“And why do you want your child in our school?” I asked a young mother waiting for her daughter to finish her school day. Many parents are too shy to speak to the school principal. However, she looked at me for a long moment and softly replied, “If it wasn’t for your school, I wouldn’t be a Christian, so I want my daughter to learn what I have learned.”
Usually, parents talk about how our teachers treat their students respectfully or how we have high moral standards and values when I ask this question, so her answer caught me off guard. Moreover, in Cambodia, Christians form a mere three percent (3 percent) of its 17 million citizens, as it is a predominantly Buddhist country. The local saying is: “To be Cambodian is to be Buddhist, to be anything else is to be a traitor.” Although many do not strictly practice Buddhism, they still identify with its beliefs and values, making them suspicious of other belief systems.
This young mother proceeded to tell me how, during a difficult time in her life, she was helping her second-grade daughter study for her memory-verse test. “And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). As she repeated the words over and over to help her daughter learn the promise, she started questioning, “Can this be true? Does God really mean what this verse says?”
She paused for a moment, then concluded, “I made the decision that I was going to find out more, so I started talking to someone in my office. [They] studied the Bible with me, and now I am worshiping each week and have joined a church.”
Our school, Cambodia Adventist International School, is in Phnom Penh, the capital of the Kingdom of Cambodia. In a city with a population of more than two million people, our student body of 530 students may seem small, yet what our students learn — and how they learn to behave — impact more than 3,000 people daily through their extended families. This happens through the sense of mission and the sacrificial Christian living modeled by our teachers and staff, who are 100 percent Adventist.
As students tend to stay at our school for 14 years, from pre-K to grade 12, teachers have multiple opportunities to share the love of Jesus. Every conversation on campus is an occasion to tell others what Jesus has done for them. Only eternity will show the true impact attending our school has on our students.
Not all our teachers’ hard work has a happy ending, however. Recently, a teacher told us of a young woman in one of his Bible classes who said she would have to change schools. She was well known for sleeping in class but also for getting the highest grades. After asking her some questions, he discovered that her mother had become concerned about the changes she had seen in the young lady’s behavior over the past eight years of attending our school. Positive changes, yes, but as she was fearful that the young lady would become a Christian, she took her out of our school. Please pray for students whose parents force them to make such choices. Pray that the influence of our teachers has been enough. Jesus has been planted in this student’s heart, and now the Holy Spirit will need to do the nurturing.
In a city with more than 60 international schools, there is intense competition for students. Annual tuition at our school is less than $2,000, which attracts many students as most other schools operate charge that much monthly. Church members pay less than half that amount, but only 80 of our students are church members, and the other 450 are non-Adventists.
As of this fall, 25 young people started Bible studies with our pastor, which is the highest number we have had in recent years. Each month, the high school classes spend one Sabbath visiting local churches to enrich their services with their talents, and both Adventist and non-Adventist students participate. These experiences are central to the discipleship program we are implementing on our campus this year.
Another element of making disciples is the monthly campus worship service, which brings in more than 200 visitors who come to watch our students give special music and devotionals while developing their leadership skills. Often, those attending would never set foot in a Christian church due to the stigma of being seen there but want their children in a Christian school because the rules and standards they hold dear are no longer taught in “more popular” schools.
My gratitude goes out to those who established this school and built its foundation on strong biblical principles more than 30 years ago. I cannot say thank you enough to those in North America who gave sacrificially so our school and others like it could be established around the world for the training of future leaders and for leading students to Christ.
Our reputation for treating our students with respect, showing integrity in all aspects of our lives, and delivering instructional excellence is all the advertising we need. God is blessing the efforts of our teachers’ hard work on behalf of their students.
While our school is not perfect, God is working through it to share His love for the people of this country, just as He longs to do for everyone. Pray for all our schools around the world, particularly that the hearts and minds of our students and their families will be touched by God’s forgiveness and love, just as this young mother was touched. Pray for the students who are taken out of school because of the positive influence of Christianity in their lives. Finally, pray that the teachers and administrators will be faithful in answering God’s call when they say, “I will go!”
The author, Dean Edwards, is principal of Cambodia Adventist International School. Click here to find out more about Cambodia Adventist International School.
