Background

Cambodian glory came early in history. From AD 900 to AD 1300, the time of the construction of Angkor Watt, Cambodia was the dominant power in S.E. Asia. From that time onward Cambodia has been in constant turmoil with more powerful neighbors to the east and west, Vietnam and Thailand. It was pressure from these neighbors that drove Cambodia into a colonial relationship with France, which lasted for about 90 years ending in 1953. For the next 17 years Cambodia enjoyed a brief period of peace known as the “Sihanouk time”.

Tragedy was set in motion when the U.S. invaded Cambodia in 1970 in order to facilitate their extraction from the politically unpopular war in Vietnam. This led to the U.S. backed Lon Nol government being established in Cambodia.  With the final U.S. withdrawal and North Vietnamese triumph in 1975, Cambodia was left to the mercy of the communist victors; unfortunately, they had none.

Enraged by five years of relentless U.S. bombing the Khmer Rouge took out their pent up hatred upon the Cambodian population. From 1.5 to 3 million people died out of a total population of 9 million under the Pol Pot reign of terror. Pol Pot sought to set up a communistic agrarian utopia. All modern development was considered counter revolutionary and eliminated. Cities were evacuated and schools, hospitals, water and sewer systems, libraries, factories, bridges, hydroelectric dams and irrigation systems were systematically destroyed. Cambodia went from being one of the most developed countries in S.E. Asia to the least in 5 years. The Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979 to stop the genocide. This led to continual fighting with the Khmer Rouge, with Vietnamese dominance of the population centers, for the next ten years, ending only when the Vietnamese benefactor, the Soviet Union, disintegrated in 1989.

Various factions fought for control of Cambodia until the United Nations intervened in 1992. A UN supervised election in1993 placed the Royalists under King Sihanouk’s son Ranariddh in power but Communist leader Hun Sen refused to yield to the election results. As a compromise a three-headed coalition government was established only to be overthrown in a Coup de’tat in July of 1997 that placed Hun Sen in absolute control.  Presently, Prime Minister, Hun Sen is moving the country toward democracy. The greatest obstacle to this is the established corruption and cronyism of the existing leaders and the absence of the “rule of law”. At the present time in Cambodia, the rich and the powerful rule, although steps toward democracy are occurring on an increasing basis.

Current Realities

 A)    There is relative freedom to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the exception of arbitrary government, “Requirements”. These are not born of ideological beliefs as much as from greed and political pressure from the Buddhist majority.

B)     There is a hunger within the people for spiritual truth. The tragic events of the past 30 years, and the failure of the current value system to bring any kind of equity into the lives of the vast majority of the population, have left people searching.

C)    Christianity is rapidly growing in Cambodia. The Foursquare Church grew from 1 to 42 congregations during the first 9 months of 1999.

D)    The rampant, “Wild west” capitalism of the past eight years has left Cambodia to be run by the will and whim of the, “Robber Baron” rich.

E)     Extreme poverty has driven many reproductive age women into prostitution as a survival tactic. In Cambodia this profession lacks the social stigma of Western cultures and is frequently patronized by the men.

F)     United Nations troops brought to Cambodia in 1992 introduced wholesale A.I.D.S.  Cambodia has the highest H.I.V. infection rate in Asia with 100 new cases per day in 1999.

G)    Constant warfare between various factions over the past 30 years has left many areas of Cambodia virtual, “Landmine Gardens”. There are an estimated             1-2,000,000 active landmines in Cambodia. One in every 243 Cambodians is permanently disabled due to a mine.

H)    A.I.D.S., landmines, poverty, poor health care, war, childbirth complications and malnutrition have produced a disproportionate number of orphans in Cambodia. Deaths from A.I.D.S. alone will produce 43,000 new orphans by the end of year 2000. The extended family system that has traditionally absorbed these orphaned children can no longer handle the supply. In addition, the temptation to, “Sell” orphaned children by impoverished relatives, is making family placement risky.

I)       Approximately 85% of Cambodians are rural and agrarian. The Government is by far the largest non-agrarian employer. Soldiers, police, teachers and civil servants are paid from $16-30 per month. It takes from $50-150 (depending upon location) per month for a family to survive in Cambodia. Incomes for government employees must be supplemented. Some employees have second or even third jobs but more have developed innovative methods of income enhancement (graft). Police collect fines on the spot, teachers charge students for instruction, and civil servants collect “fees” for services rendered.

J)       More than 80% of Cambodians live below the international standard for poverty. “Land grabs” by the rich and powerful coupled with drought (1998), flooding 1996-97), medical emergencies and economic depression have forced many rural Cambodians to sell land and left the vast majority destitute.

K)    The “Patronage” system of corruption infects the nation from top to bottom. Many benevolent organizations have left Cambodia in frustration over their inability to establish any kind of self-policing system of governance. Even the family system has been compromised by the selling of children, especially young girls, who can bring up to $700 when sold into the brothel system.

L)     The value system of Christianity and the centralized polity of the Foursquare Church have endowed it with a core of honest, dedicated leaders eager to demonstrate the love of Christ, and a governmental system capable of dealing with lapses of integrity when they do occur.

M)   There are several Non Government Organizations (N.G.O.’s) in Cambodia willing to work cooperatively with other groups when they can provide leaders of integrity to accomplish the organization’s stated goals. Often there is an overlapping of purpose and areas of shared mission between organizations.

N)    There is a willingness of certain individuals, charitable organizations and foundations in the developed nations to fund the care of orphans if they can have confidence that their gifts will be used for the intended purpose.

O)    The Foursquare Church has established a nationally recognized N.G.O., “Foursquare Children of Promise”, dedicated to planting churches, the care of orphans, and developing an economic and agricultural base of support for the people of Cambodia.

P)     Every Church in Cambodia faces the challenge of a “spiritually hungry” population, the extreme poverty of the people and the increasing number of orphans. Very few Cambodian churches own a meeting facility.

 Observation, Truth, Assumption & Conclusion

Observation: Human existence consists of three aspects, body, soul and spirit. God created all three to function in harmony as a unified whole. Current missionary efforts in Cambodia, as a reaction to the past error of establishing dependency building material aid centers at the expense of proclaiming spiritual truth, have shunned ministering social and material aid to the Cambodian people.  The result has been an anemic church with spiritually informed but skeptical and impoverished believers. The church has left the economic and social concerns of the Cambodian people to secular agencies, which have often conflicted with church teachings due to differing value systems.

Spiritual Truth: … “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18) The promise of Christ for triumphal power against the forces of darkness in this world rests only upon the church. No other institution on earth carries this guarantee. In addition, God is especially interested in some specific social activities for the church, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (Jas. 1:27)

Assumption: God wants to bless Cambodia. Jesus proclaimed: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19) This message has not lost its potency in 2000 years.  The concept of “Gospel Lift” is more than a “Warm fuzzy” from some optimistic preacher, it is the truth of God intercepting human reality.

Conclusion: The “Church” must be proactive in developing spiritual life through the proclamation of the Gospel but at the same time work in cooperative effort with other dedicated organizations to bring holistic health to the body of Christ, specifically to build strong families, assist the orphans, widows and impoverished and thereby demonstrate our love for the total person body, soul and spirit.

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