Cambodia Mission Trip in 2026 w/Holy Cross, Los Gatos

In 2024, Holy Cross sent 7 volunteers on a Mission Trip to Cambodia. There, Holy Cross

partnered with LCMS Missionary JP Cima, and our volunteers spent 11 days

helping the people there and spreading the good news to the Cambodian people. You

can watch the recap video below...

Holy Cross is doing it again! If you would like to join us in 2026, please attend our

Informational Meeting on April 27th at 10:45am. We would like to

have a team assembled by June, so time and space may be limited. If this is something you

are interested in, please feel free to join us for our informational meeting.

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Here is the story of our 2024 experience:

Phnom Penh

Our first stop in Cambodia was Phnom Penh, the Capital of Cambodia. There we met up with our Missionary Partner, JP Cima. JP, his Wife, and 3 kids have been serving the lord in Southeast Asia for over 15 years now. About 5 years ago he relocated to Cambodia and has been growing the Lutheran Church there while working with the Cambodia Lutheran Church (CLC).

While in Phnom Penh, our mission team join JP for a special youth group meeting with the local Cambodian youth group, visited various Cambodia markets and shops, saw multiple important historical sites, and more!

Chhuk

Our next stop in Cambodia was the small village of Chhuk in the Kampot Province. There we spent a few days and held a VBS in partnership with Prech Lutheran Church, and the Garuna Christian School there in Chhuk.

When we weren't holding VBS, we were spending time with our Cambodian friends going on bus rides, exploring lakes, eating great food, and we even drove to a nearby city for dinner one night.

Mission Trips are about more than just Vacation Bible Schools and suffering from heat. Mission Trips are about fellowship with the locals, and truly learning about the place you are visiting. Just providing friendship and support to the few Christian in Cambodia can be as simple as getting dinner with them.

Vacation Bible School

A Vacation Bible School (VBS) is basically a summer day camp hosted by a church. Children are taught the gospel and the word of the Lord through interactive games, crafts, and songs. While they are quite common in the United States, many mission trips have replicated them abroad.

When Holy Cross went to Cambodia, our team spent a few days in the small village of Chhuk and held a VBS there. Between our Holy Cross team and the teams from Prech Lutheran Church and Garuna Christian School already in Chhuk, we were able to host 160 kids per day for 2 days straight.

The Khmer kids had a great time making friendship bracelets, making model butterflies from coffee strainers, animals out of pipe cleaners, playing tag, and more! The best part was they were learning about the love of Jesus and how strong their faith can be all while having fun!

Siem Reap

After our time in Chhuk, we went to the major city of Siem Reap. Siem Reap is basically the tourist city of Cambodia. It is home to the incredible Angkor Wat (more about that below), as well as other big attractions such as Pub Street, the Riverside Night Market, and Tonle Sap Lake. Pub Street is the main street over in Siem Reap. Pub Street features many great resturants, night markets, and a suprising number of fish pedicures. Right next to Pub Street is the Riverside Night Market. The night market was full of cool gifts and crafts, which we spent a lot of time perusing. Tonle Sap Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, and while we never had time to properly visit the lake, we did see it as we drove around it.

Vacation Bible School 2

In Siem Reap, we teamed up with another Garuna Christian School to host a single-day "Mini-VBS". Again these children learned about the love of Jesus through stimulating crafts, songs, and games. After our Mini-VBS with the Garuna School, we went to another smaller Christian school and held a 2nd Mini-VBS.

The lesson for our two mini-VBSs and for one of the days in Chhuk was "The Mustard Seed of Faith". The kids were taught that their faith is like a mustard seed, and though it is small if they take care of it, it will one day grow to into a big mustard tree. This lesson taught the kids that even with just a little bit of faith, God can make big things happen.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world. It is a temple that was built in the 1100s as the main temple for the Capital City of the Khmer Empire. By the early 1300s, the greater City of Angkor had between 700,000 and 900,000 residents. This makes it one of the biggest pre-industrial revolution cities in history. This also makes it comparable to the population of Rome when Jesus was born, which was around 1 million residents.

Within the larger Angkor Archeological Park, which includes the main Angkor Wat Temple, there are over 1,000 temples from that time period. And the Archeological Park is only about 400 square kilometers or 98,000 acres!

For the last few days of our mission trip in 2024, we spent our time in Siem Reap, the modern-day city near Angkor. When we were not doing VBS, we spent time touring Angkor Wat. While we certainly didn't see all the temples, we saw the main Angkor Wat temple and saw a collection of 5 or so more of the bigger temples.

While visiting Angkor is not expressly mission-related, it is a very important part of the Cambodian national identity and it is important to truly connect with the Khmer people, and since we were already in the area, we saw it as a necessary stop in our journey.

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