A FaithCamp Miracle: New Publishing House for Southeast Asia
This week’s email is going to look a lot different than we originally planned, but God is GOOD! Instead of sharing a huge need, we are happy to be sharing a tremendous blessing and answer to prayer that happened as a result of this year's FaithCamp West.
Our story starts a few years ago, when Kenton Rogers watched I Want This City, a TV show about the effects of the decline in mission funding on ministry in Bangkok, Thailand. He was saddened by the lack of literature available for the Thai people. The mission office in Bangkok had so few resources they had resorted to making photocopies of photocopies of Bible studies to give to those who requested them.
Kenton prayed for literature for Thailand for a few months, but eventually, other matters grabbed his attention.
Four years later, Kenton and his family went to a FaithCamp and were shocked to discover that in those four years, nothing had changed. Literature in Thai and other Southeast Asian languages was still incredibly hard to come by.
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Watch the episode of I Want This City that made such an impact on Kenton and his family.
Kenton and his wife Rachel decided they could no longer sit and wait for someone else to fill the need. If God was willing to use them, they were willing to go. They talked with Jon Wood, Jesus for Asia President, about going to Thailand to open a publishing house for Southeast Asia, but after much prayer and discussion, God led them to Cambodia instead.
Why a publishing house?
As mentioned above, Thailand and its surrounding Southeast Asian countries have a serious lack of literature resources. While certain books are limited by shortage of adequate translations, others are simply out of print, and the cost to reprint is too high for the local church.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church currently has 75 publishing houses worldwide, but the closest publishing houses that serve the part of Southeast Asia where the Rogers are living are in the Philippines and Spain. Neither of these publishing houses are near enough to adequately support the needs of these underserved countries.
Can’t we just print our books at other printers?
When we print our own books, we can make sure that they are not printed on Sabbath, something that is not guaranteed at a commercial printer. When Kenton studied Ellen White’s writings on publishing, he became convicted that blessings come when our literature is made by dedicated believers.
What will this publishing house do?
The publishing house will print Christ-centered literature, Bible study guides, and books in the native languages of Cambodia and its surrounding Southeast Asian countries.
“It's’ not just a publishing house, a printing press, I want to see here,” Kenton said. “It’s not even just literature that I want to see here. My prayer is there will be literature here that is accompanied [by] the Holy Spirit. Because literature is just words, but literature with the Holy Spirit is able to work on the heart of people.”
When the Rogers got to Cambodia, they connected with church leaders and asked them which city would be best for starting a publishing house. The church leaders told them about some property on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, the capital city. The church originally bought the land for a cemetery, but shortly after, it was annexed into the city limits and could no longer be used for that purpose. It already had a house on it, and had plenty of room to build a publishing house.
Kenton and Rachel were surprised, but excited, that God had already provided the needed property. Since then, they have been working on fixing the house and preparing the land for the publishing house, praying and trusting that God would provide the money for the building and equipment.
FaithCamp West 2021
This year at FaithCamp West,Kenton and Rachel joined us for a video callto talk about their vision for this project. When asked how much they thought it would take to build the publishing house, they estimated between $50,000 and $150,000. God worked in the hearts of some attendees, and before the last meeting on Sunday, they gave a 2-to-1 matching grant of $100,000.
What does that mean?
For every $1 given to the Rogers’ project, $2 would be given for the matching grant. So if we raised $50,000, the project would receive the entire $150,000 the Rogers were praying for. Soon after, someone gave the first $1,000 for the matching grant. We were all so excited!
But that wasn’t the end of it.
We were planning on sending an email after we got home from FaithCamp to let you all know about the matching grant and ask you to join us in praying for God’s provision. But before we could send the email, we received a call from an attendee who had promised to send their FaithCamp offering after they had time to pray for God’s leading. After we told the attendee how much had already come in, they told us they were sending a check that would complete the entire matching grant!
Praise the Lord! We know our time on earth is short, and we are thrilled to see how God is moving to grow the work in Southeast Asia!
We cannot wait to see what God is going to continue doing through the Rogers and this new publishing house!
Please join us in praying for the Rogers and everyone who will be involved in bringing this project to life! May God be lifted up in every step.
The funds from this matching grant will cover building and equipment costs for the new publishing house, but it will not cover the Rogers’ living expenses. If you would like to support their expenses while the publishing house is being built, please click the button below.