Christians Care For Cambodian Orphans In ‘Jesus Village’
KRAING THOM VILLAGE, Cambodia — Half a bag of rice sat in the corner of the one-room shack, the sole food source for six orphaned children.
Over a decade later, that detail sticks out in Mike Meierhofer’s mind.
“They were eating scraps off the table where we had lunch doing the medical mission trip,” Meierhofer recalled.
Much has changed since the Cambodia Christian Ministries president first met Sokny Toek, then 9, in her rickety home built out of bamboo.
Her father and mother had died about a year and a half prior. She and her siblings relied primarily on their eldest sister, then 16, who worked seasonal and manual labor jobs.
“Sometimes we had nothing to eat, no water to drink, because we had to support ourselves,” Toek, now 22, recalled through tears.
Sometimes she stole fruit and vegetables growing on other people’s property to avoid going hungry.
But all that changed when Meierhofer and Sokhom Hun, Cambodia Christian Ministries’ director of operations, visited in 2013.
“The word ‘compassion’ came to me,” said Hun, a native of the Southeast Asian nation. “The children in Cambodia need help. That moved me, because I grew up with a difficult life when I was a child.”
Toek and her siblings became the first orphans at Cambodia Christian Ministries, then primarily a campus called Jesus Place that housed the Cambodia Bible School and well-digging and medical mission outreach ministries.
There the children grew up, supported by Churches of Christ.
Toek’s oldest brother, Chet, attended the Bible school. Her older sister, SreyYoung, married one of the graduates. Toek is a student at the Bible school and also studies education at a university with financial support from Cambodia Christian Ministries.
“At first I didn’t understand why — we don’t know each other, so why did they come to help and to support us?” Toek said. “But now I understand it’s because of the love that they have. That’s why. That love pushes them, motivates them.”
Children sing along with worship songs during Sunday school at Jesus Place in Kraing Thom Village, Cambodia. (Photo by Audrey Jackson)
A village full of ‘Jesus Children’
Meierhofer, who lives in Dallas, hopes that Toek will continue the work that began with her and her siblings as a teacher in Cambodia Christian Ministries’ newest outreach — Jesus Village.
The village — 50 miles west of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia — will span about 15 acres and house 240 orphans in 12 houses.
“We don’t want to have orphans,” Hun said. “We want to have ‘Jesus Children.’ So we named the village ‘Jesus Village,’ for the children and the school.”
Each house will have two classrooms upstairs, allowing the children to attend classes spanning kindergarten to high school.
So far the ministry has built one home and begun constructing a second. The first semester of the school will begin this fall.
With each house costing about $100,000, Cambodia Christian Ministries is building Jesus Village on God’s timeline, Hun said.
“I’m going to trust the Lord,” Hun said. “I just go by faith. I hope God gives some faithful Christian part of this. … We’re looking for sponsors individually or church sponsors. This is God’s deal, and I trust God will make it happen from faithful people.”
The ministry has already accepted 65 children, assuming legal responsibility for their care from the Cambodian government.
Children are orphaned in a variety of ways. Some parents give up their children for adoption because they can’t afford them, some die, and others abandon the children for work in neighboring countries, Meierhofer said.
“We had a young man, his dad drowned fishing, and the mother told him, ‘I’m going to Thailand to get work, and I’ll send back money,’” said Meierhofer, minister for the Walnut Hill Church of Christ in Dallas. “He was 12 years old at the time. He had three younger siblings. He never heard another word from her.”
Only about half of the current “Jesus Children” have sponsors.
Congregations with limited funds can also partner with other churches to sponsor one child, Meierhofer said. Sponsors will be provided with video calls and direct communication with the children they support.
Hun and Meierhofer hope to hire teachers like Toek, who has benefited from the ministry, as well as international educators.
“Our students, we want them to speak fluent English when they finish 12th grade, because English can get jobs,” Hun said. “It can be used to continue education and university.
“We’re not just teaching education,” he added. “We are teaching the Bible. And I look forward to the day the children can bring the Gospel to the next generation.”
The work of God
On a recent medical mission with Cambodia Christian Ministries, Toek sat in a makeshift optometry office.
She greeted each stranger with a smile and asked about their needs before helping find a pair of glasses with the proper prescription.
It’s just one of the ways she gives back to the ministry that has given her so much — and connects with people who have faced similar struggles.
“In the past, I felt very lonely, stressed, but now I feel comfortable,” Toek said. “I feel not lonely anymore, because when I look at the people around me, they treat me like brothers and sisters, like their children.”
At lunch she joined a group of Bible school students, laughing and talking over a bowl full of rice and chicken.
“I can see my past and my present time is different,” Toek said. “God works through men like Sokhom.”
This piece is republished with permission from The Christian Chronicle.
Audrey Jackson, a 2021 journalism graduate of Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, is The Christian Chronicle’s managing editor.