Out of Sequence, but Right in Step
Christ Community Church is planning another trip to Cambodia in early 2027. I am helping plan that trip and intend to go on it. Many of you know the history of my interest in Cambodia. Back in 2004-2005, our church hosted Dave and Chris and their family in our Missionary in Residence house. They served in Cambodia. Our church formed a connection with that missions family and started supporting ministry in Cambodia shortly thereafter. In 2006, I joined a newly-formed prayer team who prayed for those who served in Cambodia and for the others who had stayed at our Missionary in Residence home. Then our church started sending teams to Cambodia to be involved with English Camps that were run by the people we were supporting over there. I joined in an English Camp team in 2011, marking my first ever trip overseas. I actually served at two English Camps that year, one in Phnom Penh and one in Siem Reap, and I stayed for about 3 weeks. Before I went, I thought of it as a “once in a lifetime” adventure. After I went, I longed to return – but our church stopped sending teams to English Camps soon after that and so I began to think that returning to Cambodia was not in the cards for me. All that changed back in 2024, when, as a part of our church’s Global Missions Team, I agreed to help lead another trip there. We still supported the field substantially and thought it was time to again interact personally with what was happening there. A group of eight individuals representing CCC traveled to Cambodia in February/March, 2025, with our feet on the ground there for 10 days. Both trips were life-changing for me personally.
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| Me in Cambodia in 2011 |
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| Me in Cambodia in 2025 |
It was last August when I first felt that God was suggesting that I might go to Cambodia “out of sequence” – ahead of that timeline of our planned church trip next year. Haley, one of our team from the 2025 trip, had committed to serving full time in Cambodia. Her target departure date was February, 2026, and my initial thought was that I was supposed to go with her and chronicle her first days serving over there, to support her and to create content with my camera and with my words, so that those back in our church would get a better idea of her onboarding process. I had told a few people so they could be praying about it with me: my husband R.J., the Creating Hope 4 Cambodia committee, my friend Barb who distributes the missions’ prayer list, and the head of our Global Missions Team. In early October, I had an opportunity to chat with Dave and Chris Manfred about my seed of an idea. From their many years’ experience, they let me know that my idea would not work. Haley would need to do those first days/weeks/months on her own, immersed in her new culture and not distracted by her old one. They encouraged me that supporting Haley and making her ministry real to our church were good ideas, but that her earliest days in Cambodia were not the time to do those things. That made perfect sense, but it also was a bit of a disappointment. Had I misinterpreted that prompting to go? I did my best to lean in listen to what God would say next. I waited to see if my nudge to “go” would continue to develop, on a different path, or if it would disappear.
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| Me with Haley in Cambodia in 2025 |
In the meantime, I sent some emails to the new field director couple in Cambodia (Jeff & Heather), getting to know them and hearing about the changes in the Cambodian field. I let them know about my idea of coming to Cambodia on my own, to support Haley, so they could help me figure out if that would be a good idea and when a trip might happen. I told them from the beginning that I was ready to hear “no” if that was the right answer. By this time, I was in a better posture of hanging onto the idea loosely, rather than the tight grip I had on it at first. Dave and Chris had given me that gift in their honest review of what I thought I heard from God. As time moved on, I realized that many elements of my idea were overwhelming. I had never done international travel alone, and the trip to Cambodia is a LONG one. I also remembered how delightful it was to have new experiences in a group and wondered about how it would feel not to have those extra people to reflect on the experiences with me. Still, I knew that if God said “go” I would go in spite of any fears I might have.
