Cambodia is a country of abandoned children. Children live with their grandmothers, in Buddhist monasteries, or even on the streets. Many organizations, seeing this trend, began opening shelters. Most of the children eventually become Christians.
Currently, we have 20 Khmer children living with us full-time, and another 2 children come during the day. In total, we care for 22 children entirely, and an additional 8 children come to eat with us three times a day.
This year, we began organizing a church on the grounds of our shelter. Right now, 11 people attend Sunday services — mostly neighbors and children from our shelter. Many villagers are afraid to come for several reasons. Some say Christianity is a “white man’s religion,” and that “we already have Buddhism.”
People who start attending often face misunderstanding from their relatives and neighbors. They are considered traitors of the ancestral faith! Devout Buddhists believe that converting to Christianity is like transferring from university back to second grade of elementary school.
Only the power of the Holy Spirit can change this mindset, so please pray for the growth of our church in this village.
I was born in Druzhkovka, Donetsk region. In 1998, I repented, and in 2001, I was baptized together with my wife Tatyana. Starting around 2008, God began to show me the lost people living in other countries.
In 2010, we served in Damascus, Syria, but when the war broke out, we had to leave the country. We prayed for God to give us a new place to serve. And He answered our prayers by directing us to Egypt. For five years, we ministered in the land of the pharaohs. Our work was varied: with Bedouins in the desert, helping Egypt’s poor and destitute, serving in children’s shelters and orphanages, sharing personal testimonies, going on evangelistic trips to Egyptian villages, and also working with Slavic people living in Egypt. Within a year, a Slavic Baptist Church was established, and I was ordained for pastoral ministry.
After five years of service, Egypt’s security authorities became aware of our work and denied us entry into the country when we tried to cross the border again.
In response to our prayers, the Lord opened a new place of ministry for His glory — in Cambodia, where we work with children and have opened a children’s shelter! Please pray for us and our ministry!
In October 2018, my wife and I, along with our two youngest children, moved to Kampot Province, Cambodia.
While studying the Khmer language at university, God opened the door for us to begin serving in Tuol Sambor village, where we later planted a church and ordained a local pastor, Brother Sim.
God also led us to minister in the Phnom Penh women’s prison, where we started a Bible study group. Initially, about 10 women attended weekly. Over three years, this group grew into a church. Today, around 70 incarcerated women attend services, 11 have been baptized, and 20 more are preparing for baptism.
Through church planting in Tuol Sambor, mission trips across Cambodia, and helping impoverished families, God showed me a special calling: the need to serve Cambodian orphans.
At first, we took in six Khmer children, then four more. Today, we care for 20 children, and we are in the process of legally establishing a Christian orphanage.
This is how we began—trusting in God’s mercy and guidance!
