During our time in Kansas City, we had the good fortune of working with, and getting to know, Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison of Church Innovations. Pat developed a “spiritual practice of deep listening” technique called “Dwelling in the Word”, in which groups commit to “dwelling” in a particular scripture passage whenever they meet. Some groups may choose to dwell in a passage only once, and others may pick a passage and stick with it for a semester, a year, or longer. In fact, the staff of Church Innovations have dwelt in Luke 10:1-12 for almost two decades!
I (Adam) bring up Dwelling in the Word because Sarah and I have had the opportunity to visit several Area Program Offices of Life With Dignity, one of our primary partners here in Cambodia, and the phrase, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” from Luke 10 has been bouncing around in my head. One of the steps in Dwelling in the Word is to share with a partner what phrase or image stood out to you when listening to the passage being read. Although I’m not sure if Dwelling in the Word works well via a blog post, I’d like to share with you why that phrase has stuck out to me. Before reading the rest of this post, feel free to read Luke 10 yourself and then leave a comment and we can dwell in this passage together virtually!
It actually frustrates me that the phrase, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” is what is sticking out. I think whenever someone hears this they automatically think about going out into the world, sharing the Gospel, and bringing the “sinners” (and those who don’t know the Gospel) to Jesus so that their souls may be saved. While this may be one interpretation of this half-verse, and it may be easy to make that connection given that we are living and working in Cambodia, a country that is 95+% Buddhist, that is a model of evangelism (and missionary work) that often says, “I know what you need better than you know what you need, so listen to me and then do what I do”, and it can be oppressive rather than life-giving.
Rather, what I mean when I highlight this phrase is the immense need in this country and the seeming inability of the church and non-government organizations (NGOs) (the laborers) to alleviate it (the harvest). In our visit to just three areas over two days we heard about the work Life With Dignity is doing to empower the local people to become more self-sufficient. They told us about “village banks” which provide micro-financing to families at affordable interest rates, with funds pooled together from the locals who want to participate. We visited with a family who recently (within the last 6 weeks) got running water at their home (not inside, but outside), along with 58 other families in the village and are working together to create their very own “water district” by paying for the water at affordable rates while still creating a maintenance fund and replacement fund for the PVC pipe and generator which allow the water to be pumped from the top of the nearby mountain. We heard about the hopes and dreams of the staff who want to start youth “clubs” in which leadership development is promoted and skills are learned and teachers who want English to be taught to their students so that they have an ability to “market” themselves in order to find jobs once they leave school.
These are all good and worthwhile things to hope for and to work towards. But when confronted by so much need and hearing about the many challenges that stand in the way of being able to accomplish these goals, it can seem overwhelming. There clearly aren’t enough laborers to alleviate the need. Sarah and I visited 3 Area Program Offices of Life With Dignity in 2 days. We easily could place at least one Young Adults in Global Mission volunteer (YAGM) in each of the program offices. We will visit 4 more Area Program Offices this week; Life With Dignity has a total of 9 Area Program Offices in 4 districts throughout Cambodia. If the other offices are like the 3 we’ve already seen, and I have no reason to believe they won’t be, we could place 9 YAGMs with Life With Dignity this year. We have 6 YAGMs who will come to Cambodia in August. At least 2 of those YAGMs will work with the Lutheran Church in Cambodia. We’ve also met with 4 or 5 other worthwhile organizations that could benefit from having a YAGM live and serve in their midst for a year. Clearly, we have a math problem here.
And yet, despite the math problem, I know that there will be incredible things that happen here in Cambodia once the YAGMs arrive. Six different communities will benefit because a group of American young adults decided to live and serve in this context for a year. Six different American young adults will benefit because a community opened their arms and extended radical hospitality to them and walked with them in their struggles to adapt to a new reality. Together they will work to confront the needs of their communities and to learn from one another. There will be times of frustration, anger, and confusion, but there will also be times of great joy, celebration, and happiness. It will be messy, and it will be beautiful.
“The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few” is indeed the reality here in Cambodia. But where the laborers are, there is a harvest that is taking place. Those who once had to walk up a mountain to get water can now go out into their front yard and turn on a spigot, saving time and energy for other things like education and work. Micro-loans with an affordable interest rate are being offered to those who have an idea for a business but not the means to secure capital to make it a reality. This is the harvest I’m talking about when I think about this scripture from Luke 10, and I cannot wait to hear about and observe more of these stories of harvest when the YAGMs arrive.
YAGM Cambodia 