About Cambodia

Come.

Take a journey with us to discover the beautiful things that God is doing in a faraway little country called Cambodia.

God is raising life out of ashes,

beauty out of misery,

love out of suffering.

Children are being rescued from death, abuse and starvation.

Families are coming to know and follow Jesus.

Followers of Jesus are learning to love and serve the most despised people in society.

And a community is witnessing the truth that all people are created by God with value and purpose.

Come see what God is doing through Lina’s Hope in Cambodia.

 

Cambodia is a beautiful, tropical country in Southeast Asia.  Here the smiles and hospitality of the people shine warmer than the sun.  However, Cambodia has a dark past of violence, slave labor camps, torture prisons and killing fields. 

Cambodia is still recovering from the war and genocide that took place under the Khmer Rouge communist regime in the 1970’s. Extreme poverty and lack of medical care and poor education are still big problems in some places.

Cambodia’s main religion is Buddhism mixed with the worship of spirits and ancestors. Buddhism in Cambodia teaches reincarnation, the idea that when each person dies, he or she will be reborn onto this earth as a new person or animal.  If a person has lived a good life on this earth with many good deeds, then he or she may be reborn as a rich person in the next life.  But if a person has lived a bad life on this earth, then he or she may be reborn as a poor person, a worthless animal, or, worst of all, a disabled person.  This cultural belief dictates that every disabled child or adult is deserving of his or her disability because of evil deeds that he or she committed in a past life.  The common belief is that the best thing for a disabled child or adult is to suffer and die in this current life in hopes of being reborn into a better life next time.  Often families of disabled children live in constant shame and hide their disabled children away because it is believed that they are cursed. Sometimes a family will put a disabled child on a starvation diet to slowly end his or her life as an act of mercy for the child and as a benefit for the family.

Lina’s Hope rises up and shouts

STOP!

 Jesus is the Creator of all people,

and Jesus gives great value and purpose to every person!