Cambodia?

It was November of 2022, and I was in Cambodia with our daughter, Bethany. She would be there for the next six months serving as an English teacher. I had traveled with her and was enjoying the experience of being in Asia for a few days before leaving her there and heading back home. My main concern was making sure she was settled in her apartment and had all the basic necessities to get along on her own.

On the day I was to fly out, Tim Maddocks (the founder and director of the mission) invited me to come along as he was taking another couple from America into the country for a hike up Kulen mountain to see a waterfall. After determining that I would be back in time to meet my departing flight, I gladly accepted the invitation.

As we were arriving at the mountain Tim pointed up the hill to the right and said, “Up there is some property that I bought several years ago for a health retreat. It’s just been sitting there because there isn’t anyone to take on that project.” That planted a seed in my mind which has sprouted and grown to the point where we are now in the preparation phase of moving to Cambodia to build and start a health retreat.

When I arrived back at home in the U.S., I told Julie about the property and my idea that maybe we could go. We have had an interest in health ministry for a long time and have talked at different times about how it would be fun to start a health retreat. I’ll let her tell what her reaction was to this.

When Rob told me about the lifestyle center and the desire he had to move there and build it, I just sat there for a minute trying to process what he was saying.  Normally I’m the one that would present these out of the ordinary, life altering ideas to him hoping he’d catch the spirit and jump on board.  I don’t remember really saying too much about it except to attempt to get clarification as to why he’d want to sell everything and go to another continent to start a lifestyle center.  This seemed so out of the ordinary for him to come up with. 

As I continued to think about this idea over the next few days, I suddenly remembered a prayer that I’d been praying on and off for a long time.  I asked God that whatever He wanted us to do if He would impress it upon Rob ‘s heart so I’d know that it wasn’t just another one of my ideas.  I needed to know that it was God moving on our hearts to go wherever He was leading. When I realized that this was an answer to my prayers, I became more open to the idea and we began seriously thinking and praying about it.

 When I (Rob) first shared this opportunity with Julie, I was a bit surprised at her somewhat cool reaction. As Julie said, she was usually the one with the big ideas so I thought she would be excited about this one. I thought maybe it just wasn’t something God was calling us to and didn’t say much more about it for a while. The idea wouldn’t go away though, so after a few weeks I mentioned it again. This time Julie seemed a little more open to the idea.

About this time, we learned that Tim Maddocks would be at a Jesus for Asia Faith Camp a few hours from our home. We drove there for Sabbath and were inspired by the messages. Julie was able to meet Tim and I shared with him that we were considering coming to work on the lifestyle center. His response was that I should start working on a design for the facility and continue praying.

Over the next months, I spent a lot of time thinking about a design but, not being an architect and not having actually been on the property, I didn’t make any real progress beyond ideas in my head. In addition, we had many questions as to whether it would be realistic to take our family to live in Cambodia. Finally, we decided to make another trip all together and see if we could get a clearer vision.

We went in February of 2024 and spent 10 days in Cambodia. We spent some time brainstorming as to what we felt should be included in a lifestyle center and made a couple trips to the property to get pictures, take measurements, and visualize how we could arrange the buildings in the available space. This really helped in getting some momentum on the design. Also, we definitely felt a clearer sense of God’s calling while we were there. By the time we left we we’re ready to commit to the project and begin the process of preparing to move to Cambodia.