Growing Faith and Bringing Hope: the Ministries of the Mustard Seed School and the Way of Hope Methodist Church in Siem Reap, Cambodia

by: Romoe L. del Rosario

Seven years ago, in March 2008, Rev. Lun Sophy and his wife Yuwat, started the Mustard Seed School in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  It is a pre-school and at the same an English-language school where Khmer-speaking children, youth and adults learn English.  It is owned by the couple and run and managed by them, and they are among the teachers.  It provides scholarship for children from poor families. Income from the school maintains the school, contributes to the ministry of the Way of Hope Methodist Church in Siem Reap and pays for the salary of Rev. Sophy, who chose not to be paid from the budget of the Methodist Church in Cambodia.  It is his

way of moving both the school and the church toward self-support.  Incidentally, Rev. Sophy is also the District Superintendent of the entire Province of Siem Reap, and his and Yuwat’s ministry is an inspiration for the church throughout Cambodia. 

The first facility of the school was an old house owned by the parents of Yuwat, who are members of Way of Hope Methodist Church.  By 2012, when the enrolment was over a hundred children in the pre-school program, and eighty-five children, youth and adults in the English classes, it broke ground for a new facility on a nearby land donated by the parents of Yuwat. 

Friends in Singapore and in Pasadena, California donated toward the new school building which also houses the current worship facility for the Way of Hope Methodist Church.  In 2008, Mustard Seed School had five teachers in addition to Rev. Sophy and Yuwat.  Only one of the five teachers was a Christian.   Today, the same teachers plus two more teach alongside Rev. Sophy and Yuwat.  All profess faith in Jesus Christ.  Mustard Seed School has a current enrolment of two-hundred and eight students.    

Since 2008, the Mustard Seed School has become an evangelism arm and a center for discipleship among the children, their parents, and the teachers at the school as well as among the youth and adults that attend the English classes.  In its immediate neighborhood, in its surrounding villages and in the town of Siem Reap itself, the Mustard Seed School is now known as the “Jesus School.”  In actual fact, many of the current members and constituents of the Way Hope Methodist Church: twelve adults, twenty-five youth and forty children were drawn to Christ through the Mustard Seed School.  On weekends, the teachers at the Mustard Seed School and the youth of the Way of Hope

Methodist Church accompany Rev. Sophy and Yuwat in evangelism and in Christian education among the youth and the children in other villages in Siem Reap Province.  This ministry outreach has led to the birth of two chartered churches.  Sekada Church has twenty-five adults and over one hundred youth and children in its membership.  Tropeng Tem Church has twenty-five adults, twenty-five youth and fifty children.  On land purchased donated by friends in Singapore and the United States, members of Sekada Church have planted over two hundred fruit trees.  The harvest from the fruit trees will help sustain the ministries and programs of Sekada Church.  Likewise, on land donated by

friends in Singapore and the United States, members of Tropeng Tem Church have also started a farm of cashew trees and a chicken farm.  Thirty percent of the proceeds will pay for the education of the youth.  Another thirty percent is allocated for other programs and ministries. A third thirty percent is saved for emerging needs.  Ten percent is put aside for the maintenance of the farms.  Two other extension ministries of the Mustard Seed School and the Way of Hope Methodist Church have already officially become Preaching Points—one with sixty adults and one hundred and fifty children; the other, with fifty adults and seventy children. 

True to the calling of Christ and their respective names, the Mustard Seed School and the Way of Hope Methodist Church grow faith and bring new hope in the lives of the people of Cambodia. 

For detail about the Ministries of the Mustard Seed School and the Way of Hope Methodist Church click here:  HIS PATH