Cambodia

Cambodia is famous for its Buddhist temple, Angkor Wat. According to Guinness World Records it is the largest religious structure in the world. At one time, Angkor Wat was the center of a great empire. As I explored the ruins of this ancient temple, I was fascinated by what it represented. Inside every human being is a need for God and the temple was an attempt to connect with the Creator of the Universe. For eons, humans have desired to know God.

Cambodia is 97% Buddhist. According to Buddha, all of life is suffering. This suffering is caused by desire. In Buddhism the way to be free from suffering is to free yourself from desire and the way to do that is by following the pathway of enlightenment.

Yet despite Cambodia’s commitment to Buddhism, they have still faced great suffering. In 1975 Cambodia was taken over by the Khmer Rouge, a Communist party. Under their regime an estimated three million people were viciously murdered. The places where people were killed is known as “The Killing Fields.” For many years it was impossible to preach the Gospel in Cambodia. But now the door is open for us to tell people about Jesus. Now the “Killing Fields” have become “Harvest Fields.”

Gospel Festival in Battambang

Our Gospel Music Festival took place in the city of Battambang, Cambodia. Sitting at the entrance to the city is a huge idol holding a stick. The name of the city “Bat-tam” means “losing” and “bang” means stick. There is an ancient Buddhist story about a king who lost his stick then miraculously found it again. To this day, the people of the city of Battambang worship the figure of the “stick-king.” I saw people burning incense and offerings of food and drink to the idol as they bowed down in front of it in an act of worship.

Our team flew into Bangkok, Thailand. Then we took a van to drive across the border into Cambodia. The border closed at 10:00 pm and we made it across at 9:55 pm.

On our first day in Cambodia, we ministered in a prison. There were about 220 prisoners and they all prayed with us for salvation.

We used music to attract a crowd to the two-day International Gospel Music Festival. It was held in a church campground and thousands of people were in attendance. The people enjoyed listening to the local artists and church worship groups, and watching our dance team of teen girls dressed in typical Cambodian clothing doing traditional dances.

I preached on the three greatest miracles in the Bible: God created you, God loves you, and God saves you. When I gave the altar call, many people gave their lives to Jesus.

Discipleship Book Translated into Cambodian

For this festival, we translated my book “Welcome to the Kingdom” into the Cambodian language and gave it away to all the new believers who got saved. There are not many Christian resources available in the Cambodian language, so the book was greatly appreciated. It teaches people how to be saved, how to be healed, how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and how to walk with God. I wrote the book twenty years ago and now it is available in eight different languages. Over the years, we have given away over 600,000 copies of the book to people who prayed with us for salvation.

In Cambodia, a gift copy of the book was given to the Undersecretary of State of the Cambodian Ministry of Cults and Religions. He is the government official in charge of representing all religious activities in the nation.

We printed extra copies of “Welcome to the Kingdom” and gave them to the local churches who worked with us. Already we have received reports of the book being used in many places to teach people about Jesus.

On Sunday morning I visited a local church that was doing a sports outreach for all the youth in the area. The young people play in a soccer league hosted by the church. But in order to play, they have to attend a special devotional on Sunday morning. The church decided to use my book as the basis for their devotionals. Every week the young people will study a new chapter.

Thank you! It is because of your financial support that we are able to put resources like the book “Welcome to the Kingdom” in the hands of people who are searching for God.