Twenty years ago, I found that my two greatest passions in ministry, worship and missions, could come together when I was invited to take a team to Malaysia to lead IMB missionary families in worship during their annual conference. Little did I know that that trip would forever impact my life. One of the missionaries we worked with contacted me and asked me about leading worship conferences in Malaysia and Singapore after the week-long missionary conference. You can learn more about that journey here: Follow Your Passions Into Missions.

Since that missions trip, I have returned to Asia ten additional times to lead worship conferences–equipping and encouraging worship leaders.

Seven years ago, I began working with churches in a large east Asian country, and my approach to missions made a major change. I was asked by house church leaders to mentor a small group of worship leaders to not only encourage and equip them but to train them to train other worship leaders. You can read more about this process here: A New Approach to Missions: Mentoring and Discipling. With this strategy, I was able to multiply myself and have a far greater impact. Little did I know that doors would be closed to me returning to continue to work with them, but I have great satisfaction knowing they are training worship leaders even today with great zeal. Fortunately, I am still able to encourage each of them from the other side of the world through messaging apps.

I had a trip planned to Cambodia in 2020 that COVID prevented. I had already purchased airfare for several of my team members that I had been mentoring to come and assist me in training worship leaders in Cambodia. It seemed to be the next step in their ministry–to take their worship leadership training into international missions. Unfortunately, the trip had to be canceled and now their country has closed down such that they are not able to come to assist me in work outside their country.

The Cambodia training has been rescheduled, and it will be held for the next two weeks (September 26-October 10). I am excited to be taking along Jonathan Waggett, worship pastor of Coats Baptist Church in Coats, NC. Jonathan is a wonderfully gifted leader who also has a passion for missions and worship. I am excited that he will now find, as I did 20 years ago, how those passions can come together. Jonathan will be sharing the teaching responsibilities with me in a large-scale worship leader training event. The seventh edition of the worship leader handbook (which was birthed in Malaysia 20 years ago) has been translated into Khmer and will be used in the training (see excerpt below). [The training is based on the training offered for NC Baptists. Read more here.]

Additionally, Jonathan and I have days set aside specifically to mentor a small group of worship leaders to prepare them to train other worship leaders as I discussed earlier. Our prayer is that, in doing this, our work in Cambodia will be greatly multiplied as these leaders go throughout the country training other worship leaders in biblical foundations and the skills they need to be most effective in their calling.

Jonathan and I covet your prayers during this trip. Pray that our work there will greatly impact worship in Cambodia and that God will be lifted up in everything we do. I encourage you to read Jonathan’s blog post to see other ways you can pray for us and learn more about our trip and his journey in this. Check it out: Prayers for Worshippers Among the Nations.

This is a video that I was asked to make to share with national leaders in Cambodia.