FOUNDATIONAL VALUES3/8/2017 Greetings my dear friends a family! I wanted to take a few minutes and update you to some of what's been going on here in Poipet. It's been a month full of foundational work both in our hearts and our ministry. The pioneering pace and culture we walked out last year I'm realizing will have to shift a bit more into a consistent and sustainable pace where clear values and vision are able to sink into our new team members as they join. Last week we received our first long term team member and it's great to see how well he's transitioned right into things as I see this as one of the primary purposes of our base here. To be a place where those who feel called to share the gospel and serve the people of Cambodia can come, feel welcomed, continue to grow, learn language, worship, pray, and adjust to functioning more and more in the Khmer context while not being overwhelmed by complete immersion. I'm a huge fan of complete immersion as someone who's learned that way myself but I've also learned that there's a very small percentage of people who can actually sustain it so we're trying to develop a bit of a process.
At first the person coming here will typically need some English speaking friends and some type of context for continual growth, discipleship, and accountability as they move along the spectrum from being a westerner to a westerner who's able to function and thrive in a Khmer context. This process requires delicacy as on one end you can potentially isolate yourself from your host culture (Particularly in large cities or established ministries) and spend your time on the field eating western food, drinking lattes, going to malls, and speaking, worshipping and discipling in English. On the other end (It's rare but it happened to me) you can so immerse yourself in your host culture, and remove yourself from your own that spiritual growth, accountability, and emotional/spiritual health go out the window as well as your influence in your international community. Striking the balance between these two and helping our staff move further along the scale is the goal. 3 weeks ago I watched as Conner a DTS student on a short term team I led 2 years ago lead the 5 of us (4 western 1 khmer) into a worship session all in the Khmer language and I thought... well the process is working. Developing a system for this process is paramount right now as our new team member Brad is just the first of many to come. Next week Alizabeth a 21 year old Ywamer from Texas will join us, In April we will have a team of 11 with us for 9 months, and in July an awesome family of 4 are jumping in as well. I'm so grateful to the Lord for sending us workers for the harvest but the emphasis has to remain on the harvest not on the workers. Wether writing this blog, studying Khmer, or training new missionaries, I feel my primary role here in Poipet is keeping the purpose of seeing the gospel of Jesus taught and demonstrated to every person in our city as our teams primary focus. Personally I've been quite busy yet managing to juggle things. A usual day begins with getting up at 5am to run (I'm training for my first marathon!), 6am Time with Jesus & get ready, 7am chores, 7:30 breakfast, 8AM Team worship/prayer, 9:30-11:30 Language study, 12pm Lunch, 1-4 Ministry 5-6 Cook Dinner with my crew, 6pm Dinner, 7pm Gym, 9pm Relax & Read. It's a bit hectic but the 1-4 ministry time usually involves a lot of one on one discipleship which usually refreshes and excites me. Thank you for your prayers and support as we continue working towards seeing the gospel taught and demonstrated here in Poipet. Much love. Prayer Requests - Wisdom in establishing our core goals and values - Favor with the government as we register our Youth Development Center - Keeping our focus on Jesus - Balance between staff development and evangelistic engagment - Adequate humility & patience in our western workers to love, respect, and honor our khmer workers and culture.
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AuthorMy name's Uriah Lyford and I'm a volunteer with YWAM. My dream is to see the spiritual solution of a restored relationship with God through Jesus be made available to every person on earth. I do this through the mentoring and training of young people to build and become the Church Jesus died for. Archives
June 2018
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