Latest News #266 – Cambodia
December 18, 2003

Bible Society in Cambodia celebrates 10 years of bringing the Bible to a ‘wounded nation’

About 200 Christians gathered on October 10, 2003 to pray and give thanks at a service to mark the tenth anniversary of the Bible Society in Cambodia and the completion of the Opportunity 21 program. The first Bible Society office was set up in Cambodia in 1967, but was interrupted in 1975 under the Khmer Rouge regime. It resumed its activities in 1993. Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Photo: Asia-Pacific RSC/Arun Sok Nhep (CBA03DJ-9.JPG)

Ten years later, remarkable things have been achieved: the Cambodian Church has witnessed massive growth, particularly among young people, a new version of the Khmer Bible has been published, and 1.3 million Scriptures have reached the hands of Christians and those interested in Christianity. To celebrate these and other developments, the Bible Society held a thanksgiving service in October.

Attended by more than 200 people from a variety of Christian backgrounds, the celebration itself reflected another highlight of the past 10 years of Bible Society work in Cambodia: the unity of churches around the Bible. Pastor Barnabas Mam, the Bible Society's Board Chairman, led the ceremony, and a combined choir from Catholic and Evangelical churches sang traditional Khmer hymns and contemporary praise and worship songs.

During the service, the Society looked back on its turbulent history. The Rev Arun Sok Nhep, UBS Program Consultant for Asia-Pacific, who helped to re-establish the Bible Society, spoke about the beginnings of Bible work in Cambodia in 1892, the opening of the first Bible Society office in 1967 and its subsequent closure in 1975. Mr Sok Nhep was also the key translator of the Khmer Common Language Bible, which has played a significant role in church growth and outreach since its publication in 1998. (See WR 333/3 for information about this Bible.)

Father Tonlop Sophal from the Roman Catholic Church, and Pastor Paulerk Sar, former Chairman of the Bible Society, also spoke at the celebration, focusing on the vital role of the Bible in healing what they referred to as "a post-genocidal society". They urged the gathering to read the Bible for their own personal growth, and to share it with other people.

The anniversary celebration also focused on the success of the Bible Society's Opportunity 21 (O-21) project, Generation of Hope. Since the start of the project in 1999, more than 500 young Christians have been trained in Bible knowledge and evangelism and equipped with Scriptures for distribution. Hundreds of thousands of families across the country have been reached in this way. (See Special Report 22/7, World Report 344/20, World Report 376/30 for previous stories about this project.)

Another cause for celebration was the Society's literacy program, which was initiated because of the very low literacy levels it encountered while distributing Scriptures as part of the O-21 project. Church members are being trained to teach literacy skills to children and adults using Bible Society publications and audio cassettes.