Offline Website BuilderOur first trip to Cambodia was in October 2017, and our hearts were instantly captured by the people, as we were so privileged to share the love of Jesus with those who had never heard about Him before.
There was no other phrase that we felt better described what we were doing, than... "Reaching Cambodia with Jesus".
With Leanne being a nurse, and Alan being a computer technician, we've been completely overwhelmed by an amazing God who continues to use us in ways, we'd never expect. Simply by answering the question "Whom shall I send?"... our response has grown from an initially hesitant but emphatic "Here we are Lord, send us".
Three short missions trips later, and we're convinced that God has called us to move permanently to Cambodia, to share the Gospel, disciple new believers, mentor the Cambodian pastors, and plant more churches.
We'd love to share with you, some of the history of this journey, in more detail below... as well as the amazing things God has done along the way... So please sit back, have a read and enjoy how God weaves His incredible heart into the people of Cambodia, through simple folk like us...
Alan and Leanne, visiting Angkor Wat
It was a typical work day, leading up to Christmas 2016... when I (Alan) was having a break and Googling the state of our broken world... Soon I found myself grieving at just how affluent our western world is.
I was sharing my thoughts with a close friend one day, who had done multiple trips to Cambodia, and he asked me... "why don't you come to Cambodia with me later next year?".
Leanne and I talked and prayed about it... and although we had no idea what possible good we could do in Cambodia, we decided we'd "just give it a go, and see what God does".
It wasn't long, once we decided to go, before we noticed God was filling in the blanks... and lining things up... Alan with preaching opportunities, Leanne with "Days for Girls" packs, as well as opportunities to do "Health Promotion" talks.
While in Cambodia, an unexpected visit by an English speaking, Cambodian nurse (who had been living in Australia), enabled Leanne to have a nurse to translate for her. Which in turn, meant more accurate nursing terminology translated into Khmer.
But I'm getting ahead of myself... The journey began with three conferences (each of them 2 days in length), firstly for the youth, followed by the men and then finally, the women. With around 200 people at each conference, mostly believers... but a few non-believers attending for the free food. It was a wonderful opportunity to encourage the Cambodian church and to share the hope of Jesus Christ with some non-believers too.
To this point, Alan and his friend did most of the talking, while Leanne kept up the moral support... But Leanne was invited to take some "Days for Girls" packs with her to Cambodia, and with our limited faith, we took only 30 packs with us... as we had no idea where we would hand them out. But after arriving, she was asked to share about health with 200 women. It was amazing to see these opportunities come up, and then to be surprised by the Cambodian speaking nurse from Australia, to translate for Leanne. We were just left in awe at how amazing God is. To orchestrate all these things in advance.
So it wasn't long before we were both in tears, looking back over the amazing things God had done during our first trip to Cambodia... we were left certain in our hearts, that we would be returning in 2018, and with a lot more "Days for Girls" packs.
Handing out "Days for Girls" packs
The children heading back home
Alan speaking at the conference
Well, the following year was a defining year for us... we decided to make this mission trip a big one!!!
The previous year (ie. 2017), we spent a total of 4 weeks in Cambodia and we combined some tourism into our trip as well, visiting the main sites of Cambodia and learning about their soiled history... which is an absolute must for anyone considering mission work in Cambodia.
But in 2018, we decided to take 8 weeks, and focus solely on ministry (no tourism)... It was challenging to say the least. We faced multiple cases of food poisoning, as well as colds and flues, long distance traveling, vehicle breakdowns, rather modest accommodation, and little sleep... But neither of us would've swapped any of it for something else, as we continued to witness God doing amazing things.
As per the previous year, we arrived and immediately spoke at the annual youth, mens and women's conferences. Only this time, our host had opportunities lined up for even greater things to happen.
We were taken out to multiple churches (sometimes a few hours into the country) to share with and preach to them. Such a great privilege to share in another church, invited by the pastor.
After this, we were invited to share with Bible college students, and also with the team of church planters. Another humbling experience as Alan talked to them about the potential pitfalls they may face, as western culture begins to make its mark on Cambodia.
We were then invited to attend a baptism... Oh my goodness!!! How does one explain a baptism service with more than 200 people being baptised at the same time? After some traditional singing, and some other key speakers, I was invited up to share the main message. I spoke clearly about what it means to be baptised, and what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Then we all jumped in the water and started baptising. A truly amazing experience!!!
We then traveled to an area north east of Phenom Penh, and shared with a remote church and team of pastors in Kampong Cham province. And it was there that we really needed to depend on God to get us through, as most of our team got sick, either with vomiting and diarrhoea, or some variant of the flu. But this was just some vain attempt by the evil one to disrupt the plans of the Most High.
Over the course a week or so, we shared in a number of churches, and even had the opportunity to share the Gospel with people who had never even heard of Jesus before. Many new believers resulted from these events, and we were all greatly encouraged that the Lord would use us in this way.
And as if it wasn't amazing enough, God also provided a way for Leanne to distribute around 350 "Days for Girls" packs, to the women and girls of Cambodia.
Bring on 2019...
Leanne sharing another health talk
The women with "Days for Girls" packs
Sharing a meal, after preaching
Due to a lack of available holiday leave, this year was our shortest trip yet... we only had enough time to go the conferences, and share at a few churches.
But the thing that leaped out at us, was the way God chose to use Leanne... Something changed this year... Leanne didn't take any "Days for Girls" packs... (This was to avoid creating a over supply, as most of the same ladies would be her audience). So this time, she spoke about health, and weaved in the story of the Gospel. She connected our health and bodies back to our wonderful creator God who made us, in His image. She spoke of His desire for us to look after our health, by improving hygiene and washing our hands. But not only does He care about our physical health, He cares even more about our Spiritual health.
