I apologize for being a few days late in reporting this, but thanks to my readers’ and viewers’ generous donations we raised $251 in the month of August for the churches in Cambodia. As referred to previously, the Didache and (a surprise to me) the Lives of Saints George and Panteleimon were translated into Khmer.

The Lives of Saints George and Panteleimon have been translated and are available in the Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville Parishes. The Didache has also been translated into Khmer for reasons of catechesis.

There is talk of having a Khmer-language website for evangelism purposes, but this is not our best news.

I recently have been updated that Fathers Paisie and Roman will be making the sacrifice of driving hours from their home parishes to begin a mission parish in Siem Reap–famous as being the “tourist city” of Cambodia due to being home of the Angor Wat. I call this a sacrifice not because the city is not pleasant (it is actually the only place in Cambodia I would actually recommend a Westerner to visit if they have no family in the country), but because the roads to the city are in terrible condition and it is nearly a eight hour ride from the capital.

When I am not so lazy, I will post some personal pictures of my last visit to Siem Reap. And yes, it is the same temple complex from the movie Tomb Raider. It is also worth noting that I expected this to be an overrated crumbling piece of rock. It isn’t. The place is huge and the wat is literally the Hagia Sophia to a Cambodian city which at its time had a higher population than Constantinople.

Nonetheless, this is excellent news, as it offers both Orthodox tourists the ability to worship (and potentially also support the churches in Cambodia) as well as brings the Gospel to potentially more Cambodians. The cost of beginning this new parish is humble at this point–a mere $300 a month.

I did not get into dollars and cents with Father Paisie, but property in Cambodia tends to be relatively expensive (considering what the country is like, in all honesty.) Rents, however, are cheap–though they are getting higher ever since my last visit to Cambodia (which I believe was 5 years ago–too long.) So, the building itself is probably $200 a month and the payment to the local authorities for religious services another $100 dollars–give or take $50. But these are just my guesses.

So, everyone’s contributions are having a tangible effect on growing the Church in Cambodia. And, for not a lot of money, we can expand Orthodoxy into a whole new city it has never been liturgically practiced before. Consider being a co-founder of this new parish, even in the smallest of ways!

Help Grow the Orthodox Church in Cambodia!

Has this article blessed you? Please bless the Moscow Patriarchate’s missionary efforts in Cambodia to bring the Gospel to a people who have not heard it!

$1.00