ELCA young adults have an opportunity to serve in Cambodia

CHICAGO (ELCA) – This August a group of young adults from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will begin their service with the newly established Lutheran Church in Cambodia. Cambodia is the newest country location for the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission program, an international mission opportunity for young people ages 21 to 29.
“These young adults will serve in a variety of areas, including alternative farming and hydroponic gardening, education and childcare, supporting church leaders in local evangelism, pastoral care, and ministry, and rural health care and development,” said Stephanie Berkas, manager of the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission program. “No matter the category of service, these young adults will confront issues of poverty, globalization, economic disparity, women’s rights and the challenge of rebuilding after a painful political past.”
The Young Adults in Global Mission program started in 1999 with eight young adults who volunteered in the United Kingdom. Since then, more than 550 young adults have traveled to Africa, Asia, Mexico, the Middle East and South America, where they volunteer 35 to 40 hours a week for a year at a variety of placement sites including churches, schools and hospitals. In 2015-2016 about 75 young adults will participate in the program.
The Rev. Sarah Erickson and her husband, Adam Erickson, are serving as co-country coordinators in Cambodia. Since February, the couple has been working to help put the new program in place. In addition to partnering with members of the Lutheran Church in Cambodia, the ELCA young adults will also work with the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center and Life with Dignity, a human rights organization started by The Lutheran World Federation, a global communion of 144 churches representing more than 72 million Christians in 79 countries. The ELCA is the communion's only member church from the United States.
“On the one hand, Cambodia is beautiful, with rivers, palm trees, mountains, forests and coast lines. The people are exceptionally hopeful and genuinely kind,” said Sarah Erickson. “But on the other hand, Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia, with many people living on less than $2 a day. They’re coming off of war and genocide only 35 years ago, and everyone has a story of poverty and pain. So, the work the young adults will be doing will be mostly trying to figure out who is Cambodia and how their own world and the world of Cambodia come together. Mostly, the young adults will live with families in Cambodia, share meals, hear one another’s stories and more,” said Erickson.
The young adult volunteers will be living in very humble circumstances, and it won’t be possible to escape all of the guilt, frustration and freedom that that will bring, according to Erickson. “They will realize that it’s possible to have stories of exceptionally deep pain and still genuinely want to rebuild – a physical living-out of reconciliation. They will experience living and speaking their faith among people who have literally never heard it before,” she said.
Erickson emphasized that many will return “not feeling quite at home” in the United States. “Hopefully, that unsettledness will keep them asking questions of their families, friends, co-workers and faith communities for the rest of their lives,” she said.
“We’re grateful to be a part of a church that’s so excited about this program,” Erickson continued, describing the transformation that happens as a result of the program.
“The reconciling work that God has done for and among us can’t be separated from the call to reconcile – to be fully at peace – with one another. And while that reconciliation can, and should, happen anywhere, not just around the world, it’s difficult for that to happen if we’re never forced to see our own selves in a different light. And this program does that on a profound level.”
Erickson said the year-long mission opportunity is “a glimpse of what a massive undertaking it was for God to live among us – another culture – to live with our thoughts, feelings, needs, sufferings, joys. And then to still want to be fully at peace with us. We see the beauty of what the other culture brings that we had never thought about before. It’s truly a transformational and life-giving thing. And finally, we come home and realize that, in reconciling with the other, we’ve become different ourselves.”