When you sing 'Take my life, let it be Lord, dedicated to your honour', do you realise what that can mean for your career? GertJan and Thessa met and thought not only about where they would live, but also about how they serve God's kingdom with what they learned. They like to tell about their vocation for Cambodia.
Looking for a place
We are GertJan, Thessa and Thomas Engberts. GertJan was born and raised in Den Ham in Overijssel and Thessa is from Leeuwarden. We got into a relationship in 2019 and one of the many conversations we had was: where do we see ourselves living later? Den Ham and Leeuwarden are quite a distance apart. The search for a future place to live brought us no peace of mind.
During the same period, we wondered how we might live our lives in service to God. This led us to Xplore Mission, an initiative of the four Dutch mission organisations Interserve, OMF, WEC and Wycliffe Bible Translators. They organise an annual weekend and several days for people who want to discover whether mission is for them. Following an Xplore Mission day, we entered into talks with the four mission organisations in early 2020 to discover whether this was possibly a path we could take.
Not to Asia
Earlier, we ourselves had fantasised in which continent we saw ourselves living and working. Thessa had been to South Africa with a group of young people and was enthusiastic about it, GertJan was interested in the Arab world. And so we collectively arrived at North Africa. Did we exclude any continents? We were sincerely open to everything, but not Asia. We didn't know why, but it didn't appeal to us.
To Asia!
The first three meetings with the various mission organisations were fine. Not wow, but fine. For the online introduction to OMF we found out that OMF only works in Southeast Asia. We wondered whether there was any point in engaging with OMF. After all, we knew we didn't want to go to Asia. We didn't think it was very neat to cancel the meeting, so we went ahead with it. Which was just as well, because during the conversation we really came to a 180-degree reversal. Afterwards, we knew for sure: we have to go to Asia with OMF! There was no doubt about that! So cool how the Holy Spirit worked in both of us then.
To what country and what missionary work?
As a result of that conversation, we started preparing for broadcasting step by step. Two big questions on the table were: to which country and what kind of missionary work? Pretty tough questions, because we were not attracted to a specific country (indeed, not one actually) and also had no vision of what we could do. OMF has a kind of job site that lists all different mission opportunities. We both searched based on our backgrounds, Thessa towards social work and GertJan towards project management and healthcare. We didn't find anything that excited us.
That changed when OMF gave us the tip to look for a joint ministry. This led us to the vacancies of team centre managers. A team centre contains a guesthouse for mission workers or visitors to the field. It also hosts language classes, has support staff, a library and meeting rooms. The team centre also serves as a safe haven for mission workers who are jaded or need a listening ear. This seemed like the place where we could work together, Thessa with her skills in social work and GertJan with his management skills.
Singapore or Cambodia
At that time, there were two vacancies open, in Singapore and in Cambodia. We met online with the then team centre managers in Singapore and Cambodia so that we could get a better idea of the work and they a better idea of us. The conversations were very positive and we were keen to explore both options further. In October 2022, we went on a vision trip to both countries to discover if God is calling us to one of these places.
First, we flew to Singapore. And Singapore was amazing! It is a western city in Asia, or 'Asia light'. Singapore is fully equipped and the team centre was also incredibly beautiful. We could see ourselves working here ourselves. But unfortunately, they were looking for a couple here for a maximum of six months, as another couple had already been found for the period after that. This did not fit in with what we had in mind. After all, we wanted to make ourselves available for a period of three years and in those three years we want to discover whether God is calling us for a longer term. Besides, we also did not experience God's call to go to Singapore.
During our stay in Singapore, we had a briefing with someone from Cambodia about our trip to Cambodia. All kinds of things came up: the history with the Khmer Rouge, the Buddhist religion, our planning of who we would meet and what we would do. During this conversation, we already got very excited. We were expecting that when we soon stepped off the plane in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, everything would fall into place. But far from it!
Culture shock
The transition from a western city to a developing country could hardly be greater. Think of the chaos in traffic, the mess on the streets and the smell. We had a little culture shock. We tried to understand God's voice and experienced spiritual strife, because the spiritual world was so tangibly present in the streets, in house temples or altars in shops, for example. We were inexplicably restless and within 24 hours of arriving, we asked ourselves "what are we doing here?!
Throughout our preparation, we gathered a prayer group around us with friends, family and church members willing to join us in prayer for our preparation. We engaged this prayer group at that time to pray for our situation. And from that moment, we began to ground.
Challenges
One of our meetings with mission workers was with Alex. Alex assumed the role of manager in the team centre, as on the previous managers had already retired and no replacements had yet been found. At the beginning of the interview, he expressed surprise that people wanted him to go and explain to us what the job entailed, as he is always very critical of how things are done. That did not bode well ... But the very conversation with Alex gave us an honest picture of the team centre and the challenges it faces. There is a strong need for permanent managers. In addition, the coronavirus has caused many mission workers to live more by themselves and have unwittingly abandoned the idea of 'fellowship'. This may sound like a sinking ship, but to us it sounded like a challenge that we were very excited about. Ideas were already popping up in both of us on how we could breathe new life into the team centre.
Struggle and prayer
The conversation with Alex and our personal process that followed were the basis for our vocation to Cambodia. Only in retrospect did we realise that the devil actually let himself look into his cards very easily, by making us restless when we arrived in Cambodia. He doesn(t) want us in Cambodia. Our prayer group fighting along in prayer has been essential in this!
Preparing for deployment
Now, over a year later, we have become parents of son Thomas, set up two home front teams (TFTs) in our sending congregations in Den Ham (PKN) and Leeuwarden (CGK) and started our fundraising. The three of us hope to leave for Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, for a three-year period at the end of June 2024.
Follow us
Will you follow us in our continued preparation and when we may soon go to work in Cambodia? And more importantly, pray with us for the spiritual need in Cambodia? Then subscribe to our newsletter via the website God's mission for Cambodia.
