On Friday our team moved on from the Beyond Disability project to observe a different BWAA ministry today. A van turned up at 8:00 am toad took us across Phnom Penh to the 'Peace Bridges' office. We were greeted by the Director (i.e. Mony) and he spent the next four hours telling us his story and the finer details of how the ministry of Peace Bridges came about.

It was a great to come and observe this project. Not only did it have a strong Christian mission and vision but it had been initially started by Barry Higgins - the brother of Scott who was our team leader from BWAA. Barry and his wife Fiona came to Cambodia in 2000 to undertake language studies and seek to ascertain how God might use them to share the love of Jesus with the Cambodians. Barry had a background in mediation and in the coming 12-18 months it became apparent that a ministry opportunity existed right here in Phnom Penh. Seem initial work begun in a local denomination to bring a sense of healing and reconciliation amongst the senior pastors of some evangelical churches. And so the ministry of Peace Builders was born. They started with the simple goal of training 60 pastors in 2003 to be peace builders in their circles of influence. While most of the people they train come from churches, the ministry of PB has begun to widen giving this ministry the opportunity to influence leaders from the community, government, NGO's (Non-Government Organizations) and even those within the Buddhist faith.

Their ministry of peace building continues to gather great momentum amongst families, schools, work environments, schools and even prisons. By the end of this year, PB will have trained 200 peace builders who are impacting their world for Jesus. After having a great lunch with their staff, we piled back into our van and began an arduous 2 hour trip to a local village to look at the practical outworking of PB's. What a great experience this turned out to be. Not only was it great to see the rural life of those living in remote places but we got to meet the local pastor, hear his story as a peace builder and witness the conclusion of a three day PB seminar in that village. Pastor Sareth had moved to this location in 1979 at the conclusion of the Pol Pot regime. In 1994 he gave his heart to Jesus and just three years later felt the promoting of God to serve as a pastor in that local village community. Facing some overt opposition from the locals, Pastor Sareth persisted and kept encouraging people to seek Jesus - a true peace builder.

Our team was able to witness the personal testimonies from several men and women who were visibly impacted by the things they had learnt. In a room of approximately 40 participants, we heard husbands and wives acknowledging their new found desire to choose peace, love and respect instead of violence in their homes. To hear these stories and see how PB was working to connect these men and women with Pastor Sareth was simply inspiring. PB is not only meeting an obvious need for peace and reconciliation but they are opening up ways for people to discover Jesus.