Bringing Hope In Hard Places
- 6 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Partner Ministry Explination:
Serey Ministries
Bringing Hope In Hard Places
In our last email, we introduced you to Serey Ministries, one of Kingdom Development’s newest ministry partners. Serey means freedom, and their mission is to protect vulnerable children and families from human trafficking, exploitation, and modern slavery before it begins.
But what does that actually look like? Well, to start:
It looks like traveling long distances every week to communities that are often overlooked.
It looks like entering places where poverty, fear, abuse, and exploitation have become normal.
And it looks like remaining present long enough for trust to grow.
Let's look at just a few examples of how this plays out in the communities they are working in.
Bick Workers Village
In one community, families live and work around brick factories. Many have borrowed money from factory owners and become trapped in cycles of debt. Children sometimes work beside their parents producing bricks instead of attending school. The work is dangerous, but poverty leaves families feeling that they have no other option.
Yet God has opened remarkable doors.
Serey’s team has been allowed to enter factory grounds that other organizations believed would remain closed. They now teach prevention and protection lessons to approximately 180 children in two schools, visit families, work with local leadership, and help young people find safer paths through vocational training.
Floating Village
In another community, families live in floating houses on the Tonlé Sap Lake.
These families live on floating homes (though at times are land locked) that live on the lake that provides their livelihood. Unfortunately, declining fish stocks have left many families with little income ($2-5 a day). Some of the poorest families cannot afford bottled water and must use polluted lake water for drinking, cooking, and washing.
Serey has helped bring new wells into the community, regularly meetings with young people, visits families, and continues building a relationship with the village chief. During home visits, the team often has opportunities to pray with families and speak about God.
Remote Villages
In Serey’s most remote village, the team travels approximately 150 kilometers (93 miles), through rough and often washed out dirt roads, round trip each week.
Many children leave school by sixth grade or earlier. Families face domestic violence, substance abuse, sexual abuse, inadequate water, and widespread fear connected to witchcraft and traditional spiritual practices.
For two years, the team patiently built a relationship with the village chief. Recently, he acknowledged that the community has serious safety problems and allowed Serey to begin regularly training village leadership and security teams.
That may sound like a small step.
But in long-term ministry, trust is rarely small.
Trust opens doors
Trust allows difficult truths to be spoken. Trust creates opportunities for light to enter places that have remained hidden for generations.
Serey cannot solve every problem in these communities. Neither can Kingdom Development.
But we believe in a God who works through faithful presence, patient relationships, practical compassion, and the proclamation of the gospel. And together, as we partner, we can do far more together than on our own!
Prayer Requests:
For children who are vulnerable to abuse, dangerous work, drowning, and exploitation.
For families trapped by poverty and debt.
For teachers, village chiefs, and local authorities to become protectors of their communities.
For open doors to local churches and gospel partnerships.
For seeds already planted during home visits to grow into genuine faith in Christ.
The needs are great. But the hope found in Jesus is greater.
Investing in a generation,
Eric
Kingdom Development
Transforming communities together
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