Articles for tag: Cambodia

April 20, 2019

Christian Standard

New Life Where Death Once Reigned

He survived the killing fields, led murderous general to Christ By Mark Ellis He grew up in the palace of the king, but after the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia, he lost his privileged lifestyle and nearly his life. After he found Christ in a refugee camp, he became a soul-winner himself—bringing hope to one of the most notorious monsters of the killing fields. “I was raised in a Buddhist family,” says Christopher LaPel, founder of Hope for Cambodia. His father worked in the palace of King Sihanouk and as a boy, Christopher often spent time there. One

December 5, 2016

Christian Standard

To Women, By Women: RAPHA HO– USE

By Jenny Knowles Stephanie Freed was very busy doing busy things, she says, when her father, Joe Garman, issued a challenge. Cambodian Christians that Garman knew well had told him about the epidemic of child trafficking in their country””their own communities. When Garman mentioned the problem to his daughter, Freed”s response was denial: If this was an epidemic, why wasn”t anyone talking about it? That was in 2002. Freed accepted the challenge to research the truth about trafficking and was soon overwhelmed. One UNICEF statistic indicated 1.2 million children disappear into trafficking every year. What difference could one person make

November 17, 2016

Christian Standard

The Jesus House

By Jackina Stark After years of guerilla warfare, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians) gained complete power over Cambodia in April 1975 to begin Year Zero and form a Communist peasant farming society. Foreigners were expelled, all national and international communications were cut off, health care was eliminated, and the inhabitants of Cambodian cities were evacuated on foot by gunpoint””2 million in Phnom Penh alone. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, monks, former soldiers and their wives and children””all the educated, religious, and wealthy””were executed. Those allowed to live were forced to labor in the fields 18 hours a day, typically

November 23, 2014

Christian Standard

Exploring ‘the Call’ to Cross-Cultural Ministry

By Carla Williams Missionaries are normal Christians. They struggle with temptation. Their families are flawed, and they don”t always wake up with a smile on their faces and a song in their hearts. But missionaries are normal Christians who had a moment of faithful obedience. God uses different circumstances and situations to draw his followers into his plans for the nations. He leads his people, but each person chooses how to respond. He calls some who decide to disregard his voice. For others, thankfully, the choice is to step out in trust. Some believers don”t know if they”ve been called

November 7, 2014

Christian Standard

Missions Ministries that Work: Christ’s Church Mandarin

By Jill Thomas We have had great success in missions in the short time I”ve served as local and global outreach director with Christ”s Church, Mandarin Campus, in Jacksonville, Florida. One of our biggest successes in local missions has been in getting many more people involved. Between our neighborhood groups wanting to take on more local projects, and families in the church who want to start serving each month with their children, we”ve seen many new faces serving the community on a more consistent basis. We have also seen more life change because of our missions programs. Several adults and

November 16, 2013

Christian Standard

JUST ONE: Dancing in Freedom

TRUE STORIES OF WORLD CHANGERS WHO STARTED ALONE: This month we share stories of individual Christians who couldn”t wait for others to tell them when to help the hurting and share the gospel. Their clear vision of a pressing need pushed them to do what they could as soon as they could. RAPHA HO– USE / www.raphahouse.org   By Stephanie Freed Ten years ago, I walked into a junkyard in Cambodia, near the Thai border, and came face-to-face with an enslaved child for the first time in my life. People who lived in and operated the junkyard owned her. She was

August 30, 2012

Christian Standard

The Language of Loneliness

By Daniel Schantz “Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, “˜What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”” (Matthew 26:40*). Thomas Wolfe described loneliness as “the central and inevitable experience of every man,” but when we are lonely, we think no one else on earth understands. Loneliness is everywhere, but it wears many disguises. To the teenage girl, loneliness is an overwhelming pressure to be just like her girlfriends, at any cost. To the college student, it”s going home for the summer to find that home has changed. To the housewife, loneliness

May 22, 2012

Christian Standard

Center Creek: Serving Christ in the Heartland

By Kent E. Fillinger Mike Johnson”s passion and focus was student ministry when he arrived at Center Creek Christian Church. He previously had enjoyed a decade of student ministry at a medium-size church, where he started fresh out of Bible college. Mike had seen his student ministry grow during this time, but the church remained stagnant overall. Mike searched for a new opportunity with a church that had the desire and potential to grow. He soon found Center Creek; it was similar in size to his first ministry, but he felt a positive connection with the senior minister, who expressed

