By Rev. Lenita Tiong

The Cambodian Methodist Bible School was started in May 2000. The school was originally built by and for the Korean Methodist Church (KMC) who had began their work in Cambodia in the early 1990s. In 1997 a consultation was held and representatives from the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) of the United Methodist Church in the United States and the Methodist Missions Society (MMS) of the Methodist Church in Singapore agreed that the Methodist missions work in Cambodia should be coordinated. In February 2002, the World Federation of Chinese Methodist Church (WFCMC) which is a body made up of the Chinese Annual Conferences of the Methodist Churches in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong joined in this partnership as a full member.

The Cambodia Christian Methodist Association (CCMA) was then registered as a legal entity in Cambodia to represent these 4 Partner churches and serves as an umbrella organization for more than 160 Methodist Churches.

In January 2003, 4 bishops from these partner churches jointly signed a declaration for the formation of one Methodist Mission in Cambodia.

The Cambodian Methodist Bible School serves as a school to train pastors and Church workers for the Methodist Church in Cambodia. The school offers a 3 year diploma of Theology course in Khmer. A total of 99 credit hours is required over the 3 year period.

Students come from the different provinces throughout Cambodia and during the school year, they are housed in the school and are assigned to weekend ministries at the Methodist Churches in Phnom Penh and the surrounding areas.

The academic year begins in October and has 2 semesters of 18 weeks each. Lessons are held from Monday afternoon until Friday morning when they leave for their ministries. There are 5 hours of lectures in a day and the rest of the day is for worship, prayer, and chores.

We now have 5 full time faculty and 6 part time lecturers who are Methodist missionaries serving in Cambodia. These lecturers are from Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and the United States of America. When the need arises and resources available, visiting lecturers come and teach intensive courses.

Our first batch of students graduated in 2003 and we now have 50 alumni serving in Methodist churches in different parts of the country.

Jeremiah 33:12 sums up what we are doing:

This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'In this place, desolate and without men or animals-- in all its towns there will again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks.

by Rev. Lenita Tiong