Updated 1/17/2025
Ever since I traveled to Southeast Asia on a short-term trip with OMF in 2009, I wondered if God would ever call me to serve overseas long-term. As we spent time in communities that had never heard the gospel, I could sense God's love for each person in such a palpable way.
Though I didn't make a cross-cultural move after my first trip to Asia, I did make a cross-country move to Denver, Colorado. OMF gave me an opportunity to mobilize for God's work in Asia through being a writer on the OMF communications team. I loved having the opportunity to tell stories of transformed lives across East Asia.
Still, the desire to be part of these stories in a more hands-on way had me listening intently to missionaries' "call" stories. I kept wondering if I would one day have a story like theirs.
When 2018 rolled around, someone simply challenged me to GO. "What are you waiting for?" they asked. "You love Asia. Why not move there?" I fumbled over my words as I tried to explain that I had not yet been "called." It soon became clear that my excuses were flimsy. With a rising excitement in my spirit, I took a short-term trip to Cambodia in January 2019 (Why Cambodia? Why not?!).
To make a long story short, I did not feel "called" to Cambodia after that trip, but I sensed God extending an invitation. I figured I might as well take steps forward until he closed the door.
Well, the door never closed, even in the midst of a global pandemic. I arrived in Cambodia in November 2020. For two years, I spent time learning Khmer (Cambodian) language and culture, getting to know Cambodian neighbors, and learning from Cambodian Christians whose lives had been transformed by God's love. The hope was to come alongside the Cambodian church in a way that would catalyze a self-sustaining, indigenous church movement throughout Cambodia and beyond.
To put it lightly, I felt unequipped for such a task. However, by the end of my two years in Cambodia, I knew I wanted to give what I had, however small, to be part of God's work in and through the Cambodian church. In November 2022, I came back to the U.S. to enroll in a Masters in Global Leadership program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. The program was designed to help me interpret the Bible more faithfully, serve well on a multicultural team and to partner effectively with indigenous churches.
Now that I have completed my masters program, I am hoping to return to Cambodia this year (2025) for a 4-year term. Though I still have much to learn, I am excited to walk alongside my Cambodian brothers and sisters as we depend on God's grace together.
