History of Cambodian Southern Baptists

A surge in the number of Cambodian Christian believers occurred in the early 1980’s when the United States began to take in Cambodian refugees. The sponsorship was partly performed by several Christian agencies. The purpose of these organizations included sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Indeed, many refugees were touched by the Love of God expressed through the deeds and words of these agencies and churches.

Southern Baptist churches were one group sponsoring Cambodian refugees. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest evangelical denomination in the U.S. Mr. Sok Doeung, a refugee, was among those who came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He accepted the Lord in a refugee camp through a Southern Baptist missionary. Mr. Doeung became a church consultant soon after he arrived in Texas. He traveled extensively for many years all over the nation and was a key player in encouraging believers to get involved in church ministry, especially in church planting.

In 1985, Southern Baptists organized a multicultural meeting at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri. Through a call by Mr. Doeung, Cambodian believers from all across the U.S. came to meet. That meeting was the first place where all Cambodian Baptists had a chance to be together at one place. As a result, it became the birthplace of the Cambodian Southern Baptist Fellowship. The 2023 annual conference was the Fellowship’s 39th year, counting from the meeting in 1985 as the first one. The year 2024 will be the 40th.

Over the Fellowship’s first dozen years, Cambodians always drove to Bolivar to meet for annual conferences. But there were some objections raised from among leaders/members about Bolivar being too far away from most Cambodian Baptist churches, because most are located in the southeastern U.S. and Missouri is near the middle of the sprawling nation. Therefore, starting at the new millennium, it was decided to hold the conferences at other places nearer to the East Coast. Leaders soon learned the costs of conferences spread thin the Fellowship’s finances.

Macon Land and Development

The dream of the Fellowship owning a property came true in 2005. During an annual conference on a July 4th weekend, Dr. Seang Yiv and his wife donated a 75-acre parcel of land in Macon to the Fellowship. They shared their decision with the attendees during a joint worship. The name Blessing Field (BF) was chosen that night for the land because it reminds people of the 1975-’79 tragedy in Cambodia followed by an outpouring of the Lord’s blessing, grace, and mercy on the survivors.

The vision for the land has always been for annual conferences, retreats and the like, as well as a site to preserve the survivors’ testimonies found in books, video clips, interviews, songs, and movies. 

A few years after the Macon purchase, trees were cleared at a corner, buildings erected, and the Fellowship began its annual conference there. The Fellowship became stronger financially with the gift of the property because expenses were able to be capped. The officers and workers are all volunteers. They willingly give their treasures, talents, and time to the Lord they love. The attendees also saved because of onsite lodging and meals paid for by a small conference fee.

Individuals and teams came repeatedly to give and sacrifice their time, personal expenses, and skills to prepare the Macon property with a prefab room, pavilion, kitchen, water well, septic tank, storage container, hundreds of persimmon trees and more. Many thanks also to those who gave financially for materials, pavilion, container, persimmon trees, etc. Without all the above, the Macon property value could not have risen over the years.

From Macon to Statesboro

In 2020, covid hit The Cambodian Southern Baptist Fellowship hard. Some pastors, leaders, and members were lost. But the property in Macon was sold at three times its original value in July 2022 because it was hard to expand further. This property had been beneficial to the Fellowship for fifteen years. It was able to save consistently every year and also to keep the fees low for the benefit of the attendees.

Once the Macon property sold, leaders pleaded with the Lord for a convenient and affordable site, with an emphasis that it would be fitting for adults as well as younger generations. After the sale, it was thought it would take years to find new property in Georgia or Florida. Things went much faster than anticipated. First, a bidding was made to a Cambodian-owned church in Poston, Georgia, but that door shut within weeks, as did another at a Florida site.

Then 2023 came and a board member directed our attention to a property in Statesboro, Georgia. Leaders decided to act quickly. Days later, although only a couple of them were available, they drove there with a brother skilled in building matters. “Lo and behold, all three of us fell in love with it at first sight,” Dr. Yiv recalled. “It was beyond words how to fairly tell of its beauty. Halfway into our visit, we paused in front of a building, and realized we were standing on the place the Lord had made for us.

Upon chatting with the sales agent, it was clear that “Mr. Virus” had played a pivotal role. It ruined the wedding venue of the first owner. The current owner, a bank, got frustrated after two years of trying and failing to sell the property, because the previous six bidders were unable to secure loans. 

“That was when we went in with cash in hand,” Dr. Yiv continued. “Ninety-five percent was from the recent sale of the Macon property and our bank savings. The rest was an interest-free loan. The bank agreed to sell the property at far below market value.”

Blessing Field, 17 Allen Circle, Statesboro, Georgia

Exactly one month after the first visit on February 27, the signed document arrived on March 27. That was indeed a paradigm of Romans 8:28. Though the virus was dreadful for people – including many Cambodians – it was His favor to the Blessing Field. The building sizes are more than quadruple that in Macon. The larger one, carpeted and with chandeliers, can seat 500 or more. It has a delightful bridge, a nice pond, two huge gazebos, two water fountains, and an expansive green grass field.

When Fellowship leaders accompanied a group of ladies walking through and seeing the property the very first time, “they were in tears and kept on lifting their hands up high to thank Him repeatedly, that refugees like them who once could only think about food day and night, were tortured, forced to work, watched their relatives and fellowmen taken away, etc., lived to see a gift with such unbelievable magnificence,” Dr. Yiv recounted. “It is indeed like a bit of heaven on earth!”

It was truly a work of God that the Cambodian Fellowship received the new property. “We give all the glory to Him, our good and gracious Lord,” leaders agreed. He multiplied the worth of Macon land by thirty-fold in fifteen years. Remarkably, Jesus uses number 30 in His parable about the Sower (Mark 4:8). It’s not a 30-year mortgage but a thirty-fold increase. Knowing the modest growth in Fellowship yearly savings, it would have taken 250 years before the Cambodians could have afforded the Statesboro property. 

“We are grateful beyond words,” Dr. Yiv said. “Our team commits to following His guidance in all its future decisions.”

The Future

In the 1980’s and ’90’s, most Cambodians came to the U.S. as empty-handed and mostly uneducated refugees. It takes years for the first generation of Christ’s followers to build their family and integrate into the larger communities. But the Lord spoiled this Cambodian community, survivors of the Killing Fields, with a property valued at three million dollars. Fellowship leaders vow to be grateful and take good care of the property, for every good and perfect gift is from above (James 1:17).

“I cannot help but draw parallels between the rebirth of Israel in May 14, 1948, and the Cambodian Killing Fields becoming the Blessing Field,” Dr. Yiv said. “Both were brutally tortured by mad men. Dried bones coming alive in Israel were portrayed in Ezekiel 37. But the same images shown by thousands of mass graves in Cambodia were followed by scores of new lives in Christ of the remnants.

“Indeed, we are grateful for His gifts of new life in Christ and of a beautiful property,” Dr. Yiv continued. “We are waiting to hear from Him as to how we could more effectively utilize the new property in the days ahead.”