharing the passenger seat), gone against traffic on a motorbike, ate meals of rice with just one dish and soup. Living together with the cambodian students allowed me to experience the cambodian life better than any backpacking trip could have. :D


(i ate the eye of the duckling unkowingly! gosh. but it actually tastes quite ok)

this is the only bigger group photo i have, the rest of the photos are w kaising/shiyan.

sigh. goodbye cambodia! it was hard leaving. much as i miss walking barefoot on clean floor and eating my mother's cooking, i'd built relationships, but had to leave just when the relationships were getting more solid. it's easy to say we'll keep in contact, but i'm hoping i really will be able to do that, and to keep the building the relationships built. but whatever it is, i hope they were as greatly blessed through this mission trip as I was.

now, i'm excited to see what this trip will do for the body of christ in Oikos through the mission team..