Phnom Penh, Cambodia – The growth of Vietnamese Mennonite churches in British Columbia, Canada, has led to closer ministry connections in Cambodia. In early June 2014, Mennonite Church British Columbia (MCBC) sent three representatives to the Mennonite Cambodia Church to ordain Pastor Tran Dinh Khanh.

The Sunday morning worship service included dynamic worship singing, scriptures read aloud, and beautifully choreographed interpretive dances done by the youth. Garry Janzen, executive minister of MCBC, preached and conducted the ordination through interpretation. He shares, “We laid on hands and prayed, then the service concluded with the pastor’s wife singing a beautiful song of love to God at her husband’s ordination. This couple is a great team ministering together.”

Janzen describes the event as a “holy moment.” At one point during the service, he recalls, his emotions welled up and he could no longer speak or sing because of the significance of what God was doing and because of what “Pastor Khanh’s ordination represents for the Anabaptist/Mennonite movement in Cambodia.”

During their visit to Cambodia, the MCBC group was also able to visit the land purchased to revive a previous ministry in the city of Kratie, and pray a prayer of blessing there. They had a Saturday evening worship gathering and ministry time, “where many people received prayer for healing and other concerns, people were led to faith in Christ and reports of God’s answer to previous prayers were given.”

The MCBC entourage also included Nhien Pham of the North American Vietnamese Mennonite Fellowship and pastor of the Vietnamese Mennonite Church in Vancouver, BC, and Canh Ha, a representative of the MCBC Church Health Committee and pastor of the Vietnamese Christian Church in Abbotsford, BC.

MCBC is a regional conference of Mennonite Church Canada, a Mennonite World Conference member church. 

– Kristina Toews

*This article has been corrected. A previous version incorrectly named Mennonite Church Cambodia as Phnom Penh Mennonite Church.