Paul Heads out to Cambodia

“Cambodians believe that if you take a photo with 3 people in it, the middle person will die”…just one quote from my orientation guide there!

The bus jolted along the road past lush green paddy fields, from Poipet on the border, to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. Leaving the HIV/AIDS rehab home and pushing a moto-taxi through mud and monsoon rain, I now had the 8 hour journey to dry off and think. Fellow passengers included a man with an IV drip fixed to the luggage rack, a family with a chicken on a leash and a girl lying in agony with her leg bandaged...

My time with Step Ahead, Thailand was coming to a close and I was talking to God about what I would do next. As we bounced along, swerving around a pothole or the odd oncoming vehicle in “our lane”, I felt that my trip to Phnom Penh was going to be significant and inspiring. My friends and I stayed with a family working with Samaritan’s Purse (SP). I learnt all about SP’s internship programme and enjoyed their amazing hospitality. Apart from doing all the tourist attractions - the Royal Palace and eating fried tarantulas - our eyes were opened to the horrors of Pol Pot’s regime, the Killing Fields and horrors of S21, a school the Khmer Rouge used as a prison.

We saw that the Khmer Rouge and communism still affects people today through landmines, civil unrest and massive social problems left behind by the tyranny of the genocide in the late ’70s. After graduating from university, people always ask - ‘so, what now?’ You’re almost expected to land your ‘dream job’ and have a specific life-plan in place; but even with your dreams, it’s hard to know the details and often life seems more about the journey.

By the time I returned to England in November, I had decided to apply for SP. While I was passionate and excited about the dream; in reality what followed were months of waiting and not quite the speedy outworking of the dream I had planned. And so working part-time, whilst reminiscing about amazing experiences in Thailand, I wondered what on earth I was doing. In hindsight, there were some dull days of fanning the paper shredder to cool it down or feeling out of my depth sourcing marketing promotions. At the same time, the space and time gave me the perspective to see my identity coming from God and not from the type of work I do. After all the waiting, application rounds, more waiting, an interview and more waiting I was accepted by SP for Cambodia.

So what next? I am enjoying time with friends and family and preparing to leave on July 13th. After a week of orientation, security and first-aid training with other interns in America, I fly to Phnom Penh and will be there until the end of the year training as a field worker. I’ll work with an international team who work on projects around the country. These include HIV/AIDS prevention, anti-human trafficking, health and sanitation, literacy, clean water, dengue prevention and agricultural projects.

Luv, Paul

P.S. One more thing - you may remember Step Ahead’s vision to open a new centre to provide alternative employment for the vulnerable poor and people trapped by sexual exploitation in Pattaya, Thailand. I was involved with background research and networked with other ministries, who rescue, provide counselling and discipleship programmes for people in the bars. I recently saw the first photos of about 10 women making leather bags in the new Step Ahead centre. It’s so exciting to see a few more people rescued and also the unity between ministries who work together to be a light for God in a city of 70,000 with 20,000 in the sex industry.

Posted by: Paul McKnight on Thursday Jul 2nd, 2009

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