Cambodia 2009 Short Term Missions Trip
(29th January - 10th February 2009)
Cambodia STM Team
In February 2008 the forming of a team to visit Cambodia in January 2009 was started. The aim was to pray, identify and approach key people from within our church that we felt would best represent each of our key ministries – Men’s, Women’s, Young Adults (Vine) and Youth. We identified a team of 14 people, which we felt would have a significant influence within these ministries. Key to their selection was our belief that God’s calling was on them and that there was a willingness and commitment on their part to have ongoing involvement beyond this first trip. The idea is that after our return each member would be helping to form new teams within their ministry area that could then go through the same training process and be sent out into the field. God’s hand in forming this team has been clearly evident every step of the way.
Purpose and vision for Cambodia
Our purpose and vision for Cambodia forms a part of our overall vision for South East 
Asia.
* To connect and network with churches, pastors, leaders and mission agency field workers within a local region of Cambodia that have the gospel at heart - with the view of securing a long term partnering arrangement.
* To provide hands-on, practical, active service using our time, energy, skills and resources to help meet immediate physical and emotional needs and to share the gospel.
Support teams
While there are only 14 people going on the trip the team was in fact much broader. Each team member had a mentor and a minimum of three other people that will follow closely their journey. The mentor’s role is to spend time with the team member when they return to help them download their experiences. The support team and mentors have also been asked to contribute financially so that we are not doing it all on our own. It has helped shift our accountability to others to ensure our time and energy is used to the full. This has proven to be a significant part of how God is shaping us as a team and our church in helping serve the people of Cambodia through the message and love of Jesus.
Training
The team went through significant training in preparation for the trip which included 8 training nights plus a full day and night with International Teams. International Teams provide logistics support, training material and mentoring for churches wanting to equip short term mission teams and have been an integral part of our preparation.
(If you are a church needing help with preparing a team to do short term mission we could not recommend them more highly. Visit their web site: http://www.iteams.org.au/pages/home.php)
Each of our training sessions included worship, devotions, culture, team building and training on other relevant topics. We have also been privileged to have had a number of people from other churches contribute to our training. Our training included the following:
• Communicating the gospel / sharing our testimony
• Team Building / conflict resolution
• Becoming cross cultural – Jenny Dawson from Thornleigh Baptist
• Learning About Culture / Language leaning – Guests from the Cambodian Baptist church in Liverpool
• Ministry Preparation / Spiritual Warfare - Former Cambodian Buddhist monk
• Gifting / Personality Profiles
• Cultural adaption – Malcolm Campbell from Greenacre Church of Christ
• Preparing to Go / Songs activities and games – Daren Tosh from Samaritans Purse and Millie Sharpe form Bible Society
• International Teams – a day and a half training including team building, culture, personality profiles and other STM skills
For further information regarding our trip and what we achieved you can download our Cambodia 2010 STM document