Stories

Kosal Sem grew up in a Christian home. His two older brothers studied and went into full-time Christian ministry. When Kosal prepared to go to university his parents asked him not to train for ministry. They wanted one of their sons to get a job outside the church with hopes that he would be financially successful, since pastors in Cambodia often earn very little. Kosal honored his parents and received a university degree. He is a successful professional with a job in Human Resources with an international organization.

Although he has been successful professionally, Kosal was not satisfied. Down deep he could feel the call to plant a church. God continued to speak to Kosal until he began looking for a way to fill the call on his life. In November 2016 Kosal attended the CCPC’s Sovannaphum Church Planting Conference. During the conference Kosal was inspired to act on God’s direction to plant a church. During a conference prayer time Kosal responded to a call for those who were going to plant a new church in 2017 and with tears in his eyes asked God for help and direction in this new work.

Kosal went to the elders of his church and they gave their blessing and support for him to fulfill this dream. He began to share his heart with friends who had a desire to reach young professionals with the Gospel. He formed a team and attended the CCPC’s first ever church planter training in March 2017.

On April 9, 2017 City Temple Church held their launch service in Phnom Penh. Kosal, his wife, and this newly formed team are using their professions and opportunities in their careers to reach out to a generation of young professionals in Cambodia who have never heard the Gospel.

Elim Pentecostal started their first Khmer national church in the capital of Phnom Penh. Over the first 6 years the church grew and flourished. As elders and leaders were developed in the church they began to dream of planting churches in both villages and cities across Cambodia. In 2016 Elim began looking at ways to put those dreams into action. The CCPC and New Life Fellowship’s Church Planting Testimonies 2017 church planting team began consultations with Elim about strategies for church planting and as Elim’s vision became clearer they sensed God was calling them to plant 125 churches over the next 5 years.

In January 2017 the leaders of Elim began outreach points in the provincial capital city of Kep and in 3 other villages. Their team attended the CCPC “Boot Camp” church planting training in March. Sarak Dong, the leader in training for the Kep city church, reflected on his experience at Boot Camp “Before (Boot Camp) I had a vision, but now I understand the importance of having a clear strategy and I’ve developed targets and goals.”

When Elim started offering English classes in their Kep location 120 students enrolled. After 5 months of classes and outreach Elim conducted their Grand Opening ceremony on June 10, 2017 and had 180 people in attendance. In addition to their English classes Elim’s leader has been asked by local school and government officials to start soccer program for local teachers and students. Elim has a strong leadership team and is seeing greater Kingdom impact than they were expecting!