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Friends, we have categorically good news: the Kingdom of God is at hand, and the King is always at work to expand its boundaries in and through us. How do we know this? We’ve seen it — or, more accurately, we have witnessed it — on a national and international scale. “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.” (Isaiah 9:7)
In 2014, SEAPC released an annual report entitled, “Changes Are Coming.” It focused, among other things, on the beloved nation of Cambodia. Today, we can say with great praise and thanksgiving, changes have come in that nation. Many of God’s promises to the Cambodian people have been fulfilled, and we trust they will continue to be fulfilled in the years and decades ahead.
As of 2024, SEAPC has the privilege of serving 488 public schools, with over 150,000 students, in Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey province. Beyond that, we are overjoyed to report that, after 10 years, there are 9 completed technical training centers: one for each provincial district. Not only are these centers answers to prayer, but they are catalysts for job creation and a complement to the schools.
It’s easy to look back and declare, with the benefit of hindsight, that something was a ‘sure thing,’ but you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who, thirty years ago, could say anything positive about Cambodia’s future. For reference, that would be 1994, in the thick of the Khmer Rouge’s awful Killing Fields. And yet that is exactly the kind of hopeful, faithful prayer God led His people into — the kind of prayer that has fueled the pages of this two-part story today…
1. Plowing in Prayer
In 1994, God called Mark Geppert and Hubert Chan to walk and pray in Banteay Meanchey province. They didn’t know anybody, and the war was still raging at the time, but they went anyway. They traveled from village to village along Highway 6 to focus on Jesus and intercede for the devastated local community.
As they walked, prayed, and made friends, God gave them a promise to declare: “In the power of His resurrection, from the minefields and the killing fields, the Lord will raise up a generation that is Christ-centered, Bible-based, Holy Spirit-filled and academically excellent; this generation will lead Cambodia into its destiny.” They repeated this line everywhere they went.
As they prayed, they made friends in Cambodia. Those friends introduced them to other friends, and together, they prayed for open doors for the Gospel in the fields of healthcare, education, parenting, and economic development. The first open door for education came through Im Sethey, a government representative who invited them to serve the Rongko Cluster Schools with a renewed curriculum. The existing structure served around 4,000 students from 8 villages, from the 4th to 8th grade.
The renewal process would take time and work in a region only just coming out of Pol Pot’s reign of terror. The local people teaching in the schools had a beautiful heart for the children but were essentially volunteers at $1 per day, for four hours a day (teaching older kids in the morning and younger kids in the afternoon). At the time, the school buildings consisted of bombed-out, underdeveloped shacks.
God saw the teachers’ hearts and spoke a message of affirmation through the SEAPC team, acknowledging that what they already had (the people, resources, and curriculum) was excellent, and we wanted to offer them a more excellent way, which we called “N+1” (where “N” stood for the existing national curriculum, and “+1” stood for Jesus). The Cluster Schools gave a wholehearted yes.
Before the first brick was laid or class was taught in these renewed “N+1” schools, a small group visited the area to pray and declare a fresh word from the Lord. They stood on the corner of four rice paddies and proclaimed to the earth: “You are supposed to raise up a school. You know you are supposed to be a school. We take authority over the land and call forth this purpose.”
2. Sowing in the Word
Sure enough, the Lord’s Word prevailed. People from all over the world were moved to give generously, the plot was purchased, live mines were cleared out, a road was built, and the paddies were developed into a 3-building campus. Over the years, missionary teachers from other nations answered the call to train local teachers and to establish a curriculum with Jesus Christ at the center.
All of this necessitated an international effort between the Cambodian Ministry of Education, the local church, New Hope Children’s Homes, the church in Singapore, businessmen in Long Beach, CA, a Singaporean investor, a generous entrepreneur from Ohio, and another kindhearted individual from Orange County, CA.
After two years of working through this new program, the Cluster Schools won a national award: #1 in Math & Science out of all the schools in Cambodia. This drew the interest of the Cambodian government and became an obligatory cause for celebration — one that even the Deputy Prime Minister, General Ke Kim Yan, would attend, so that he could present SEAPC and the cluster schools with their very own ‘Nation Changer’ award.
