I flew out to Phnom Penh for the first night of ministry in the city. I was excited to be back in the country, and excited to see once again what MST Project outreach was to look like in a completely different context. My job was to watch and ensure that the guys in Phnom Penh had a hold of the reins before, during, and after ministry.
In Cambodia, before each night of ministry, the volunteers of the project head to a restaurant to share a meal. Glenn, the man whom I was staying with, was telling me that seven people had signed up for the night by e-mail. He proceeded to explain how this would allow for one group to be on the street and one group to be in the prayer center. But as we climbed the steep stairs to the second floor of the restaurant the cacophony of sound told us that far more than seven people had signed up. Over twenty people were crammed into the little upstairs café, each looking to be a part of ministry that night. Some of the faces I recognized, some of the faces were new, but all of the faces were a blessing to our work.
So we were held up in the café a bit longer than expected because they hadn’t properly stocked for the crowd. But when finished we piled into the van, and headed over to our prayer center. We reviewed about the MST Project, who we are, what we do, why we do it and how…after all it was the first night, a new, fresh, and solid reminder would go a long way. Then we broke into male and female accountability groups and encouraged and supported each other once more.
Leaving the prayer center for the van we had to work the two metal tables between seats and people. There would be two areas where we were going to “set up base;” the first; the club known as Heart of Darkness, the second; the apathetic and sleazy street 136. We popped up the tables, and whipped out the “question marks,” set up the packs and adjusted the surveys. My group at the Heart of Darkness club was ready to go.
There were about four of us there, flagging men for conversations in both the front and the back of the table. Two expats from Europe wanted to play games with us, but when they saw that we were taking the survey sincerely they began to answer honestly, and told us much of their thinking about various issues in Cambodia. Two of us began talking to a group of Nigerian tourists for a good margin of time. By now it was mid way through the night, and the van had come to take me to street 136.
I asked the group there how things had been going. They had just had a conversation that was rather condescending, with a man discouraging them, but they were ready to continue further into the night. I myself took a break from the conversations for a moment to take pictures of the area. But when I was through, I joined back in with those talking to the men. A balding man with short hair wandered by. We stopped him and began our survey. He was a very informed man, knowing about statistics, and having many theories about different aspects of prostitution. We challenged him on many points, and while the conversation was long, in the end he walked away. The positive thing, he is an expat, as were many of the other men that we met, and this can be the beginning seed to a lasting relationship with them.
The night was getting late (the morning more like it) so we folded the table, packed it in the van, and headed back to the group at Heart of Darkness. As they climbed in the van, the quote they of the night was, “I’d rather be out here talking to you churchy people than in that club.”
The night with its highs and lows was certainly a success. Yes, some of us had been discouraged, yes some of us had been in conversations that dead ended, and yes some of us had been in conversations that were nothing but led by the Holy Spirit. The first night of MST Project Phnom Penh was a learning experience for us all. Learning about what it meant to go out there and be obedient for the Lord. God will water the seeds and grow them, our job now is to pray and enter into the spiritual battle that He is calling us to. Next time, in Phnom Penh, when we hit the street for ministry, I pray that we continue to learn, continue to walk in obedience to God’s will, and continue to positively affect the lives of many men.
Written By: Tyler E.
