In Just 72 Hours

None of us understand the Lord’s timing. Sometimes we can go months just waiting for an answer and yet His reply is still not something we comprehend. However there are other times when we get the privilege of seeing God work quickly and accomplish a great deal in a short amount of time. Last week, during the 72 hours of our student leadership training we got to experience the latter.

Every year in May we gather the students who have exhibited some kind of leadership in SONOKO. Once we are altogether we focus on fellowshipping, instilling the vision of SONOKO, and equipping local leadership. So here are a few examples of how God accomplished all of this in such a short amount of time…

Fellowship

Can you imagine being one of only a few Christians on your university? This is the case for most of our students. Not only that but often they come from non-Christian families who struggle to understand why Jesus is so important to them. As these students focus on doing well in school, working a part time or full time job, and also finding ways to share about Jesus with their friends we want to encourage them. We want to remind them that although their number is small they are not alone. There are other students just like them.

Instilling the Vision

The vision of SONOKO is a pretty new concept for Cambodia. We are a group of Christians that often meet together but not a church? How does that work? With very few para-church organizations working with university students we want students to get who we are and why we do what we do. This year our local staff did an amazing job of sharing the vision. (see the pictures for how small groups explained SONOKO after the local staff teaching). But my favorite moment was when a student asked this question, “If we want to reach all universities, why is SONOKO only in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh? They are getting it! If we want to reach more students we need to go to other cities too!

Local Leadership

In years past, the foreign staff workers have mostly planned the student leadership training. Now that we have a number of Khmer staff, it was time for them to take the reigns and lead the conference. I can’t even express what an amazing job they did. From planning content that was relevant for the students, to great teachings, to humbly serving the students, and even taking care of the small details….well we have great staff. It was truly amazing to see them in their element.