Cambodia desperate for Leadership, Resources and Bibles!

"We desperately need to get local leadership trained, we need resources and we especially need Bibles in modern Khmer. And we need them now!" These are the words of a senior churchman speaking in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, earlier this year. He especially asked that he not be named or identified in any way because of the possibility of future reprisals resulting from the present very shaky and uncertain political situation.

He had just come from delivering a sermon in a church in Phnom Penh and as he addressed the congregation he said he was very aware that "some of those to whom I spoke may well have to pay the ultimate price for their faith sometime in the future. Such an awareness puts a heavy responsibility on the preacher."

He said that he had noticed troop manoeuvres in the city during the week and described the situation as 'very tense'. "In fact, I believe there would be civil fighting here now had it not been for the prayers offered for this country in recent months by people all around the world."

He added, "The Cambodian church was all but wiped out in the 1970's and it is now a very new and young church that we must encourage and help to grow in every way we can. But we must do it quickly because the doors could be slammed shut at any time!"

He said he was delighted that the new translation of the Khmer Bible was about to be printed. "But we must get it to the people very quickly," he warned.

Source: Errol Pike
E-mail: [email protected]

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