In this Jubilee Year, World Mission Sunday focuses on hope. A wonderful example of missionaries working together with local communities to rebuild hope is evident in Battambang, Cambodia. 

Sokha* is one of the oldest members of  Mary, Mother of the Church in Cambodia. During the war, she, along with everyone else, was sent away from her home to work on farms. She witnessed terrible things and saw members of her community brutally killed.

Baptised in 2011, Sokha had wanted to learn about Christ because of the witness of missionaries and Catholics in her community. Sokha found that after the horrors she had witnessed, she could find peace in the Church:

‘I became Catholic because I had faith in Jesus and in the power of forgiveness. I believed Jesus was the Saviour, and that Jesus can help us. I started to pray.

‘When I see so many children and young people here at church it gives me hope for the future; that the Church here will grow and build a good community. This makes me happy.

‘The young people come here because we show them God’s forgiveness and healing and we encourage them not to be ashamed, but to be proud of their Khmer traditions and identity. Hopefully they will bring others to Jesus also.’

This is a community facing huge challenges of poverty in the present, whilst still coming to terms with a past which has left deep scars. But Mary, Mother of the Church still stands – a powerful beacon of hope.

*Name has been changed