This is one of the first times my stays in Cambodia has not been a great one. I was sharing with a friend that things aren’t just the same; more power struggles, the church has lost its passion, development is happening everywhere but the poor are getting poorer, people change and move on, etc. My friend, Joel, the oldest timer here said pretty much the same thing. It isn’t the same Cambodia and he didn’t mean that in a good way. Not that the old times are being held in romantic sentiment. Things just seem strange.
Older pastors are quarreling and plateauing, and wondering what in the world is going on around them. Younger people are tapping into every electronic device possible. The world here is changing. Seila and the ESC KEY still manage to keep their hand on the pulse of Globalization and continue interpret and wrestle with cultural trends. They are putting out about 40-50 Diamond Program graduates per year along with sports ministry, Big Brothers/Big Sisters Orphan Ministry, Community Impact and all the drop ins we have day at our Bright Spark Drop in Center. All these things are great and relevant things happening for the Kingdom of Jesus in Cambodia but funding is hard to find. It wasn’t hard to raise thousands of dollars for Abraham’s projects in Andong Village but where do we go for funds to train Cambodia’s future doctors, businessmen, politicians, authors, human rights workers, etc. Training emerging leaders is just not sexy enough.
EFC KEY has a group of very committed and creative staff who work hard to see that young people from the churches are involved in ministries to the poor, to orphans, playing sports with non-believers, and offering training programs and seminars. I am now just a visitor here at EFC KEY (one time founder) as Seila knows how to run this ship on his own and I like what I see. I just wish we knew where to find more donors so we could expand rather than having to cut back on ministries with huge impact.
Just a few thoughts from a far.
Brian
