We’re just a couple of normal people, close to retirement, who decided to tithe our working lives and see how God would use us.
Delecia and Tom Carey
Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA – On March 17, 2025, we boarded a plane in Lafayette, Louisiana, for the first leg of our 27-hour journey to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to start our new life as missionaries.
This calling has been on our hearts and minds for years. As we finished our education, built our careers, and grew our family, we always held the idea of mission work in our hearts. After teaching English for a few years, I (Delecia) became headmaster of a private Episcopal school and earned a master’s degree in school administration. Tom started practice with a hospital and eventually built his own private OB/GYN practice, which he sold 16 years later.
We did not know exactly what our purpose or tasks would be in Cambodia other than that we had specific missionary assignments as principal of Hope Vocational School and an OB-GYN doctor with two Christian health facilities; we trusted that God had a plan. In the short time we’ve been serving, we’ve discovered the lifetime of experience we both have in our professions will be passed on to a young generation of Cambodians who are eager to learn and gracious in their patience and acceptance of us as sojourners in their land; and we, too, are learning a lot from them.
Hebron Medical Center, Phnom Penh
From Tom Carey
In my dreams about my mission work in Cambodia, I imagined myself in a familiar role in an unfamiliar country. Healing would be a way I followed and tried to imitate Jesus, but with technology and surgery. And I am doing this, but I didn’t imagine the privileges that have come alongside the medicine. The patients are appreciative and kind. Imagine the trust it must take for a patient to journey four to eight hours from their province to undergo surgery with a foreign doctor.
An unanticipated privilege here is that I assist in the residency training of the Khmer medical grads. The first resident I met here was Sokly Bun, who wanted to practice in women’s health. She finished her third residency year under my guidance. Now she is a women’s health attending physician at Hebron. We work side by side, and my opportunity to mentor her is ongoing. It is exciting to see Sokly’s continued quest for knowledge.
My biggest gift is Hebron Medical Center. It was built and supported by Korean, Canadian, and American churches. And it has truly been a sanctuary for me. There is a Spirit-led presence here that is palpable. It is expressed in the kindness and gentleness of all whom I interact with.
There are two types of physicians on staff at Hebron Medical Center. Some are Khmer medical graduates employed by the hospital, like Dr. Sokly Bun. Other physicians are missionaries like me. They work for various mission agencies who partner with Hebron and essentially “loan” missionary doctors to the hospital. These missionary doctors come from all over the world. Getting to know them has been one of the great pleasures of our service.
Student to Teacher
From Delecia Carey
A charter Hope Vocational School (HVS) student, 26-year-old Roza Samnang, initially enrolled in teacher Linda’s “Basic English” class in 2025 before graduating to my “Conversational English” class, where she studied for three terms. She dreamed of polishing her English so that she could use it in the future as a businesswoman. When HVS had an opening for a computer teacher, I reviewed Roza’s resume and realized that she was well qualified for that position. Roza holds a bachelor’s degree in business management. She also took several special training courses in Microsoft applications. The four terms she spent studying English at HVS were important too because most Microsoft teaching materials are available only in English.
Roza is dedicated, responsible, and charismatic and she was surprised when I asked her to consider teaching Computer Applications at HVS. But after only a few weeks, it is obvious that she is a natural. She works diligently on her lesson plans and spends plenty of time consulting with me and the other teachers. Her students love the interactive approach she has adopted.
I learned many years ago as a school administrator that hiring visionary teachers with great attitudes and the willingness to grow is the key to building a successful school.
Dr. Floyd Thomas (Tom) Carey and Dr. Delecia Cary are from Louisiana. Delecia has bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees in English as well as a master’s in school administration; she is assigned as the director of Hope Vocational School. Tom is an M.D. with a post-graduate degree in gynecology and obstetrics and serves both Hebron Hospital and Mercy Medical Center in Phnom Penh. Email dcarey@umcmission.org to ask to be added to their newsletter list.
About Global Missionaries
Global Missionaries are long-term United Methodist missionaries who serve outside of their home settings. Immersing themselves in local contexts, Global Missionaries listen deeply and discern prayerfully how best to participate in God’s mission in that time and place. Global Missionaries engage in mission “with” the community, not mission “to” or “for,” recognizing that God is already at work in the people and places they serve.
Learn more about this and other types of missionary service at umcmission.org/work/missionaries/global.
