Several local news outlets attended a press conference Friday to hear from Franklin Graham ahead of this weekend’s Love Siem Reap Festival in Cambodia.
Seven years ago, Graham preached 194 miles to the south in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, in one of the largest Christian outreaches in the country’s history. Following the encouraging response to the Festival—where 1,700 people made decisions for Christ—he was invited by local churches in the Siem Reap area to hold a similar outreach there, though plans were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After years of prayer, thousands of Christians across Northern Cambodia are excited to bring friends and family to hear about the hope of Jesus Christ this weekend.
“I’ve come to give the people of Siem Reap a message about God,” Graham said. “I want to speak to them about the God who created the universe—the God who made us, the God who loves us.”
Festival organizers have already been showing God’s love in tangible ways by providing food, water, and other supplies to refugees in the northern provinces who are fleeing a border crisis with Thailand. On Saturday and Sunday, Graham will also share with them the truth that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
“There are many people in Cambodia who are searching and are wanting to know truth,” he said. “We want people to know that they can have a personal relationship with God.”
Even in a country where virtually everyone has access to the digital world at their fingertips, loneliness is rampant without a connection to God.
“Technology does not fill the vacuum that’s inside a person,” Graham said. “Whether you’re from Cambodia, whether you’re from another country, the needs of the human heart are the same. We believe that answer [to our needs] is found in God’s Son, Jesus Christ.”
For months leading up to the outreach, church leaders have been meeting over Zoom and in person to pray for the Festival, asking the Lord to fill the former Siem Reap Airport with people who need to hear about God’s love.
Will you pray alongside them? Ask God to move in the hearts of the people who will attend the event this weekend, that they will understand their need for a personal relationship with their Creator.
