Cambodia Profile
Cambodia
Cambodia, formerly Kampuchea, emerged from the intense suffering of the 1970s with a shattered economy and a vulnerable church. Christians seeek to bring the good news of the gospel together with aid and development work.
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Population
- Population: 13,881,427 [UK: 60,609,153]
- Density: 79 per sq km [UK: 250 per sq km]
- 90% of the people are Khmers
- 42% are under 15 years old
- More than 85% of the population live in rural areas
[Statistics: CIA World Factbook]
Cambodia’s population was reduced by between two and three million in the 1975-79 holocaust and accompanying wars, famines and flight of refugees.
Religions
- Buddhist 82.57%
- Chinese religions 4.69%
- Animist 4.35%
- Muslim 3.9%
- Non-religious/other 2.92%
- Christian 1.19%
- Other 0.38%
[Statistics: Operation World]
Buddhism has been the national religion since the 15th century. The Khmer Rouge sought to eradicate all religion; 90 per cent of Christians and most Buddhist monks perished. Since 1979 there have been periods of greater tolerance. Christians have been allowed to worship openly only since 1990.
Language
The official national language is Khmer, or Cambodian, which is related to ancient Indian languages. French, formerly an important second language, is being discouraged and English is in great demand. Only 35 per cent of the population is literate.
Geography
Cambodia is on the Mekong River in south-west Indochina, covering a total area of 181,040 square kilometres. It is an extremely fertile, alluvial plain. Massive logging has reduced the rainforests which once covered much of the country.
Climate
Cambodia has a tropical monsoon climate. Average temperatures are 22-28°C. A rainy season extends from May to November.
History
From the seventh to 15th centuries, the Angkor priest-kings built up the country, built great temples and controlled much of South-East Asia. Cambodians today are nostalgic for this golden age when they were an independent and powerful people.
There followed 500 years of regional and global conflicts with Thai, Vietnamese, French, Japanese and US invasions or occupations, before the Vietnam War spilled over to Cambodia in 1970-75. This opened the way for the extreme Marxist Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975. The Khmer Rouge tried to isolate Cambodia from all foreign influence. In bloody raids on neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam, they also tried to restore it to the glory and size of the Angkor Period.
The Vietnamese army ousted the Khmer Rouge in 1979, but civil war between four contending armies raged with superpower support until 1991. UN–supervised elections in 1993 were held despite opposition by the Khmer Rouge.
Since the election of July 1998, a form of democratic government has been established, though its work is severely hampered by corruption, civil service over-manning, little income and lawlessness. Millions of land mines remain, killing and maiming every day. Forty per cent of villages have a mine problem and one person in every 290 is an amputee.
In 2004, King Sihamoni took over from his father, Sihanouk.
Economy
Cambodia’s economy is performing at only 40-50 per cent of its pre-war capacity, and the country is among the world’s poorest.
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.
OMF’s Priorities
- To train church leaders
- To minister to physical and social needs. Half the OMF term is principally involved in development work.
- To plant churches. OMF is legally registered as a church planting mission.
- University teaching
Opportunities
- Openings for Christian professionals in university teaching, English teaching and a wide range of development work
- Evangelism and church planting
- Short-term openings
October 2006
