Church Planter (Khmer People), Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Sopheak is a graduate of Phnom Penh Bible School and for two years has been the pastor of Shalom Church, Phnom Penh. He is also currently leading an outreach in order to plant a church in another district of the capital city.

Testimony

My name is Sopheak and I was born in Battambang province. Before accepting Christ, I was a youth who liked going out, fighting, and opposing Christ's followers. I often threw rocks at a church roof in my village and broke the roof that was made of thatch. Furthermore, I used to break down the church sign, too. I did all these stupid things because I thought that Christians were not allowed to respect or love their parents. My life was getting worse from day to day; I would fight with others, drink alcohol, and I stopped going to school. All these things made me lonely and my neighbors and friends did not want to talk with me. I started losing friends and became a lonely man in my village. As a drunkard, I only had two or three friends who were in my gang. In that situation, it made me take a look at my life and I saw it was terrible. Fortunately, I met my old friend who used to study with me; he told me about Jesus Christ and invited me to visit his church on a Sunday. I agreed with him because I wanted to know. When I was in church listening to a praise song, I became interested in the words of one song called, "God calls with love." That song really touched my heart. I began going to church regularly and six months later I repented and gave my life to God because I was a sinner. I knew that what I had done was extremely bad and that no one could help me except Jesus Christ.

I started school again after not having gone for 3 years. But, life with Christ was not stable, yet. Sometimes I still drank alcohol. In the year 2000, my mother was cheated and she lost her house and land. My brother and sister moved out to live and work for neighbors. They were forced to quit school; I was the only one in school. At that time, I was more lonely than ever before because I had no brother or sister nearby and even my mother had to work and live far away. During that time I listened to a song called, "The power of love." This song made me warm and continue to persevere in life. I no longer felt lonely because I realized I had a friend in Jesus Christ who always understands my heart. From that day I committed to quit drinking alcohol and stop hanging out with bad friends. I committed myself to my studies until I passed high school.

After finishing high school, a teacher recommended me to take an exam to be a teacher in physics because I was good at that subject. I rejected because I didn't want to be a teacher. Later on a pastor asked me to serve God in the church youth group. Through my work serving the Lord, God gave me the chance to see many youths who are in a bad situation like I was in the past. At the end of 2002, my pastor gave me the opportunity to study in Bible college in Phom Penh for 5 years. Today, I am the pastor of Shalom Church Phnom Penh.