7.5 white boys.

We have like two weeks left here. Which is both good and bad.

The good thing is we get to see the rest of the squad very soon.

The bad thing is we have become a part of this little village.

One of the teachers came up to me this morning and asked me, “When are you leaving?” And when I told her it was in three weeks, she said, “But you are coming back, right?”

This isn’t to say we are some stellar missionaries. We aren’t. Not on paper, at least.

We came in with no idea what ministry we would be doing. We found out about 8 hours before we got on the plane. We are not qualified to teach English by any means. We don’t understand Khmer, so our communication skills are generally lacking. We are a bunch of kids from mostly the American suburbs with minimal construction experience, so we have been able to help where we can, but we haven’t made a drastic impact.

This isn’t to say we have just sat on our butts doing nothing because we are constantly teaching or building a classroom or doing something to help out. My point is there are better alternatives that will get a better result than 7.5 white kids from America.

But I think there is a result that few people see, which is much more powerful than building a physical building.

Jesus emphasized relationships more than anything, which is why his ministry was so impactful. He prioritized eternal souls over things of this world that will fade away.

And I don’t think we even have this mentality consciously. But in my opinion, that is where we as a team excel. We constantly play with the kids, pick them up, toss them around etc. We have built super solid relationships with the teachers to the point where we can joke, and they come into our house and talk with us. We have established rapport with the older students as well, playing soccer and teaching them new games. Something I think we have done to the best of our ability is reflect a fraction of Jesus’ love to this village. This is why the teacher who came up to me was sad when I told her when we were leaving.

This applies to anyone reading this. If you want to leave a lasting impact on those around you, love them like Jesus. And most of us have heard it 1000 times, but it is true.

I impacted Paideia. For those of you who do not know, that is the school I graduated from. This is not me bragging but, to the best of my ability, trying to reflect. In my senior year, I had a 3.0 GPA on a good day. I am not good at school. I didn’t make an impact because I was smart or academically gifted. I made an impact because I chose to pour my time into the people around me (in particular, everyone younger).

Jesus doesn’t care whether you are valedictorian or not. He doesn’t care what job you have. Or honestly, whether you build a classroom for a bunch of Cambodian kids. So many things in this day and age are worthless without love.

Romans 13: 8-14

Thanks for everything,

Drew McKinney

P.S. Here are a kid and me, who I think is hilarious.