Through a chain of events, encouraging shirts, proclaiming "She is a mighty warrior" were distributed, solidifying the conference theme. These shirts were made by children rescued from unimaginable exploitation. We were honoured to meet some of these children and share about the amazing Creator who cares for them, and some easy inexpensive health tips.
These health talks have been done in perfect timing, just before COVID-19, as some of the churches even installed hand washing stations. We couldn't believe our eyes, when we saw our Cambodian friends on Facebook, and the churches we spoke at, were giving the same hand washing lessons, Leanne had given in the years before.
To be honest, it was difficult leaving Cambodia at the end of 2019... we felt a little down as the conferences were looking at changing dates. And we wondered what might be next? We even wondered if we'd be able to return at all?
Little did we know what was around the corner, with the approaching pandemic.
But the day after we traveled home, we sat down together to watch a sermon by Francis Chan... Titled "Be Fishers of Men" (click here to view the full message). He drew an analogy about fishing... as we all fish the same lake, over and over again, copying each others methods, tangling our lines, and barely catching anything. Yet a short hike away is another lake... it has plenty of fish, and nobody is fishing there. He asked the question... "What's keeping us from making that hike to fish there?"
He went on to say, "I'll tell you exactly what's keeping us... the fact that my house is at the first lake, my friends are there, my career is there... everything is there"
This challenged us... what's stopping us from moving to Cambodia to fish there?
And so, right there, we looked at each other and asked that very same question... to which we didn't have an answer. Well, at least not one we wanted to admit to.
So we made the decision, to accept the call, give up everything we have here, and go.
So lets just go, and see what God will do...
Baptizing 200+ new believers
Sharing in a small home church
Broken down on the side of the road
During 2020, we spent the first few months researching many organisations who could possibly be our sending organisation. And in March, we settled on WEC.
WEC is an international missions organisation, which stands for "Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ." Their primary goal is to go to the least evangelised people in the world, and give them the opportunity to hear why Jesus came and why He had to die.
The vision statement of WEC Australia is “To see Christ known, loved, and worshipped by the unreached peoples of the world.”
We couldn't agree more with that goal and vision. As our heart has always been to reach the people of Cambodia, with the saving hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
You can visit the WEC Australia website by visiting wec.com.au.
The remainder of this year was spent visiting some churches, and presenting our vision for long term mission work in Cambodia.
Alan preaching another church
Sharing our story with students at a school
Heading to Tasmania, for a year of study
After making the decision to go, and then choosing a sending organisation, it soon became apparent that some training would be helpful. If we are to be well equiped for serving the cause of the Gospel in Cambodia, we should probably seek out some dedicated training.
So in 2021, we took a year away in Tasmania, to study at the Worldview Centre for Intercultural Studies. This college is owned and operated by WEC Australia, and specialises in preparing students for intercultural mission work.
While residing at the college, we also completed most of the mandatory training modules for joining WEC. We then returned home to complete the final module at our home church in Hervey Bay, in early 2022.
We finally arrived at Worldview Bible College, to begin our year of study.
Visiting Cradle Mountain during a long weekend.
Our favourite de-stressing activity... feeding the cows on the Worldview farm.
Long story, short... We moved to Cambodia in September 2022.
Since that time, through to early 2025, we focused primarily on language and culture learning, as well as orientation into the WEC Cambodia branch. We also moved house three times, beginning in Phnom Penh and now we live in Siem Reap.
In February 2025, we will complete our first home assignment, which will include visiting our supporting churches, catching up with family, friends, and supporters, as well as getting a good break, before returning to commence our ministry in Siem Reap, from July 2025.
At this point in time, we are joining an opportunity in Siem Reap and the surrounding provinces, to train, support, and encourage pastors in isolated areas, assist in health education, teach computers and/or english, and lead discipleship classes for new believers.
The primary focus of this ministry, is training, for both pastors and lay persons within the church. The training aims to alleviate the pressure on isolated pastors, who have never received adequate training before... nor are they likely to. Most of them do not draw an income from the church (because of the extreme poverty in many remote areas), and they need to continue providing for their families and look after their farms. In addition to this, the training program intends to raise up lay persons (with the existing church), who are not pastors, but have a keen desire to serve in areas that the pastor is already overwhelmed. Such areas like evangelism, pastoral care, and the leading of small groups and/or worship.
Many people in these remote places are quite illiterate, including the pastors. Adding to this problem, is that many foreigners come to Cambodia, seeing it as an easy mission-field to teach a false gospel, along with their false doctrine (Gal 1:6-9 and 2 Cor 11:3-4). So, we are looking for ways to train them in the proper handling of scripture (2 Tim 2:15), and build their theology and doctrine to keep them well grounded in the truth, and not easily led astray by every wind of doctrine (Eph 4:14-15).
This ministry opportunity is nothing short of a miracle, as we had a similar vision almost around 6 or 7 years earlier, and have been praying about it ever since. So, please continue praying for us in our discernment and preparation for this overwhelming opportunity.
If you'd like to join us on this journey and partner with us, then please see below to join our newsletter mailing list, follow us on Facebook, join our prayer team, and provide valuable financial assistance to keep this ministry going... "reaching the unreached in Cambodia, with the hope of eternal life, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
If you'd like to stay up to date with our story... We send out a regular newsletter via MailChimp. Click below to subscribe, or check out our past issues.
If you prefer Facebook, you can click the link below to go directly to our Facebook group. This is a private group, so you may need to click the button to request to join.
There are many ways you can partner with us and get involved with sharing the Gospel in Cambodia. Click the link below to learn how you can support this work.
If your here for the first time, and wondering who Jesus is, or why we'd go to Cambodia to share the good news of Jesus Christ... then click the link below for more information and resources about Jesus.
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