Media Missionary Focus

The Good Old Days

Two days ago one of the other missionary couples here in Cambodia left for furlough. That’s an interesting word, furlough. Outside of a missionary context, the first thing I think of is a soldier who is on furlough from their military assignment. Kind of like having a few days off or taking a vacation. And when most people hear that a missionary is on furlough they think it is a time for them to relax and take a break. Wrong answer. In fact, the Assemblies of God World Missions office has stopped using the term furlough and now uses deputation. I’m not sure that increases the number of people who understand what is going on, but I suppose deputation carries less baggage than furlough.

Basically, for an Assemblies of God missionary, we work on a five year cycle. Four years are spent on the field, and one year is spent in the States raising support for the next four years. So during that one year in the States, whether you call it furlough or deputation or whatever, you have to raise enough money to live on for five years, as well as any money you will need to do ministry during the next four years. To accomplish this you travel to different churches, preach and talk about your ministry and the country you work in, and hopefully they will then give you an offering and a pledge to support you monthly for the next four years. Out of that offering you have to take your travel expenses, and not every church will give you a pledge of monthly support. On top of that, the average pledge from a church is only about $50, so you can imagine how many pledges you need to cover your entire budget. This all works out to missionaries preaching between 150 to 250 times during the year they are home. Believe me, it is not a relaxing vacation time by any stretch of the imagination.

So these missionary friends of ours, Mark and Joan, were leaving the field to go on furlough / deputation / whatever, and a bunch of us got together for a sort of going away party. It ended up with me, Mark and a brand new missionary associate (MA) sitting around, talking about “the old days.” Lisa and I first came to Cambodia in 1994, and Mark and his family first came in 1993, so that makes us long term people here. This new MA had been here for about 2 weeks (although she had spent a month or two here last year as well) and that made here the most recent addition to our field. So we started talking about the old days.

Another missionary and my wife, Lisa, eventually joined in the discussion as well, and toward the end of it all Lisa said, “You know, someone needs to write a book someday.” Not because of the deep spiritual insights or the eye witness historical perspective, but because of the falling on the ground laughing so hard that coffee shoots out of your nose kind of stories! There is some downright funny things that happen here. Most of the things we talked about would take a long conversation just to set up, and some might not seem that funny to an outsider, but we had a great time. (Maybe I'll try to write some of them another time)

You know, the “old days” here weren’t really that long ago time wise, but the changes that have taken place in that time make it seem like a lifetime. And although you can’t sit around dwelling on the past all the time, it does occasionally help to put things in perspective. Mark and his family have been running an orphanage here since 1996 (That’s what we did for the first two years we were here as well). Running an orphanage is hard work. There are a million problems that need dealt with every day, and it’s not like a school where the kids go home to their families every night and they become their parent’s responsibility; in an orphanage they are your responsibility 24 / 7. So it’s easy to get worn out and burned out. You see all the problems that you are dealing with, and they crowd out all the other things you could be, and should be, looking at. What do I mean?

The day before this going away party I was shooting some footage for a video project I am working on to help promote a new project I am involved with. I am one of two missionaries here who are working to set up a local Christian media production company. We are combining some existing studios and media work with some new capabilities (like video and film production), under one umbrella group. The goal is to have it set up in such a way that they become self sustaining; profits from one project will fund the next project, and so on. I will function as a consultant on the video end of things, and we plan on partnering with them regularly on various projects, but I am not the key driving force in this, so I don’t know all the players all that well. But I was shooting footage of a meeting of the various department heads, and I was surprised to see a familiar face heading up the live concert and performance department! His name is Pagah. He is a young man who has been working for an NGO (Non-Government Organization) doing community development. He is very musically gifted and has been very active in his church’s music program over the years. But I know him as one of the kids from our orphanage! It was a bit surreal to have this young Cambodian man at this meeting calling me Papa! I never would have guessed back then where things would be now. God has done some amazing things with the lives of the kids from our orphanage, and as I sat and talked about “the old days” with Mark, it was amazing to realize all that God has done here in Cambodia in the last 11 years. It’s too easy to get caught up in the day to day grind and problems we face and forget to see past them to the bigger picture.

And like most things, that applies to our own lives as well. We get caught up in our own struggles and situations and start to say “God, do you even care? Can you hear a thing I’m praying?” But if we take a deep breath, step back and look at the bigger picture of our lives, of where we’ve been, and what God has already done, the questions we are asking start to seem a bit ridiculous. I always used to wonder how the Israelites in the desert could complain so bitterly about every little thing and ask God “Did you just bring us out here to kill us?” Couldn’t they remember just a few months before when God parted the Red Sea?

But I don’t wonder about that anymore because I tend to forget what God did for me yesterday! The best thing about sitting around and talking about “the good old days” is that it helps you to remember we still serve the God that made those days so good.

posted by Troy In Cambodia @ 9:01 AM