Transformational Faith

Gateway Baptist Church is a church that cares about justice. They believe that it is not enough to simply talk about what God has done – it needs to be lived. This is a belief that has launched them into doing their part to fight poverty and injustice in Cambodia.

Cambodia has suffered as much tragedy in the recent past as any nation on the planet. In 1975, the infamous Pol Pot seized power of the country and set up a genocidal government. In the four years of his regime, approximately two million of the 7.3 million people in the country died, either from direct violence or starvation.

The echoes of this tyranny are still felt throughout Cambodia today. Despite making substantial progress, Cambodia still ranks as one of the poorest nations in our region, and, as is common with many poor nations, opportunities to exploit the vulnerable are rife. Many men, and even more women and children, are trafficked into slavery every year, where they are often forced to do hard labour or are used as sex slaves.

In 2010 Gateway’s Catalyst group spent some time thinking about what they could do to stem the flow of slaves in Cambodia – and thereby tackle the problem at its core. They wrote to us at Baptist World Aid Australia and asked if there was anything that the Australian Government could do to address the systemic problems of slavery in Cambodia.

Together with Stop the Traffik, a new campaign was designed. It requested that the Australian Government provide skills, training and funds to help better equip the Cambodian judicial system to deal with the problem of trafficking, and ensure those responsible are properly prosecuted and  convicted.

Between the members of Gateway Baptist and supporters of Baptist World Aid, thousands of postcards were sent to the Minister for Foreign Affairs – and in response, the Australian Government made a commitment to fund a multimillion dollar program1 to build the capacity of not just the Cambodian judiciary, but of judiciaries throughout South East Asia.

This is a fantastic outcome! It will mean many more of those that seek to profit from the misery and exploitation of others will be brought to justice and it will mean that the thousands of people that they would have otherwise enslaved will be spared from a truly awful fate.

I never cease to be amazed by what can happen when Christians speak out against injustice. Gateway Baptist is just another example of how transformational Christians can be when they pray faithfully, care passionately and speak out courageously. With their actions, nations are changed and lives are transformed.

Gershon Nimbalker
Advocacy Coordinator

1 At the time of printing, exact details were not yet disclosed