Christianity in Cambodia

The gospel came late to Cambodia. The first Protestant missionary arrived in 1923, translated the New Testament in 1933 and published the whole Bible in 1953. Its message was not welcome and few believed or obeyed it.

In 1965 the government’s anti-American crusade forced the missionaries to withdraw. After 40 years of work they left the Khmer Evangelical Church with less than one thousand members.

In 1970, with the rise of the pro-American regime, the return of the missionaries, and the beginning of the war with the Khmer Rouge, there was freedom and growth for the Church. Many turned to God. There were large evangelistic crusades and Christians laboured with a sense of urgency. When war broke out there were three congregations in Phnom Penh. By 1975 this had increased to 30.

In response to urgent requests, OMF sent five members to Phnom Penh in 1974 to work alongside the Church. But a year later all missionaries were forced to make a ‘reluctant exodus’, leaving a Church of around 10,000 members. The Khmer Rouge assumed control of the country in 1975. The persecution was savage; 90 per cent of Christians and all Christian leaders were martyred or fled the country.

From 1975, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians fled to Thailand, where they were housed in refugee camps. OMF workers previously expelled from the country went to the camps with the message of hope, and over the following years several thousand Cambodians were baptised.

Despite Pol Pot’s attempt to crush the Church and the pressures on it during the next decades, the small remnant has grown from a few hundred Christians to approximately 40,000 today. There are now around 750 churches.

By 1991 OMF and other missions once again had members resident in Cambodia, learning Khmer. In 1994 the government gave permission for OMF to work in Cambodia as a church-planting mission, but also required OMF personnel to fulfil this in humanitarian terms. Therefore at least one half of the OMF team membership are involved with development work as their principal ministry. The OMF team has grown rapidly in the last few years, though the opportunities grow even faster. It is a relatively young team and welcomes short-term workers.

In the aftermath of the war and oppression, many are open to the gospel. But the infant churches need much support and prayer. All the leaders are young and most lack adequate biblical training. There are therefore many extremes of teaching due to a dearth of biblical understanding. There is a lack of unity, with many divisions between congregations. Christian Khmer literature is in desperately short supply. OMFers work with the Church in all these areas, seeking to build mature, self-supporting and self-propagating congregations.

Information from www.omf.org