deep down in all our hearts, we are bonded together for a single common good to take care of each other and to raise each other up in times of struggles and challenges
This is my 3rd time participating in an ACTS mission. The first 2 was in 2015, 2017 and after 4 years gap, I am called once again to re-connect back to ACTS mission.
When I was approached to consider joining the mission to help with the fund-raising initiative this year, I hesitated. It should be an obvious yes, especially when I just concluded my own personal fundraising campaign to support Hair for Hope, to stand in solidarity with the cancer patients and their families. Could I say no to ACTS in June, when the world started to experience another wave of mutated Delta virus and another round of uncertainties, another unforeseeable unimaginable future for the Cambodian community who needs our support even more than before?
Though with much hesitation, the answer came from within fast. God has found me again to serve His mission again.
Working on a new fundraising idea from scratch had its own challenges. The virtual Walkathon met with initial planning and logistical challenges, but God kept opening doors to resolve one issue after another through the support of ACTS community network. God watches over us. He will not let you bear all the burden yourself. He is always here with us, and that he sends himself through other messengers to you.
As I said God has found me again, and he did not let me go off when my fund-raising project ended. I really thought task completed, ticked done. However, God is in mysteriously ways kept pulling me back into the mission.
I took part in Grow Your Own food project as a follow up consequential action from the virtual Walkathon. Big question in my mind though - how would this project on growing plants be in solidarity with our Cambodian community? However, I was totally amazed by the experience. I had so much joy in connecting emotionally, knowing that as my microgreens grow, somebody in Cambodia would also be experiencing such joy like me as his/her plants grow. What a lovely invisible connection!
I also decided to enroll for the Christmas Wreath making session and even got my friends and my mother-in-law involved. I became his messenger, his steward to share about ACTS and Battambang with them. My mother-in-law now has a personal connection to ACTS Battambang, knowing that this is the mission group that her daughter in law and granddaughter went with to Cambodia.
The most touching moment for me happened on the day when Maureen (the Candlelight Book and Song Fund Raising Champion) sent through the first rough cut of the Candle song.
I had a real quiet moment during lunch hour. I listened to the song sent through. I was immensely touched and inspired by the song.
No matter where we live, no matter what language we speak, no matter whether you can sing beautifully or not, but deep down in all our hearts, we are bonded together for a single common good to take care of each other and to raise each other up in times of struggles and challenges.
The song sums up beautifully what ACTSB 2021 mission is about. God pulled me back again into the mission. I cannot sing. But I practiced singing the song for few days and finally submitted the recording for the Candle Song project.
This mission is remote, virtual without a physical touch and presence. But it is a powerful mission because it is no longer restricted to just a week in physical presence in Battambang, but stretches out at periodic intervals over 3 months, where God gathers his trusted stewards, connect via Him to share, and care for our brothers and sisters and yet provides an inner exploration of our spiritual relationship with Him.
God works on our hearts in different ways and at different times in our lives. When God calls you, let's answer his call in His time. Trust yourself and Trust him too, it will be a good call, just like mine!