William Combs Cambodia | Shalom Cambodia Investments (WCCSCI) was birthed from Providential contact with Chhinho Saing, the founder and director of Shalom Mission Cambodia (SMC).
Chhinho spoke to my home congregation of Bethany Fellowship Warsaw Indiana USA in the summer of 2018. In his message he mentioned “none of the English teachers speak English” (meaning none were native English speakers).
Providentially I was coming upon circumstances suitable for becoming a “second career missionary”. I was tired of “working for money” and wanted to devote myself to more directly supporting the increase of God’s kingdom.
I visited Cambodia for a week at the end of March 2019. The plan had been for to have a couple days with Chhinho, then work with a SMC pastor while he went to a conference in Canada.
Again Providence moved and Chhinho’s Canadian visa was delayed. We spent the full week together, including many hours together in a car with Samphors, his wife, driving from Phnom Penh to our Mondul Kiri Dream Center project.
We had very frank discussions about many topics, asking many direct questions, growing to love and appreciate one another. Our hearts were knit together.
From my end I felt like I, like Mr Spock (the Leonard Nimoy version), had connected with my Captain Kirk (the William Shatner version = Chhinho). Of course this analogy was meaningless to Chhinho. And maybe to you too. But Jesus gets it!
The clincher came as we assembled with the saints on Sunday morning. The message was from Genesis 12:1-3, where God tells Abraham “go, I’ll tell you about it later”.
I felt prompted by this account where the father of all who believe (Romans 4) took his first “leap of faith”. I felt compelled to exercise this same kind of faith regarding Cambodia. I needed to choose “yea” or “nay”.
So YEA it is!
As it turns out, teaching English opened the door, but it appears God has much more in store for me than I could ask or imagine. WCCSCI’s other pages give an overview of some of these things. I hope you’ll join me in this adventure!
By the way, if you want SMC info “straight from the horse’s mouth”, I’ve included some links for you under About on the main menu.