Poor villages in rural Cambodia face their own unique set of problems. Like many others of its kind, Trapaeng Keh has struggled under the weight of a brutal past and an unforgiving present. Dry wells, predatory money-lenders and an epidemic of mistrust and suspicion appeared to have the village trapped, with little hope of a way out.
Certainly no one suspected that the local church would save the day. With just four members they were a marginalised, persecuted oddity within the fractured community.
Yet something changed. Three years ago two workers from the Wholistic Development Organisation (WHO) visited. For two days each fortnight they spent time with the church, studying the Bible, talking and unpacking the idea that God might want local Christians to be agents of transformation within their local communities.
After the ‘eureka’ moment came the hard part. The Christians faced the challenge of convincing the rest of the village that they should work together for change. One by one the Christians visited each home, slowly winning trust, building momentum.
Eventually a meeting was called and almost everyone came. They began to explore reasons for their poverty as well as possible routes out of it. What came next is an everyday miracle, a paradox of the simple and the divine as the villagers broke a generation’s unwritten rule and started to work together. More wells – better wells – were dug, bringing with them better irrigation, better crops, cleaner water. Men no longer needed to leave the village in search of work, hope once again took up residence in people’s hearts.
There were other changes that were noticed. Families appeared stronger, women’s voices were heard and respected, domestic violence began to drop. Unity returned and the local Christians no longer found themselves living behind a veil of suspicion. In fact their church grew. A lot. Today all but two families in the Trapaeng Keh attend the church.
Our vision of 100,000 local churches helping release 50 million people from spiritual and material poverty lives and breathes through stories such as this.