Takeo Church
Our church supports missionaries in various parts of the world. One such place is Cambodia. Pastor Han is our full time missionary contact there. At the time of this writing, he has planted 5 churches in Cambodia. All praise be to God! A couple of years ago, one of our Korean church members went to assist Pastor Han in the work there. Her name is Rebecca. She has recently returned and wanted to share this testimony of God’s grace with the SCBC Family. May this serve as a reminder that God is gathering people from all parts of the world to delight in Him. Further, may this bring us to our knees in prayerful dependence as we seek to spread His glorious name. God is at work! Here is her letter (any sensitive info has been removed):
My name is Rebecca. I’m a Cambodian missionary and I just came back to Korea this week. SCBC has supported me with prayer, encouragement, and funds for the last 2 years while I was there. First, I want to give thanks to God. I am back in Korea safely from Cambodia. Also, I want to say thank you to Pastor and Mrs. Chapman for giving me a chance to share the ministry of Cambodia to the English congregation of Songtan Central Baptist Church.
I did team work with missionary Han while in the country. He was sent by SCBC as a full time missionary to Cambodia seven years ago. He has built 5 churches there and our ministry focus is with young people (we reach out to everyone, of course). Our 5 churches consist mainly of young people or kids. My ministry was teaching the Bible and the Korean language. This responsibility was given to me at 2 of the 5 churches. It was a life changing experience.
One of the churches I served at is called Tapierk. I started my ministry there by teaching English, Korean, and Bible for 1 year at the head of the village’s house. Wow! It was a special experience for me. I have never worshipped God with dogs, cows, chickens, and ducks, but that was normal life in the provinces of Cambodia. I started to learn about Cambodian’s life in the province. I lived with 3 Cambodian students for 8 months. We lived together like a family and I was the head of the home. I sent them to school for learning, I gave them food and reminded them to go to sleep. But, it was a very difficult time with each other, because we have such different cultures and living styles. Sometimes, mice would come in my house because they don’t clean up their room. When I saw a mouse, I was very surprised because I have never seen a big mouse like that in Korea. Even though it was not sanitary, I tried to live with Cambodians, because Jesus did like that. Jesus became a human, ate, slept, and did ministry with his disciples. I think they had difficulty living with me too. At that time I was struggling, because I thought I was showing them love, but it was not love for them. I realized by living with these young people how parents must feel.
Then, their parents started a bad rumor about me, and the Tapierk village shaman said that the ghosts were angry because of me, because I shared the Gospel and Jesus, so the spirits don’t give rain in Tapierk village. Eighty percent of Cambodians are farmers. If it does not rain, it is a big problem for them, and it had not rained in Tapierk village for a long time. But the church leaders and I prayed to God. Many short term mission teams visited our village during this time. God gave us much rain when short term mission teams visited there (5 times, 5 teams). The church had about 40 people, and because of the rumor it dropped to 10 or 12 people. But after the teams visited and the rains came, church members grew to about 100 people! Amazing God! I thought it was God’s perfect timing to show them His power. People began to ignore the rumor and many parents started to send their kids to church.
Then God gave us the opportunity to create a church building in Tapierk after 1 year. We did an offering for construction. Even though it was not much money, it had a big meaning, because the people knew the value of building a church by offering themselves. So I bought Mango trees with their offering and we planted them in front of the church. They will sell the fruit and give scholarships to church leaders. Tapierk Church now has an English class, Korean class, and Sunday school with 6 teachers , and 6 church leaders , Sunday school has 80 people. And the youth worship service is 35 people. They are doing well now.
One of the other churches is named Takeo Church. It has an English class, a Korean class, and a computer class. At this church, I had problems getting land registered. Usually this only takes 15-30 days, but it took 9 months. It was a very long time, because the man in charge wanted a bribe. Then, we needed registry to begin construction of the building. The village police wanted money. I told them I was a kickboxer and they left me alone. I realized that building a church in one village is very difficult but very important. Because Cambodians can learn the truth of God in church and hear the Gospel of salvation. It is difficult because most Cambodians have a shaman and Buddhist faith. They think if they believe in many kinds of gods it is good for them. Even though we teach them God is the one and only God according to the Bible, they don’t agree or they ignore that, because they have faith in many different gods for a long time. So we focus on young people who are more open to other ideas. Our ministry focus is on early morning worship service, prayer, and memorizing Scripture. We think that if we want to change their deep view of different gods, they need to hear repeatedly the true Word of God. Only the Word of God can change them, not us. So, our 5 church leaders memorize Scripture. They already memorized the 11th chapter in the Book of Hebrews, Ephesians 6, Matthew 5-7, Mark 1-4, and this month is Mark 5. We hope that they can become influential leaders in Cambodia for Christianity. If Missionary Han continues in this, maybe in 10 years it will be possible.
Cambodia needs education, especially English and music. Cambodia receives help from many countries and companies, so they need English. They are interested in learning musical instruments, but they don’t teach this in public school. Most young people are interested in church because we teach English and music. There is so much hope and opportunity there! If you are interested in the Cambodian ministry, let me know. I hope many people start becoming interested in this country. They have many problems that need our prayers, like men abandoning the families, character issues, promiscuity, I can’t say much more here, but I just want to say pray for Cambodia, because what they need the most is to know the truth that is only found in Jesus Christ. Please pray for missionary Han who is now taking care of all 5 churches and continue to support his ministry.
My mission term of 2 years has ended and now I will study theology here in Korea. I hope to learn more about ministry and may one day return to Cambodia. God bless you all. – Rebecca
By Nelson Chapman
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Nelson is the English Pastor of Songtan Central Baptist Church. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Religion from Liberty University, M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary, and is currently working on a D. Min. at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been married to his wife Michelle for 11 years.