Global Renewal’s Blog

Anna & Tete

“Welcome to Cambodia!” accompanied by the traditional bow, was the greeting I got from every student, parent and guest as I stepped into the spacious yellow brick 4-story building, GR’s regional headquarters and the home of Cambodia Training Center in Phnom Penh.  This was graduation weekend, so the house was bustling with newcomers moving in, students running errands, Center coordinators trying to keep everyone on schedule, and Tete (remember her from a prior blog post?) mingling in-between everyone looking for one of her numerous “Ma’s”.

It's 5 am!

This was my first visit to the Center, which puts kids in their early 20’s through a year-long Bible/Evangelism/Church Planting/Skills/English curriculum, at the completion of which they’re assigned to a service location or ministry in accordance with their vision and calling.  It quickly became obvious that when Liney and David had described the program as “intense,” they truly meant it—5 AM prayer and a full class/study schedule are strictly adhered to, every student has rotating cooking/cleaning/shopping duties, and the first street witnessing opportunities are generally presented as early as a month or two into training.

Trully and Esther, who run the Center don’t cut the students any slack either—the fans in the boys’ dorm kept breaking for some reason, so when fan #4 got brought in, the boys promptly disassembled it in the hopes of using it as a guide to fix one of the 3 broken ones.  As typically occurs in such circumstances, the ultimate result was a broken 4th fan.  After getting thoroughly scolded for poor stewardship, Trully’s verdict was no more fans for boys. “If you feel hot at night, just ask God to send a breeze,” she instructed.  For a little over a year now, the boys have been relying on the Lord for cool nights.

In conjunction with my initial administrative duties, I got some visibility into the ministry coverage the Center provides in the area.  There are currently 24 Home Groups under the oversight of the Center and its students.  About half of them are in Phnom Penh, and the other half are in the nearby provinces. Cambodia has in the recent few months been prophetically named the Place of Harvest, which is quite supportable by the degree of activity surrounding the Home Groups.

Village waiting to be changed

In a couple of provinces, the Chiefs have already invited the students to minister to the villages neighboring those currently visited, however there are only so many hours in a day…  The Center’s game plan is to identify leaders in the existing Home Groups, individually disciple them, and send them out to their neighbors to continue spreading the News of God’s love.  Another strategy being implemented this summer in Timuy province is starting a school for children, who remain largely unattended during the day as the parents are look for work.  By serving the families this way, the students hope to develop relationships with their parents and eventually start meeting in Home Groups.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few…

Anna

Anna Verbytska is Global Renewal’s newest face in Asia. She represents us in Singapore and is an immense asset to the administrative team in our centers. Anna also likes to eat bugs…a delicacy in Cambodia…Yes, she really did!

After

Before

Today, sometime before daybreak, our 5 year old, Megan, climbed into our bed and held me-with both arms. She fell asleep that way, and I had no intention of escaping her clutches-in fact, I relished it. But my mind couldn’t really focus on the moment. You see, yesterday, our team in Cambodia adopted a little girl about the same age as our daughter. Her name is Tete. Last month while in Cambodia, we taught a local village on preventing human trafficking-it’s a village known for selling its children. That’s where we met this jewel.

Tete...Love at first sight

She was referred to as the “village idiot” because, mentally, she’s a bit slow. We noticed that the other villagers were rough with her. Upon further inquiry, we were informed that her caregiver (her grandmother) had sold Tete’s mother to be a sex slave-she died six months ago. Tete’s father is dying of AIDS. We couldn’t leave her there. So as of last night, Tete belongs to you and me.

The first thing our team did was shave her hair—it was lice-infested. That’s when we noticed the scars from beatings on her head and bruises on her body. Tete needs diapers too-she doesn’t know how to use a toilet. After all that, she was taken to a doctor. He confirmed that she is not HIV positive (thank God) but has been raped. While the doctor was examining her, she screamed and cried. What was she remembering? Was she sold to the highest bidder like many other young girls? Or was she just used and abused since her life held no value to the villagers? My heart aches when I think of what she may have endured. Our prayer is that she will be healed, body soul, and spirit, by the love of Jesus. He loves Tete.

SAFE

So while I bask in a warm embrace and whiff strawberry-scented hair….I look forward to holding Tete and telling her how special she is; wiping her tears away; praying with her….But, there are many more Tetes…we can’t forget that. Human trafficking is real. Children are being scarred in more ways than we can imagine.  When we say there are 27 million victims of trafficking, we’re talking about the population of Australia …Insurmountable? No. With God, you and I will make a difference…just let the children come.