Looking for the answers to the questions....and there You were

Today is Tuesday and it's already been 5 days since we've arrived in Cambodia and it has gone by in a flash. It's been quite tiring as 3 people have been hit with stomach/flu ailments along with the humid heat and untimely hits of jetlag. Despite these physical challenges, we are pressing on towards the goal of listening and living out His call to us while we're here. Please continue to pray for the team's health in the coming days.

I began this trip with 3 questions in mind:

1) Where in the world do I feel is home for me?
2) What should I do with my career in order for it to be fulfilling?
3) What is God doing here in Cambodia and how can I join him?

Ravi Zacherias - "Culture is the dress of religion"

During our visit to the Killing Fields and the Tuol Sleng prison, I unexpectedly gained a new perspective on my parent's trials of growing up in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. While the details of the genocide were gruesome, I feel desensitized to it all because frankly I've seen enough injustice in the world to not be naive. However, this is the first time it's been personalized and that's moved my heart and leading me to action. First, my relationship with my parents is difficult to say the least. My mother was born in Phnom Pehn however the past is rarely discussed and family history is really unknown to me. Up to this point, I had underestimated my parent's struggles and it's allowed me to see God's perspective of them rather than my own. Ultimately, understanding them is really about understanding myself, seeing what impact that had on me to this day, and setting me free on who I will become in Christ in the future. My mother is Catholic however she is Chinese and Confucianism after 4000+ years is a big part of who she is. Now I want to study Confucianism in order to understand more.

Jack of all cultures, Master of none

We visited Hagar International and House of Smiles yesterday. Hagar is a comprehensive organization that focuses on non-profit/social enterprise work who focus on sex trafficked women. They provide holistic care (food, shelter, counseling, rehabilitation) to those they take in and subsequently provide skills training and education to reintegrate them into society and rebuild their own lives. House of Smiles is a family shelter that caters to the mentally disabled (one of the most marginalized people in Cambodian society). It was very enlightening for me to see all that these NGOs are doing here and the struggles they have in fundraising, finding best practices, dealing with internal problems and finding the experienced people necessary to make their organizations function.

Many of these people who work in World Vision or Hagar are from around the world. They come and spend on average 1-2 years here so turnover is very high. Hearing their stories of their dynamic struggles from deciding when to repatriot to their come countries to where to start a family to having to make new friends over and over was actually one of familiarity rather than amazement. But what was amazing to me was how this expat community knows each other so well. It's a small world here. After hearing these stories, I felt this expat side of me has been the most important part of my life in who I am. It's a life that's difficult to understand unless you've moved and lived away from your home country. I'm an expat and that's how I feel most at home.

I immediately started imagining myself here long term. Cambodia is much like Vietnam and the language is more fun than I expected. I pictured myself working for Hagar or World Vision and interacting with the expat and local populations here. But most importantly, I'd be doing God's work here of contributing to fighting injustice in this country (and world). Law, education, psychology, and social enterprises have been the interests I've been thinking about moving into over the last year and a half. And to suddenly find they're all here in Phnom Pehn is mind-blowing to me. Perhaps this is God's call for me. Perhaps it's not.

We will see.......

Simon Tang