We Are One and the Same by David Zoradi

Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Date: 2004
Contact: dzoradi@hotmail.com

In 2004 I got hooked up with an organization called Youth with a Mission, a non-profit Christian missions group. After three months of training in Maui, I found out that I would be going to the Southeast Asian country of Cambodia. Our team of nine was going to be stationed in Phnom Penh, the capitol city of Cambodia (Kâmpŭchea as they pronounce it). Our focuses included working with a local Church teaching their English classes, going to youth aids orphanages, and helping the Church with their children’s program for the whole community.

After a days worth of flying, when I stepped off that final airplane, what I thought I knew of the world was no more. Its not as much culture shock as it is ruins of the former world view. I got my first surprise when I realized my luggage had not arrived. I had my guitar and what I was wearing for the first 5 days I was in Cambodia…what a start. Once the stun of living in a new country was over, our team had a choice to make. We had contacts that were a part of the underground church in Vietnam, and they wanted to know if we would be interested in coming. At the same time one of our translators at the church, Samphas Chea (his nickname is Jack) had an invitation from his family’s village to have us come in as special guests. Our team saw how much it meant to Jack for us to go with him to the place he grew up and minister to his deeply rooted Buddhist family. The interesting thing was that we were to be some of the first westerners to ever come into the village.


Our team was blessed with a place to stay in their substantial village for a week. We found out that many of the children had never seen white people before, but only heard stories from their parents who would go into major cities to sell the rice crop. When I heard that it was Jacks family, I assumed it would be a small community of immediate relatives, boy was I mistaken. When Jack said family, he meant everyone who was at all related to him. His immediate family all lived in very close distances to one another, but distant relatives were spread out for miles. It was an awakening of what real family means.


Our goal for the week was to pass out pounds upon pounds of salt bags to the families we would visit. In those villages, there is a huge salt deficiency in their diets. Large thyroid goiters were the resulting problems for many of the people there. We would trek through the rice fields until we would come upon a small oasis of palm trees where the family’s home would stand on stilts. They would welcome us in with such enthusiasm that they make American hospitality something akin to Oscar the Grouch. They would insist on us eating every banana and coconut they had on their property. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it sure seemed that way at the time. More often than not, the father would send his son to climb up a few trees to gather a full bundle of bananas and coconuts for us to enjoy. The experience of getting to share our stories, love for Jesus, reasons why we would come and see them, and health information is something I store deep in my heart. I can still see their facial expressions after we would pray for them. Jack was enthralled at what was happening in his home town. His face was a beam of light the whole week, so proud of where he was from, and so proud of the people he was able to bring into his village.

Jack became so much more than a number/statistic or even a face for that matter…he became a brother. For someone who grew up in circumstances that are polar opposite of me, we are one in the same.

I am still in contact with Samphas “Jack” Chea to this day. He ended up going into Youth with a Mission a year after we left and is currently serving on staff with one of their bases in Phnom Penh. He is dedicated to seeing his country infected with the love of God, and has committed to showing Cambodian youth how to actively follow Jesus. He is a man who is greatly loved by God.


Note:

Youth with a Mission information can be found at: www.ywam.org