Lakeville teen brings love, smiles … H1N1 to Cambodia

PHOTO: Megan Richardson, 17, top center, a Lakeville South High School senior, took a month-long mission trip to Cambodia in June. Her group not only taught children English and played games with them, but managed to bring the H1N1 swine flu with them to the country. “I’ll always be part of the group that brought swine flu to Cambodia,” she joked.Photo submitted

South senior’s mission trip provides great memories, distinction of introducing “swine flu” to Asian nation

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by Derrick Williams

Thisweek Newspapers

Between her desire to make a difference, see the world, and act on what she described as a calling from God, Megan Richardson expected her summer-time mission trip to Cambodia to be a life-changing event she would never forget.

“Let’s just say it lived up to expectations,” the Lakeville South senior joked. “It was the most wonderful, fulfilling and unusual thing I’ve ever done.”

Beginning in June, Megan, 17, spent about a month with 39 other youth missionaries from all over the United States in the Southeast Asian country, teaching children English, playing games and ministering to Cambodian youths as part of Global Expeditions, a Christian youth organization that sponsors mission trips all over the world.

“That was the wonderful part,” she said. “The children were so open and loving. It was truly an experience of a lifetime.”

The unusual part?

“Not only did I get swine flu, but our group brought the first cases of the flu to Cambodia,” she said. “The World Health Organization even got involved and said up until our group arrived, Cambodia hadn’t seen H1N1 yet.”

A calling

Megan said her plan to go on a mission struck her last year.

“I felt that I needed to go somewhere, see the world and maybe help people,” she said. “It was a strong feeling, almost a calling.”

So Megan began looking into different missions and Christian youth organizations.

Her parents were supportive.

“As we prayed and talked, we began to feel as though Megan was being called toward missions as well,” her father Mike said. “We talked about what she might want to do after high school and we felt compelled to encourage her to go on a trip.”

Initially, Megan found a mission organization through school, but Mike said he wasn’t comfortable with it.

“I knew it hurt her, but I said to keep looking,” Mike said. “That’s when Megan found Global Expeditions.

“After a lot of prayer and even more research, we were more comfortable with the idea. We were with it and said she could go. We just felt like God wanted her to go.”

Mike said the organization also helped, promising daily e-mail updates and opportunities to talk to Megan every couple days.

Megan was ecstatic.

“It was thrilling when I found out I was going. I was going to get out, meet new people and see the world,” Megan said. “It was an opportunity to step out and be myself and grow.”

After fundraising for half a year, Megan procured the $4,500 she needed for the trip from family and friends and members of her church, Lighthouse Community Church in Rosemount.

“They were more than generous,” Megan said.

Getting to work

After flying from Minneapolis to Dallas to San Francisco to Hong Kong and then to the Cambodian capitol of Phnom Penh, Megan said the group got to work right away.

Each day her group would wake up at 6 a.m., eat, and then split into two teams. Megan’s team would go to a learning center in Phnom Penh.

“Kids anywhere from pre-schoolers to 15-year-olds would come before and after their regular school day,” Megan said. “We’d teach them games and songs, Bible stories and English.”

After the day at the learning center, Megan said the group would meet back at their base for dinner, team building and ministry and worship.

“I can’t tell you how wonderful the experience was,” she said. “I’m not the same person I was before I went. It was so rewarding and the children were so amazing.”

Megan said there was a language barrier, but nothing a smile and a hug couldn’t translate.

“Some of the older kids knew English, but the younger ones – a lot of times there wasn’t a need to speak,” she said.

Megan said she got a lesson in the warm heart and compassion of the children of Cambodia during a visit to a slum.

“We were visiting a group of children and teaching them the game Duck, Duck, Goose. Well, I was running, chasing a boy, but slipped and fell,” Megan said. “I cut a hole in my jeans. We were all laughing, but the boy I was chasing, who didn’t know English, came over and tried to wipe the dirt off my pants. He wanted to help me and give me a hug. It was then that it hit me how much compassion these kids have.”

Megan said the days of meeting and getting to know the children was a blessing and sad all at once.

“Being over there really opened my eyes,” she said. “You see what these kids have and it breaks your heart. You want to help them, and I think we did, if only a little.”

Swine flu

While teaching children was the highlight of her trip, Megan said contracting swine flu was the most unusual part.

Megan is fine now, but she said she spent a night in a Phnom Penh hospital and was then quarantined for nearly a week after.

“Cambodian people would come up to the window to our room and take pictures with their camera phones,” she said of being quarantined. “They were curious, I guess.”

Mike said they received phone calls updating the situation, but he was worried about Megan’s health.

“You always hear, don’t get sick in another country,” he said. “From the care to the cost, getting sick in another country can be scary. We were worried, but Global Expeditions did a good job keeping us in the loop.”

Ultimately, the flu was traced back to one girl who was part of the 40-person group, Megan said.

“She brought the flu with her to the airport and we all got it from her,” she said.

Mike said he was happy it all worked out.

“The American Embassy made a visit to the hospital and the Cambodian government picked up the hospital bill for those who were sick,” he said.

And Megan recovered from her 103-degree fever and illness in a little less than two days, she said.

“We were all OK. It was funny though, the person from the embassy that visited us in the hospital said they knew swine flu would eventually come to the country, but they expected it to come from travelers from Australia, not teenage missionaries from the U.S,” Megan joked.

'Amazing' experience

Megan said she would recommend a mission trip to anyone.

“It’s amazing. Truly amazing” she said. “But I’d tell people that they should go for the right reasons and to do it fully. Fully immerse yourself in the experience.”

Megan said the trip was far more than just meeting people and an odd story about swine flu.

“It was the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “I feel fulfilled and content and I want to do it again as soon as I can.”

Mike said seeing his daughter make such a transformation made it worthwhile for him too.

“She’s grown as a person and I couldn’t be more proud,” he said.

E-mail Derrick Williams at:

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