Heather and I messaged about so many things happening in Cambodia while not really discussing the possibility of my trip. I enjoyed getting to know her better and becoming more familiar with changes in the ministry in Cambodia. At the same time, I felt God’s direction about what I might do, if I did go. I knew I would be there to support Haley in whatever way she needed support. The idea was still to help those back at our church to understand the reality of what she was doing and to know how to best support and pray for her. I thought it would be a good idea to explore the different possibilities for the 2027 trip to Cambodia, figuring out what would be the best fit for our time there given all the changes in the past year. Sitting down and chatting with Jeff and Heather in person would help me with that, as would seeing the actual options. And then there was the fact that Creating Hope 4 Cambodia would be supporting something new, still unknown right this minute. If I went to Cambodia, I could look into whatever ministry we decided to support and help figure out how best to relay and promote that information to our shoppers. And the most frivolous reason was to do some shopping for the sale itself, so we could sell some Cambodian items there (as we did this past year). Or possibly the VERY MOST frivolous reason was to have another passion fruit smoothie with my good friend Christina whom I met on our last trip to Cambodia! All these ideas rolled around in my head for some time. In early January, Amy (head of the Creating Hope 4 Cambodia sale) and I decided to do a video chat with Jeff and Heather. At the end of our conversation with them, I asked what they truly thought about the idea of me making a trip to Cambodia this summer. They both encouraged me to come.
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| Me with a passion fruit smoothie in 2025 |
That next weekend, I made a presentation to the Global Missions Team, full of updates from Cambodia. At the end of that presentation, I spoke about my plans to make an “out of sequence” trip to Cambodia this summer – with no exact travel plans or dates, just the conviction that I was to go and my vision for what I would do there. During my presentation, a team member (Jessica) asked the question, “Are you looking for someone to go with you?” To the best of my recollection, I kind of fumbled the answer to that question. I said something like “No, not really.” I mentioned that I might “piggy-back” my trip on one end or the other of the trips I knew that other people would be making to Cambodia, if that worked…if they wanted me to do that…and I hadn’t actually communicated that to any of them…. After the meeting, that question stuck in my head. I hadn’t considered looking for anyone to go with me. I felt that God was calling me to go, so I would go…but what if He was also calling me to be vulnerable and ASK someone else to go with me?
I sent a message to Neilee (a Global Missions Team member
and a participant on the February 2025 Cambodia trip) that afternoon. It read:
“You aren't interested in going to Cambodia with me this summer, are you?” And
then I added, “You don't know if you don't ask!” She replied, “When you were
talking about it this morning, you'd better believe it was going through my
mind! 
I could dare to dream
...” And then she
added “prob should pray vs dream!” I left it there, knowing Neilee and God had
to figure out if that was right for her. That was on a Sunday afternoon. On the
following Thursday evening, she sent me a message asking if I had a time frame
in mind. I didn’t actually see that message that evening, but I had just sent
out a message asking Jeff and Heather if there were any times I should avoid
when pinning down the dates for my trip. They replied, so then I replied to
Neilee. The single time frame that seemed to fit with her blocked off dates,
the field’s blocked off dates, and my own blocked off dates was June 25-July 2
or 3. She said “that might work” - and
if she could work out the details, she would love to be my sidekick.
Me with Neilee in Cambodia (and also with Amy, our third musketeer)
Here are the facts about all those moving pieces during and after that Global Missions Team meeting that I just described. Jessica asked a question: “Are you looking for someone to go with you?” She said she asked it not because she had someone in mind, but just because she felt I shouldn’t have to go alone. She started things in motion. I am pretty sure that I would not have messaged Neilee to ask her if she was interested in going with me if Jessica had not asked that question at the meeting. Neilee told me, “I first felt the nudge when you were speaking at global missions last weekend. I kept thinking - Liz should not go alone!! (not that you couldn't, but shouldn't have to!). I had to smile when you texted me later that day.” Neilee prayed first and then told her story to her husband who said, “I think you should go.”
Now here’s my interpretation of all those
moving pieces…. God breathed a question into Jessica, who obediently asked it.
Then He gently nudged Neilee with one hand (be open to going with Liz) and me
with the other (be vulnerable and ask for help). He orchestrated this whole
thing beautifully, in a way I did not envision at all, starting last August. From
giving me the seed of an idea that I got wrong at first, to nurturing in
me a more contrite heart that was willing to listen and wait, to fostering a
willingness in me to go in spite of my fears, and finally (well, finally so
far) to creating a path to include someone else in this idea of His. I get
goose bumps thinking about what God has in store for Neilee on this trip, as
she obeys His prompting, and what He has in store for me, as I continue to lean
into His plans. I can’t wait to see how He uses both of us together in a way He
wouldn’t use each of us individually. Why am I always surprised when God works
things out in a bigger way that I could ever imagine?
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