For a people ravaged by the communist genocide that cost the nation a fifth of her population under the murderous Pol Pot regime – a staggering 2 million people – the cost to Cambodia’s Christians was far greater. When the Khmer Rouge seized control of the country in 1975, the persecution was unspeakable: some 90 percent of Christians were martyred or fled the country. By the end of the holocaust, only two trained pastors remained. But in God’s providence, His promise from Genesis 50:20, He is opening doors and hearts to the gospel in a way never before seen in Cambodia.
Hor Ponlok, who planted Kompongsom Bible-Presbyterian Church in Sikanoukville, acts as the hands and feet of that promise. He planted the church in 2008, 11 years after giving his life to the Lord, initially on the grounds of the rural Bible College both in Cambodia and Singapore, before a partnership with Elk Grove Bible Church and other church enabled him to move to the heart of the city.
Hor, 38, his wife, Esther, and son Joseph have lived alongside his people in poverty while laboring to spread the gospel and disciple young Christians. The fruit – and the transformed lives – has been nothing short of extraordinary. In the face of countless difficulties and a shifting political climate, the church continues to grow. And in a nation where once only two pastors remained, the college every year graduates a new crop of trained pastors who are being sent across the nation to reach the lost.
For a nation once virtually closed to the Gospel and a people desperate to be free from the shackles of false religion, the hope is boundless. You can be a part of that great hope – I promise you, the reward will bring you greater joy than anything you’ve ever done. It takes so little on our part here in the West to make such a vast difference for the Kingdom in this poverty-stricken nation. Even just a few dollars a month is enough to change a life.
And if you’re traveling to Cambodia or another nation in need of the Gospel, The Gospel Coalition’s Packing Hope program will arrange to deliver cases of free books to the church in the Khmer language to strengthen and equip its members with solid theology and teaching.
To learn more about these resources, visit thegospelcoalition.org/io.In 1973, speaking at the Keswick Convention in England, Cambodian Major Chhirc Taing spoke passionately and poignantly to Western church leaders about Khmer Christians’ grave need for help:
“God has given you blessings upon blessings so that today you have many churches in which to worship him and learn from his living Word. … Give us the right to believe in Jesus Christ the true God on whom you have believed for many, many centuries.”
For Chhirc Taing, who returned to his country to advance the gospel knowing he would be killed, and was, days after the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975, the need was so profound that no sacrifice was too much to make. The need is no less great today, but the sacrifice asked of us now is incomparably
smaller.