Cambodia Trip Update #3

We leave tonight for the airport and depart at 1:40am on our way to Cambodia. We are very excited! If you would like to follow our progress throughout the trip, you can read our team blog here: http://www.mppcmission.org/trips/cambodia/2012aug/index.htm

Also, for anyone still interested in supporting our trip financially, Matthew and I are fully funded. However, one of the members of our team, Kasey Van Ostrand, is still raising support. She is a recent graduate still looking for work, so I know that any financial support raised will be very helpful for her. To support her, go to this link and click "donate here." Then select her name from the drop-down. http://www.mppc.org/calendar/cambodia-mission-trip

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Cambodia Trip Update #2

It is hard to believe that Matthew and I have about one month left until our trip to Cambodia. Needless to say, we are getting tremendously excited!

We were very encouraged at our Cambodia team retreat by the relationships being formed, the information we learned, and the planning for our service to the community. There is still a lot of work to be done, as some of our members prepare original child-geared lesson plans, games, crafts, and skits for the week of kids' club. Matthew and our friend Joyce So are also leading the musical worship, so they are in the midst of choosing songs and learning them. (I am getting annoyingly familiar with the YouTube versions of a number of child songs as Matthew picks them out on his guitar nightly.)  Personally, I am part of the team that is planning a party for rescued girls at the rehabilitation house and have been put in charge of decorations. (I would love suggestions for how to play up our Hawaiian Luau theme!) Once we get to Cambodia, all team members will participate in the various activities, but these are just the groups that have been assigned to do the preparation work. We got a good start on planning activities during the team retreat, but we all have to step up our game to make sure everything is ready before we go!

Please pray for continued team unity, effectiveness in planning and ministry, full financial funding for all of our team members, and growing hearts for the people of Cambodia.

We were also recently blessed by our bible study small group when one of our members/friends organized a get-together to share our hearts, discuss the details of the trip, and gain additional supporters. Our friends asked a lot of good questions and prayed over us in a meaningful and special way. We also had a lot of fun sharing a delicious potluck dinner and just hanging out with the people we have come to love in the Bay Area.

And in other news....Praise God! Shortly after the dinner with our friends, Matthew and I got word that we are fully funded at $5,800! Thank you so much for making this mission trip possible with your generosity and prayers!

For anyone who is still interested in partnering with us, please let me know, and I can add you to our list of prayer partners. Additionally, any extra funds raised by us above and beyond our personal fundraising goal will go to other members of our team who do not meet their respective fundraising goals.

We also have a dear friend, Joyce So, who is going on the trip with us, and she is still raising support. (She is the friend I mentioned above who is in charge of the music with Matthew. She is also a former teacher and is largely heading up the curriculum design for the kids' club.) If you had been thinking about donating but missed the boat before we were fully funded, please prayerfully consider directing funds her way! If you would like to make a contribution online, you can do so through our church's website. (Go to this red link, select "Donate Here," and choose Joyce So from the drop-down names.) Alternatively, if you would like to mail a check, please send it to MPPC Mission Dept. / Cambodia STM Trip / 950 Santa Cruz Ave. / Menlo Park, CA 94025 with a note indicating that it applies to Joyce So.

We have our vaccines done, our funds raised, and our detail planning in process. Now, we are just getting very excited to be on the ground in Cambodia! Thank you all so much for your prayers, encouragement, and financial partnership. And thank you for continuing to support us; we could not do this without you!

Cambodia Trip Update

Hello Friends!

Matthew and I wanted to provide an update on our progress toward the Cambodia Mission Trip, which I wrote about in more detail in a previous blog post. To summarize, we will be traveling to Cambodia August 15-17 to work with Agape International Missions around the issue of child sex trafficking in Svay Pak.

This weekend we are meeting with our team for a retreat to plan out activities for the trip and to spend time in prayer. As we pull away to prepare this weekend, you can be praying for us. Please pray that we would be productive in terms of planning, that the Lord would soften our hearts for the people we will be serving in Cambodia, and also that He would build a spirit of unity among the members of our team.

