Three weeks ago John and I went to our first ever TEAR Conference. We were impressed with the 200+ highly motivated and dedicated Christians there. Most of them were young adults keen to explore ways of living Christianly in a broken world. TEAR has a policy of reducing costs by working through various agencies in third world countries. They place fieldworkers with those agencies and seek to live out the Gospel by word and deed to bring about change amongst poor and suffering peoples.
One such couple are Bryan and Lisa Hughes, Australian TEAR fieldworkers. They went on a short term trip to Cambodia a few years ago and saw for themselves the plight of the urban poor in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. They felt a stirring within them and sensed that life might never the quite the same. They saw Christians choosing to live in simplicity and in community in order to live out the Gospel in a wholistic way. They have since returned to Phnom Penh as TEAR fieldworkers and are living in a very poor neighbourhood alongside the people they want to serve and empower.
At first they lived with a Cambodian family to begin to learn about their lives and their language. They are now living in their own home which is just one room - 8m x 2.5m which serves as bedroom, living room, dining room study and kitchen. They share a bathroom with a Cambodian family. They don't find it easy: there's less privacy, less space, lots of noise, flooding in the rainy season, foul-smelling factory smoke, rubbish, rats and mosquitoes. Yet they say there has been very great rewards in building genuine friendships and being part of the local community. They are becoming more fluent in Cambodian and are keen to become servants of the Gospel in that poor community
Let us pray for TEAR and fieldworkers such as Bryan and Lisa Hughes who are bringing the light of the Gospel to very dark places.
One such couple are Bryan and Lisa Hughes, Australian TEAR fieldworkers. They went on a short term trip to Cambodia a few years ago and saw for themselves the plight of the urban poor in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. They felt a stirring within them and sensed that life might never the quite the same. They saw Christians choosing to live in simplicity and in community in order to live out the Gospel in a wholistic way. They have since returned to Phnom Penh as TEAR fieldworkers and are living in a very poor neighbourhood alongside the people they want to serve and empower.
At first they lived with a Cambodian family to begin to learn about their lives and their language. They are now living in their own home which is just one room - 8m x 2.5m which serves as bedroom, living room, dining room study and kitchen. They share a bathroom with a Cambodian family. They don't find it easy: there's less privacy, less space, lots of noise, flooding in the rainy season, foul-smelling factory smoke, rubbish, rats and mosquitoes. Yet they say there has been very great rewards in building genuine friendships and being part of the local community. They are becoming more fluent in Cambodian and are keen to become servants of the Gospel in that poor community
Let us pray for TEAR and fieldworkers such as Bryan and Lisa Hughes who are bringing the light of the Gospel to very dark places.
For more info on TEAR Fund click the links below:
http://www.tear.org.au/
http://www.tear.org.au/wa/
BT
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