This celebration took place 10 years ago, in 2014. Nearly 10,000 people from the surrounding area — all 3,500 schoolchildren and their extended family — gathered for the event. The organizers invited Mark to open the ceremony, and as he stood up, the Holy Spirit deposited a message in his heart:
“Cambodia has never really been Cambodia. Centuries ago, we were under the Indians. That’s where we got our Buddhism. After the Indians came the Chinese; they brought their Chinese culture. So we were India, then Indo-China. Then the Europeans came — the French — and they took over the country. So we became ‘French Indo-China.’ In 1953, the Vietnamese defeated the French, so we were under our neighbors. And then came Pol Pot and his regime…
Today, for the first time, Cambodia is Cambodia. As I walked in your country, saw the devastation of the war, and felt the pain of the people, I looked at the older people, and then I looked at the children, and I asked, “Lord, what is going to become of them?” And the Lord said to me, “In my resurrection power, I am going to raise up from the minefields and the killing fields a generation that is Christ-centred, Bible-based, Holy Spirit-filled, and academically excellent — a generation that will lead this nation into its destiny.”
Mark closed his impromptu speech with an open invitation: “If you agree with this, then I want you to stand up.” The entire crowd of people leaped to their feet, raised their hands, and began to praise God. The General stood back, astounded at their response. As he tells it, it was at this moment, on that morning, that he decided we would walk together. As approached the podium, he exclaimed, “How do you follow that?! I think the only appropriate response is: ‘Amen!’”
3. Watering in Resources
After the ceremony concluded, the Deputy PM, on behalf of the Cambodian government, invited SEAPC to expand its work beyond the cluster schools to the entire province: “We want you to replicate what you have done here across all nine districts of Banteay Meanchey.”
Mark’s first response was to point him back to Jesus:
“Let’s get this straight: we didn’t do anything! His resurrection power did. All we have done is bring different people together in strategic partnerships: Jesus, the government, and the economic and academic sectors. It’s not my money; I don’t have any! I’m not a rich philanthropist. You will have to tell Prime Minister Hun Sen that I didn’t do this; Jesus did.
If you give me Jesus, if you let me talk about Him, if you let us lead people in prayer to receive Him, and if you let us baptize those people and form groups that will work together with Jesus, I believe we can do what you are asking across the province. But I am under no illusion that without Jesus, I can’t do it. With Jesus, we can do it.”
Slightly hesitant, Mark’s new friend replied, “That’s not mine to give; only the Prime Minister has that authority — and don’t you realize that this is a Buddhist country, and that our religion is written into the constitution?” As a matter of fact, Mark did, “Yes, sir. I understand that… but Article 43 of your constitution also says that every Cambodian has the right to choose their own religion.” Mr Ke Kim Yan was shocked: “You know our constitution?”
“Sir, we would be fools to have this much money invested in your country if we didn’t know your constitution. We had to know how your government worked.” These words struck a chord: two days later, our new friend called the SEAPC team to let them know that he had spoken with PM Hun Sen, who had given the green light: “Fine. They can have Jesus.” And so it was that Banteay Meanchey Arise began.
Winning Hearts, Changing Minds, Raising Up a Generation
Research kicked off for the province-wide project. The team visited each district superintendent and their school and department heads to ask questions about what they believed needed to change. At the time, there were no Cambodian products; Thailand dominated the agricultural market. Thai developers hired Cambodian sharecroppers to farm rice, tapioca, fish products, and chicken, and then exported these goods to Thailand for processing, so that they could be sold back to the Cambodian people as ‘Thai’ products. In every district, education leaders highlighted this issue.
This cross-border agricultural dynamic had other worrying consequences: students would complete 4th or 5th grade, and then disappear. SEAPC asked the parents, “Where are they?” And they would respond, “Thailand.” What were 12-year-olds doing in Thailand? If we wanted to see Cambodia live into the hope and vision Jesus was calling the nation to, we would need to bring that generation back home, so they could stay and build the country up. The superintendents agreed and invested significant sums into developing land for new high schools.
This was a great first step, but everyone involved knew that more was required: for the children to develop the pride and self-esteem necessary to become owners and developers — to think beyond systemic slavery — they would need Jesus to set them free. To help meet this need, SEAPC rolled out Every Home for Christ’s My Precious Book, a bilingual children’s bible, for use in every provincial school, at the greatest pain point: 4th grade. Through the book, many, many students received the Lord, and a significant proportion of 4th-grade teachers were born again too.
Discipling the Harvest
The My Precious Book rollout was enormously fruitful, and the local teachers did a great job taking care of their kids during school hours, but there remained a call to disciple these children beyond the confines of the classroom; we needed shepherds to care for the whole-life needs of these young people.