As far as support raising goes, thanks to generous donations from friends and family, we are funded at 27% of our $5,800 total goal, and we have a little over one month left to go. If you are considering partnering with us financially but have questions or concerns, please reach out to us. We are trusting the Lord to raise up a team of individuals who are passionate about justice and who long to see God's love reach all corners of this world.

Just to repeat some earlier information, our deadline for contributions is July 31. If you would like to make a contribution online, you can do so through our church’s website (go to this red link and then select “Donate Here”). Alternatively, if you would like to mail a check, please send to MPPC Mission Dept. / Cambodia STM Trip / 950 Santa Cruz Ave. / Menlo Park, CA 94025 with a note indicating that it applies to Matthew and Kristen Campbell.

Thanks again for your partnership and continued prayers!

Sincerely,
Matthew and Kristen Campbell

Cambodia Mission Trip

Dear Friends,

I am writing to tell you about an incredible opportunity my husband and I have to go to Cambodia this summer.

After Matthew has completed his degree (likely 2014), we believe that God is calling us to spend a couple of years serving abroad in missions. In the meantime, we are hoping to learn more about various parts of the world that interest us and to explore important issues that move our hearts, so that we can discern where God wants us to go and what He wants us to do when the time comes.

From August 15 - 27, we are thrilled to be taking a break from our typical routine to go on a short term mission trip to Svay Pak, Cambodia with a group from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. We will be partnering with Agape International Mission in Svay Pak, a humanitarian organization founded in 1989 that focuses on preventing child sex trafficking and restoring hope to its victims. This is done through a holistic strategy of preventing the problem, rescuing the enslaved, restoring the broken, and equipping the Church so that sex-trafficking can be eliminated forever. You can learn more about the organization at http://agapewebsite.org. 

As you may know from previous blog posts, I believe that human trafficking is linked to human health in a profound way, affecting both the physical and emotional well being of its victims, particularly if those exploited are children. Svay Pak, the village where we will spend most of our time, is considered a notorious brothel district and a "destination location" for pedophiles, located a short drive outside the capital of Cambodia. Over the last five years, the government of Cambodia, assisted by a number of NGO's (such as International Justice Mission), has successfully shut down some of the brothels in the area that exploit children as young as five years old. Yet much is left to be done to eliminate this practice and to restore the community. It is believed that approximately one third of the prostitutes in Svay Pak are under age 18 and that as many as half are infected with HIV. Our friends who have gone to Svay Pak in past years have reported that pimps could sometimes be seen openly waiting outside the kids' club for the songs and games to be over in order to pick up the girls they traffick.

Our group will work with Agape to put on a daily kids’ club for the children of Svay Pak (where kids can just be kids), to plan a celebration at Agape’s safe house for recovering victims, to teach computer or other skills with which we have been gifted, to encourage those who are ministering in Svay Pak already, and to otherwise meet any needs of the community as we are able during our stay. And of course, we will be traveling not just to give to the community, but also to learn from the community - to build relationships, learn about the culture, understand their struggles, celebrate their strengths.

In order for us to go to Cambodia, we need to find a faithful group of people committed to praying for us before, during, and after the trip, in addition to raising approximately $2,900 each ($5,800 total) to pay for travel, lodging, and other ministry expenses. We would be honored if you would consider partnering with us on this mission to fight against human trafficking.

Would you be willing to join our prayer team and/or to support us financially? Donations are tax deductible, and any amount you are able to contribute is significant in helping us reach our fundraising goal. Donations can be made online at www.mppc.org/calendar/cambodia-mission-trip, or checks can be made out to Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and mailed to:

Menlo Park Presbyterian Church

Cambodia Missions Trip

950 Santa Cruz Ave.

Menlo Park, CA  94025

For checks, please include a separate note in the envelope indicating that it should be designated towards Matthew & Kristen Campbell for the Cambodia mission trip. All donations are non-refundable and must be received by the church before July 31, 2012 to go towards our trip. Any donations received after that date will not go towards our trip and will instead be used for other mission endeavors at the church.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Kristen Campbell




Photo credit: http://renewalfellowship.presbyterian.ca/channels/r10061-1.html