April 29, 2012

Christian Standard

Fair-Trade Project Producing Prom Dresses

By Jennifer Taylor Many organizations currently produce fair-trade clothing, accessories, coffee, and other products, but Nicole Krajewski didn”t know any that focused on clothing for special events. With her background in fashion design and a friend who owns a bridal shop, Krajewski created The Daughters Project to fill a hole in the market and to rescue girls from forced slavery. “We connected with the Center for Global Impact here in Indianapolis, which works with small businesses that want to make a difference in social and humanitarian issues,” she says. “After our first visit to Cambodia with CGI, we realized our

October 26, 2011

Christian Standard

You Must Read This . . . A More Meaningful Story

By Arron Chambers A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story By Donald Miller Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011 I picked up this book because it was a compilation of lessons a favorite author learned while editing his life. I couldn”t put it down, devouring it on one four-hour plane flight, because it was at once both convicting and compelling. I immediately developed the book into a sermon series for my church; it had helped me find a more meaningful story, and I wanted the same for others. At the beginning of the book, Donald

July 18, 2010

Christian Standard

NACC “˜Beyond”: Beyond Words to Action””Holistic Global Impact

By Dick Alexander I”m a late in life convert. For many years I thought the best (and only) real good we could do in overseas mission work was to plant churches. Once the churches got up and running, the Christians there could take care of other needs in their societies. I used to worry that some mission work gave lots of cups of cold water but saved few souls and had little to show for decades of investment. Maybe I was just stupid. After all, Jesus healed and preached. And good missionaries for years have not truncated ministry. Food, medical

April 8, 2010

Christian Standard

Interview with Christopher LaPel

By Brad Dupray The killing fields of Cambodia saw hundreds of thousands perish due to disease, starvation, and execution. Christopher LaPel lost his family but found salvation in Christ through the terrible ordeal. He has returned to his native land many times to encourage and train local Christians, and through his work, more than 200 churches have been started. Christopher is senior pastor of the Golden West Christian Church in Los Angeles, California, where he has served for 20 years. Golden West conducts worship services in five languages each Sunday. He is a graduate of Hope International University and has

May 24, 2009

Christian Standard

What We Learned from Hard Times

  By John Plunkett Thirty-two years ago, when I was interviewing for a ministry position with Creve Coeur (Illinois) Christian Church, it quickly became clear the church was dependent on the workforce of Caterpillar. My wife, who was invited to sit in on part of the interview process, asked a simple question: What happens if Caterpillar goes on strike?  The answer was reassuring: Caterpillar had not been out on a strike in years and the company was enjoying the best of economic times. I accepted the position, and 18 months into our ministry, Caterpillar union employees went out on strike.

August 10, 2008

Christian Standard

Mega Ministry in Miniature Actions

By Mike Cahill The kingdom rarely comes as we expect. Jesus” humble beginning was a stumbling block for some because power does not normally come from weakness. Yet, Christ”s kingdom advances through surprisingly simple means. Smallness is big in Scripture. Jesus uses the smallness of a mustard seed as the pattern for potential in the kingdom””from a tiny seed to a great tree, from a handful of disciples to a kingdom spread over all the earth. When disciples act within God”s will, the power of his kingdom is shown through their lives. The results look like mountains moving or””a picture

May 11, 2008

Christian Standard

CHURCHES WITHOUT STEEPLES: Near the Gates of Hell

By Bill McClure Today, in the United States and around the world, “church” is where you find it: storefronts, hotels, theaters, bars, nightclubs, coffee shops””almost anywhere in addition to the more traditional church buildings. One of the most unusual locations is in a former Cambodian brothel””a structure used in the much-publicized child exploitation, commercial sex area of Phnom Penh. With God”s blessings, that storefront is being used to bring the light of Jesus Christ into the very darkest parts of the Cambodian capital. Now a new church meets there. No Choice Svay Pak is a down-at-the-heels area at the edge

November 4, 2007

Christian Standard

Weeping With David

By Jackina Stark Mercy, there are a lot of reasons to cry. I went in not so long ago and talked to Ozark Christian College Academic Dean Mark Scott about cutting back my teaching load. I wanted more time to travel, to write, to see the grandchildren and my aging parents. Necessarily, our talk moved to when I would retire altogether, and of course, at that point I started crying. I”m sure he wished I”d just sent a letter. Well, for goodness” sake, he must have thought, what do you want? I want more time to travel, to write, to

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