Last month the Next Steps group had the opportunity to take our first retreat together to Kep, a province on the coast of Cambodia. We left from Phnom Penh and spent two nights enjoying nature, the beach, and the mountains. We also built friendship, reflected, prayed and learned God’s word.

As discipleship pastor of this group of students, I have a heart to help them learn God’s word. In addition to this, I have a goal to help them mature and grow in their life to be responsible and caring leaders. This trip was a great chance to teach them more than a lesson on paper, but practical teaching. I focused on giving students some ownership of the parts of our retreat to help them develop leadership skills. For example, different students were in charge of organizing the schedule, keeping track of the budget, planning meals and taking turns to give devotions. One student even took responsibility to find Covid tests for our group and teach everyone how to do it so that we could all be safe traveling together. I’m very proud of these young people and enjoy helping them grow.

When we spend time together in a retreat setting like this, we can make relationships and understand each other deeper. We build fun memories together. For some it was even their first time swimming in the ocean and they didn’t want to leave the water! It was especially good to have this time with a new member of our group, Meng Su, who just recently joined Next Steps. I used this time to encourage the students to value the community they have with each other. I taught them the verse in Ecclesiastes 4:12 that says, “a cord of three strands is not easily broken.” We reflected about how they can carry these relationships with them for their life and help each other keep their faith strong. We are thankful to the Lord and to the Saving Susan team that our students can have this experience!

- Sokion Ki, Discipleship Pastor - Saving Susan Ministry