|
Church
Partnership |
|
Disciples Making Disciples |
|
Ministry Highlights |
||||||||||||||
|
Stories from
Around the World Many heart-warming stories are told from ministries around the world. Following are several of the highlights. To read these stories, click on the links listed under "Ministry Highlights" in left-hand column. |
|||||||||||||||
|
Cambodia: |
|||||||||||||||
 Reflections. A layover
in Taipei’s Chiang Kai-Shek (CKS) International
Airport provided me with “a moment” to reflect on
the events of the last few days. One of the
residual benefits of the resurgence of various world
religions has been the number of reconfigured
international airports with prayer rooms. CKS is no exception and has a wonderful prayer space.
So as darkness turned to dawn, I slipped into a
prayer room and shut the door. In the
quietness of the moment, one image after another
rolled through my mind as I recalled people I’d met
and activities I’d been involved in during my time
in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Under the auspices of
the Cambodian Christian Embassy (CCE) and in
partnership with Church Partnership Evangelism
(CPE), I connected with a North American colleague and
with Ernest Ung to carry out an outreach
ministry with a team of 12 North Americans, who are
predominately second-generation Cambodians. We
teamed up with 10 local Cambodian churches to
engage in Kingdom work!
Unbelievable Beginnings. The son of an upper class family, Ernest’s father was a wealthy man and a military general in King Sihanouk’s army during the 1960s. As a “son of privilege,” Ernest grew up in one of the largest homes in the city, not far from the King’s Palace. His mother, a well-educated woman, was a Professor of French in a Phnom Penh University. During that same period, his uncle had been the Minister of Agriculture, further evidence of his family's influence in the country. Ernest remembers those days with great fondness! In fact, with the exception of the three or four pictures, memories are all he has left of his childhood! Everything else was taken away by the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime. Probe a little deeper and Ernest will acknowledge that his teenage years were also a spiritually dark period for him. In fact he sadly recalls his first brush with the Gospel. Somehow he had found his way into a church where a pastor asked him if he wanted to know Jesus. As an arrogant 16-year-old kid, he spat in the pastor’s face, rejected the offer, and walked out of the church. |
| Unspeakable Tragedy. During the April
1975 forced evacuation of Phnom Penh, his family was taken away to a
tragic and untimely death in the Cambodian “killing fields.”
Under orders from the Khmer Rouge, all the educated people of society
were either systematically killed or forced to do arduous work in labor
camps in the countryside. During that time, Ernest’s mother and
six of his seven siblings died of starvation. Last he heard about
his father was that he was up along the border with Viet Nam with his
troops. Miraculously Ernest survived, fled, and made his way to
the Kao I Dang Refugee Camp, where he slowly began to rebuild his life
after losing everything.
Unimaginable Grace. Over the next three years, several events transpired that changed the trajectory of Ernest’s life. At the refugee camp, he met Jesus, and that began a process of radical transformation. Unlike the first time, Ernest accepted the invitation to be a follower of Jesus---a commitment that he continues to steadfastly pursue. It was also during this period that he met Yvonne, the one he would subsequently marry. Together they’ve ministered to the Khmer people for over 15 years, both in Brooklyn, New York, and now in Cambodia. In 1982 Ernest, Yvonne, and her family were granted refugee status and moved to the United States. This move provided them with the opportunity to pursue various interests, not the least of which was Ernest’s desire to prepare for the ministry. Following graduation, Ernest and Yvonne formed part of a church-planting team that established a Cambodian (Khmer) church in Brooklyn, New York. There they served the church humbly and with integrity, while Ernest began to reach out to the Khmer United Nations Embassy staff. It was through the UN ministry that Ernest was reconnected with his birth country and began to dream with Joel and me about the Cambodian Christian Embassy. I hope someday you can meet my friends Ernest and Yvonne. Both of them are humble, gentle people whose approach to all that has transpired in their lives could be summarized in Joseph’s response to his brothers: “…You meant it for evil—God meant if for good” (Gen.50:20).
Lessons from God.
The lesson from the Ung’s lives and the message reiterated in scripture
is poignant! Though God is often imperceptible, He is always
indomitable! One area revolves around the mind of God, the recognition that God’s judgments are so far beyond anyone’s ability to fully plum their depth or breadth. “…My thoughts are not your thoughts,” He writes, “neither your ways My ways….” (Isa. 55:8-9). Likewise, the will of God is shrouded in mystery---so much so, that it caused the Apostle Paul to remark “…who can know the mind of the Lord” (Ro. 11:33-34). |
Then of course there is the power of
God, the reality that God does what He desires, regardless of our feeble
attempts manipulate the events of life. “…He [God] does
according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of
earth and no one can ward off His hand...” (Dan. 4:35). The
mysterious nature of God is also revealed in God’s invisible
providence---His ability, in spite of apparent chaos, to guide the
events to a “God ordained end” (Ecc 7:13-14). So I’m again
comforted by the reality that while God may be invisible, he is not
indifferent (Ps.46; Isa.40:6-8). I take great comfort in God’s
providence “…the beneficent outworking of God’s sovereignty
whereby all events are directed and disposed to bring about those
purposes of glory and good for which the universe was made”
(Ferguson, Wright & Packer 1988).
As the “Sovereign of Heaven,” God orchestrates the events of the globe,
invisibly working behind the scenes so that a Joseph who was sold by his
brothers and treated unjustly by his owner, becomes a leader over a
nation and his family. God mysteriously takes an Ester, shifting
her from anonymous life as orphan, to the palace life of a queen.
Similarly Moses encounters a burning bush and is commissioned to lead,
and David, a simple shepherd boy, is anointed by Samuel and becomes a
great King. It is the same God that takes my friend Ernest and
makes him an Advisor to the Office of the Council of Ministers for the
Kingdom of Cambodia. Gratitude.
Prayer. |
|
Printable Page |
|