The Cambodia Mission Trip team has been a tremendous success. On every indicator, this trip has exceeded what I could have envisaged for our first trip to the beautiful people of Cambodia. I am truly blessed to have worked with such a diverse and competent team of experienced leaders and servant-hearted students.  

This is the youngest team Northside has ever sent overseas with almost half currently in Year 10, but they displayed maturity and character beyond their years. Our students went to serve and to learn. A story from our trip to church the first Sunday illustrates God’s hand upon the team. One of our year 10 boys, Perrin O is one of the year 10 student on the team.  Perrin serves at Nexus care after school and had it on his heart to prepare back packs with care items to distribute to children from Angkanh Village – the remote community the team visited. The packs were thoughtfully compiled, but lacked a children’s bible or anything written in Khmer. 

At church we were amazed to meet a man from Oregan USA who had copies of the FIRST children’s story bible written in Khmer which had just been launched on the Saturday. His organisation had been working for 7 years to bring it to fruition, and we were able to purchase the first 50 copies which then completed our care packs. We were both amazed and encouraged by God’s impeccable timing and providence.

This was to set the tone for our trip which included running programs in primary and secondary schools and then culminated with the first sponsored camp for children at Cambodia’s newly opened Christian Camp site opened at Shalom Valley in the gorgeous coastal province of Kep. After a week of serving in the provinces, our team returned to Phnom Penh where we were treated to scrumptious local food and had the privilege of visiting some incredible Australians involved in tremendous ministries across the city.

It was humbling to see these dedicated people in the field and to feel that we too were a small part of God’s healing for a broken nation.

Mr Rob Burgess