It is a dream come true. Thirty-six teens attended the first Pathfinder meeting in Saen Monorom and loved it. Virginia and Tamiris—two other student missionaries—and I came to Cambodia burning for a local club that could change the lives of the youth as it changed ours. Now we were watching this dream unfold before our eyes. It’s not an ordinary club. It’s a mission field. Only seven of the attendees are baptized Christians or have baptized parents. Our goal is to give children an opportunity to know Jesus and have a place to belong.
God has guided us and provided the resources we needed to start. We had to start from scratch since there are no other clubs in our area, and even the Pathfinder curriculums we used in our home countries are not very applicable to the conditions here. We spent many hours researching, planning and contacting people around the world, trying to come up with the right model for our circumstances.
One morning, as Tamiris and I looked for a more hands-on teaching method, we came across a curriculum called The-Way-To-Go used in the South Pacific Division. That same day, a club director from Australia reached out to us, wanting to connect with student missionaries—completely unaware of what we had been doing. We quickly took the opportunity to ask questions and see how we could reproduce their methods here.
Our work has not been without challenges. The morning of our second Pathfinder meeting, Tamiris and Virginia became sick with COVID-19, so we postponed the meeting out of caution. Then, just a few days before the next scheduled meeting, we found out we could not continue to use the school building. I was very frustrated, thinking to myself: Why did this have to happen after a very successful opening? Why would God allow this program to take off just to hit wall after wall? Nevertheless, my soul quieted when 11 teens still came to our meeting in a village they normally would not choose for their Sunday afternoon.
Moments like these make me realize how important it is to hold onto His promises and trust His infinite wisdom. What I thought would be a setback turned into a testament to how God moves even when everything seems out of control. I might not see the ultimate goal, but I know He is working behind the scenes putting everything into place.
