Fieldwork News
Exploring Cambodia—Early Preaching Activities
2005/04/07

Report on the missionary visit to Cambodia by Bro Raju Devis, Auckland, New Zealand.

The name Cambodia evokes in many of us the images of the destitute refugees who survived the genocidal Pol Pot regime of the Seventies, a country struggling to survive against poverty, victim of a power struggle between powerful nations and a place subjected to invasion and massive bombing and ongoing political instability. Yet it is also the home of an ancient civilization that left indelible mark on the history of South East Asia, inhabited by one of the most gentle and hospitable peoples in Asia.

In terms of preaching work, Cambodia has not received much attention from the Christadelphian brotherhood for various reasons. Both security and the political situation have improved over the years. There are now many overseas tourists in the country, and businesses are starting up. In spite of its extreme poverty, poor sanitation, violence, diseases and short life expectancy, there is a perceptible air of optimism in the country. There are many Christian organizations and churches actively working in Cambodia now.

This report covers the events on the fourth visit to Cambodia in January 2005. My previous three visits to Cambodia since November 2003 saw the beginning of the preaching effort there by Christadelphians. The first two visits were very exploratory, with the first advertisement in the newspaper producing only one contact. The advertisement placed during the second visit in April 2004 produced 5 contacts. During my last visit in September 2004 I was able to meet with all but one of the contacts, and I met two additional interested people. We also got two more contacts from the advertising program since September. The current initiative is to get these contacts to do the correspondence course, and thus bring them into our friendship circle.

About Cambodia
The Kingdom of Cambodia is comprised of nearly 13 million people, with 50% of the population under the age of 15. The capital city Phnom Penh is the largest city, which has about one million people. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia. The vast majority of Cambodians are ethnic Khmer (>90%) followed by ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese and Cham Muslims who make up the rest. It is a very devout Buddhist nation who only in the last decade removed restrictions on preaching and practicing any religion. Buddhism now is Kingdom of Cambodia's national religion.

My Fourth Visit
With a list of 7 people in hand I arrived in Phnom Penh from an early morning flight from Bangkok in Thailand early in January 2005, all bleary eyed after a sleepless night flight from India. My hotel, as arranged, sent a van to pick me up from the Airport in on old battered Toyota van, which had to stop twice to put the sliding door back in place. The problem was solved with me giving up a luggage strap to fasten the door.

The hotel where I was booked in is owned and run by Malaysian Moslems, but since I have stayed there before the staff knew the purpose of my visit, though some thought I was there as a representative of a 'Christian NGO' (Non Governmental Organization). I had taken toys, sweets and few other gift items for the hotel staff and their families so that they would assist me if necessary. They, considering most were earning less than US$20 per month, gratefully received these small gifts that made organizing the visit a lot easier.

Food in Cambodia is nothing spectacular, being fairly bland and non-spicy compared to Thai food. Rice is eaten with most meals, fish is in abundance and, due to Cambodia's French colonial past, plenty of excellent breads and baguettes are available everywhere. If you are really hard pressed, you can always eat freshly steamed snails with lemon leaves, grilled frogs, fermented fish meat, roasted grasshoppers or even cockroaches. I was happy with snails and freshly squeezed mango puree. You will not starve in Cambodia.

You can move around in the city on a Moto or Motorcycle taxis. This amazing example of private enterprise is enthusiastically taken up my many government employees to supplement their poor salaries, all during work hours of course! All you have to do is to hang on to the side of the bike with dear life until your knuckles turn white, while the Moto dodges potholes, cyclists, policemen and all other occupational hazards on the road. It is still fun and cheap mode of transport.

Preaching work—Problems and Opportunities
Through emails and letters I had advised the contacts to meet me at the hotel at specific times. Since Cambodians are early risers, I had to be ready to meet the visitors before 8 am, and could only be away from the hotel in the afternoon for few hours just in case the contacts decided to visit. If the contact wanted I would visit them at their home or work place as arranged.

I met with five people during the week and introduced the Bible and correspondence course to them. Three more were unable to be contacted. One of the contacts is a social worker from Australia, another is a missionary from South Korea, and two others were involved with an Evangelical organization. Since most of them were familiar with the Bible, it was easy to straight discuss the topics they wanted to cover. For a new person who suddenly start to learn Bible, everything that is expounded from it is wonderful, and they show great excitement in wanting to learn more and more.

Sadly the initial enthusiasm and willingness demonstrated by some of these people turned to outright hostility or plain rebuff during the following weeks. One of the contacts who I met during the two visits wrote in an email

"….I feel that your group is the cult, and I do not want to spend my time with you anymore and believe that God will open your eyes and your group to see His grace through Jesus Christ. In fact, you can not find the word Trinity in the bible,[but] there is God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in the bible.

I believe Catholic is the Cult, Mormon is the cult, Jehovah Witness is the Cult and now I also believe that you are The Cult, if you do not repent from your doctrine which teach by your boss or your group. Bye bye, and may God open your eyes to see His grace, and do not teach people that Jesus is lower than God the Father, I can not accept it. Do not write to me anymore."

There are several such emails, and mostly from those associated with some Christian denominations. One of them was told by his 'American pastoress' (his word) to check everything we teach against her teaching, and accept her version only. My invitation to this missionary lady to meet me was politely declined saying 'Christadelphians teach a different Jesus'. The biggest impediment to preach the Truth is generally Protestant and Evangelical churches that are rapidly establishing in Cambodia.

Future Prospects
Generally speaking, the concept of regular or systematic Bible study prior to baptism is not well known or practiced in Cambodia. Most Evangelical groups give only a cursory attention to first principle teaching, and if any studies are given at all they mostly focus on devotional topics. These groups promote the concept that in order to be a Christian one has only simply to accept Jesus as savior and regularly attend the church. Due to endemic poverty and illiteracy prevailing in Cambodia, many Christian organizations operating there focus on social work, and gather people to their churches through charity work. Given these, our task to preach the Truth, requiring people to demonstrate personal responsibility is going to be very difficult.

The work in Cambodia, like in any new mission area, requires considerable investment in time and money, for maintaining contact with any new leads generated. Right now we have only four contacts left, with one of them very enthusiastically following the lessons. We plan to restart the advertising in the local papers to build up a contact list, translate a selection set of booklets to local Khmer language, and establish a point of presence in Phnom Penh: the capital city. We can rent a nice place for under US 200/month in a reasonable area that will be suitable for living and offering classes for up to 6-7 people.

Seeking Volunteers
As the early missionary to Cambodia who started the work there, I am now given the responsibility to coordinate the preaching in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos until a committee takes over the task.

If you are traveling through any of these countries or in a position to do so, please let me know as we could certainly use your services to introduce the Truth to these countries. Ideally, we would like a married couple to go to Cambodia for 3 to 6 months, to live there and preach the Truth. The purpose is to establish a Bible Study center and encourage the local interested friends to use the premises to worship and study.

In the first instance please contact me through my email (rdevis@clear.net.nz). All offers of help with preaching in these three countries will be gladly received.

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Fieldwork News Archive
• Allen and Tara Laben report from India—3
• Allen and Tara Laben report from India—2
• Allen and Tara Laben report from India—1
• WCF Brethren Visit Romania and Turkey, March, 2005
• Exploring Cambodia—Early Preaching Activities
• Pastoral Visits and Bible School in Jamaica, December 2004—January 2005 [1.1 MB PDF]
• Basic Bible Teaching in Joliet, Illinois

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