The SEAPC team closely examined the pastors in Banteay Meancheay province. We didn’t care who supported them, and we weren’t going to give them any money anyway; we just wanted to know who they were. We identified 250 Jesus-centered pastors through the Cambodian Pastor’s Fellowship, and we told them we could give them access to discipling opportunities in the schools: “Here’s a lanyard with a picture and ID to show that you are working with SEAPC.” They jumped on the opportunity.
Setting the Foundation
There was still one unresolved question: what would happen to the students after they left high school? And what was to become of the existing adult population, for that matter? The superintendents and their team replied: let’s build Cambodian Tech Centers for vocational training and job pathways. We told the superintendents, “If you provide the land, we will construct the buildings.”
There’s a huge issue in India where much of what is called ‘persecution’ against Christians is actually Hindu people taking back land that was purchased for pennies by foreign missions (as was standard practice at the time). We wanted to do things differently in Cambodia: although the school districts promised to reserve the land for the Tech Centers, they would still own the land itself.
We knew that if we wanted the Cambodian population to develop an ownership mindset — to move from agricultural subsistence to entrepreneurship — this was absolutely necessary; you have to start as you mean to go on. In the same way the gift of the Holy Spirit is a deposit for the promised restoration to come, the schools needed a tangible expression of their nation’s future hope.
The government requested three subjects in particular: 1) water purification, 2) electrical wiring (as they were finally installing a local grid), and 3) small motor repair (as they had received a UN grant of roto-tillers that could replace water buffalo in their fields, but the local farmers hadn’t been taught how to maintain and repair them). On the SEAPC end, we proposed a further four subjects: 1) English, 2) computer skills, 3) agricultural products for local market, and 4) online business. These seven subjects would provide a great foundation for all BC Arise would become (more on that in Part 2).
4. Harvesting in Multiplication
It’s a long story (which is why there is a part 2), but since we started work on the Tech Centers, we have seen the harvest multiplied. The contractor who built the Centers came to Christ, and so have many members of his family. Vegetables have been produced and sold in the local Cambodian market through hydroponics. Skilled Cambodians on one of the school campuses have learned how to fashion high-end fishing flies, which have been exported to the US under the brand Geppert Brothers Fly Fishing. The Ministries of Education in both Thailand and Laos have asked for the Water Drop Project (teaching English through My Precious Book) be translated from Cambodian into their native languages, for use in their schools. In other words, a lot has changed since 1994.
Beyond any external measures of the Lord’s success, we praise God for the people He has raised up, just like He said He would. We praise God for Veha, who was one of our 4th-graders at the original Rongko school — the same Veha who leads Cambodia Arise (the next stage of Banteay Meanchey Arise) — alongside a team full of people from his graduating class.
We praise God for other humble, powerful leaders like Oudom, who grew up in the Phnom Penh New Hope Children’s Home, and who today oversees all of SEAPC Cambodia (our partner NGO in the country) as its Senior Project Coordinator.
We praise God for the world-changing superintendents who have overseen these changes — who have paved the way for a different path for their students, with a different mindset and a new hope. Who have instilled a new ‘can-do’ mindset: “God wants us to prosper. We don’t want to be the lowest in ASEAN. We want to be the head, and not the tail.”
We praise God for Hou Bun Heng, who was the principal at Rongko when we started. Moments after Mark baptized him, he jumped out of the water and shouted, “Hallelujah!” In the first year of our partnership, he visited one of the Banteay Meanchey New Hope Children’s Homes and was miraculously healed from debilitating back pain after the kids prayed for him. He shared his testimony with everyone in that village, and now works in the Ministry of Education. In fact, he oversees the screening process for all foreign NGOs who want to work in Cambodia in any educational capacity.
We praise God for Pastor Sinai, who we began working with when he was a college student, and who is now the director of the Kim Lai Family’s funds; he is responsible for channeling their generational wealth into Christian education.
We praise God for Deputy PM Ke Kim Yan, for his continuing friendship, solidarity, and support. We praise God for Cambodia’s former PM, Hun Sen, who asked that My Precious Book and the Water Drop project be taught in all of Cambodia’s public schools.
We praise God for the way His resurrection power has raised up a generation of Cambodians who have led their country into its future over the last thirty years, we praise Him in advance for the next thirty, and we praise Him for all time. We praise God, full stop.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
