Cambodia

I am doing missionary work in Cambodia. And for me, it is a great privilege and blessing to serve the Lord our God in this foreign land, the Kingdom of Cambodia.

The Kingdom of Cambodia is a Southeast Asian nation whose landscape spans low-lying plains, the Mekong Delta, mountains, and Gulf of Thailand coastline. The capital City is Phnom Penh. The country has a population of 17 million, and 95 percent of its population is Theravada Buddhism and 5 percent is composed of Christianity and other so-called religions. Paganism and spiritism practices are very strong in this country. Thousands of temples decorated with statues and many kinds of icons, can be found almost everywhere, a strong indication of idolatry.

The Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 was one of the worst human tragedies of the last century. During the Khmer Rouge’s period of power, under the leadership of communist Party of Kampuchea General Secretary Pol Pot, at least 1.7 million innocent people of this country were killed or died, a monumental tragedy from which the country still suffers. The Killing Field is the living monument of these horrendous crimes committed against them that every Cambodian recalls each time they see or visit this place.

A great challenge came into my heart to lead the people to the Lord because most of them do not know Jesus Christ and the Bible. The people here have gods but not the real God. Almost every house you can find spirit houses where they offer prayer and food to their gods. They have their devotion, but not given to the true God. They practice what they believe. Just as the people in Vietnam and Thailand, and neighboring countries do.

I really want to educate them of the true God and the Bible, and I want to establish churches of our Lord Jesus Christ in this country so that the name of God can also be magnified here.

The first time I arrived in this country, I was so amazed by this place and the people. Although this country
is not yet so well developed, the natural beauty is fascinating and there are some cultural practices that I admire most. The people, in general, are friendly and respectful to their parents and visitors. There are many tourist spots to visit. The widely favored places which tourists visit in this country are the Ankor Wat temple and the Killing Field. My knowledge about this country and its history has widened since I came here.

Among the difficulties and struggles I have in this country are the language barrier and some complex culture
of the people. The Khmer language is very hard to understand when you listen to the people talking. It is even too hard to articulate a word because of different accents and intonations. It’s twisting my tongue to get the right sounding of a word to be understood by a Cambodian.

The first thing I did was learning the language and culture of the people. I enrolled in a language school in Phnom Penh. Then I started to learn counting their numbers and familiarizing their money. This is important to know first, that you will be able to know how much money you are going to give to Tuk-Tuk driver (local vehicle) and to the vendors when going to buy groceries or food items in the market.

The study course program is three years to completely familiarize the Khmer language and culture. It takes 3 months to finish each course level. Khmer alphabet comprises a total of 33 consonants and 24 vowels, which are hard to pronounce and remember at first. This is my biggest struggle in this country. Unfortunately, my schooling was stopped due to the invasion of COVID-19 since last year.

Not all Cambodians can speak and understand English, and that’s the reason why lots of English schools are established because parents want their children to learn English to compete with the present modern development and changes in this country.

I arrived in Cambodia and started doing a mission in September 2018, but when the pandemic broke out, we were forced to go back to my country, the Philippines, for my medication, and since traveling back to Cambodia this time of pandemic is notyet safe, we just do our missionary work from here. And we arepreparing now to go back to my mission field again.

One of my greatest memories and experiences in the mission field here in Cambodia was that one Christmas celebration in our English school where we made a presentation of the birth of Jesus Christ, that was December 2019, and the result was overwhelming because many parents have received Jesus Christ as their Savior publicly. It was the first time in that school that there was a preaching done and parents appreciated having seen their children perform on stage. Although many parents do not favor the group of Christians, yet they send their children to Christian schools to learn English.

English school is one of the effective vehicles to lead the people to Christ starting from the kids. It is my desire to put up an English school where I can have greater opportunity to share the Lord Jesus Christ to the students and parents somehow.

For more than a year and a half of my ministry in Cambodia, I led more than 100 people composed of children and adults, to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior in their heart. No one get baptized yet. Our English School ministry has greater means to evangelize the Cambodian people. We even go out to the villages teaching children along the streets and in the back yards of people, teaching the children English language and find an opportunity to insert the Bible and Jesus Christ. Actually, parents are reluctant toward some religions, and they don’t want their children to be taught about other faiths and religions, but some parents allow their children to attend informal English classes because they want their children to learn good English and behave well.

Previously, we already had a regular Sunday service done in our rented apartment with an average attendance of 8 composed of me and my wife, some Cambodians, and Vietnamese, and a fellow Filipino. Cambodian can easily accept Jesus Christ their Savior; it takes a long process to convince them to get baptized.

Please pray for us as we prepare going back to our mission field, in Cambodia. Pray for our financial provision and physicalprotection, and our effectiveness in this country. God bless and I thank you all.

Roger Babelonio

For more information about our missions or to make a donation please click the link below.

https://www.abaptist.org/missions