A Redemption Story From Cambodia
When you wade into the Gospel trenches, you never know who might end up right next to you. A3’s leaders in Cambodia have recently experienced this in a big way.
Led by National Director Meng Aun Hour (pictured above with his wife Rady and their daughter Vouchly), Cambodia’s A3 program has been dynamic. Soon after the first A3 classes graduated, alumni began to envision how the benefits of A2’s training could be expanded. “A2’s primary program targets top national leaders,” Meng pointed out. “We wanted to also make A3 available to grassroots leaders in Cambodia.”
That they did—through the School of Discipleship (SOD). This two-year program, run and funded completely by Cambodian leaders, takes the essence of A2’s content and learning-community model and adapts it to leaders who serve in unchurched, rural, and tribal areas—the trenches, if you will. These leaders are often younger, less experienced, bi-vocational due to lack of resources, and can have sometimes have checkered backgrounds in their journeys to faith.
But even in SOD, they rarely run across the story of someone like “Chakra” (not his real name). As a young man, Chakra became a hard-core drug addict, turning to crime to support his habit. One night as he was burglarizing a home, the homeowner awakened and began searching for him. Cowering behind a door, this Buddhist found himself praying,
“Jesus, if you can get me out of this, I will change my life and live for You.”
A moment later, the door was flung open and he was confronted by the homeowner… who somehow could not see him. Chakra was able to make his escape.
Chakra also made good on his promise. He became a Jesus follower. He returned to the homeowner to beg forgiveness and make restitution. Soon, he felt a call to the ministry. But how? He had no background, no training... and a checkered past.
Enter the School of Discipleship
Meng and his colleagues met with Chakra, heard his story, and affirmed his call. Along with a dozen other grassroots leaders, Chakra received A2-quality training over a two-year period. Since then?
“Chakra has planted 11 churches along the Cambodia-Thai border,” Meng told us. “He is working in one of the most difficult areas of the country. God is using him in powerful ways.”
A3’s vision is to see empowered national leaders take the essence of A3 and run with it, as God leads them, to transform their ministries, their communities, and their countries. A3 Cambodia and SOD are bringing that vision to life—all the way into the trenches, shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders like Chakra.
