Driving in a bus down bare dirt roads was not how I expected to arrive in Kampong Khleang—a “floating village” near Siem Reap, Cambodia. For much of the year, heavy rains cause the water levels of the nearby Tonlé Sap Lake to rise dramatically, surrounding the stilted houses and turning the streets and alleys into waterways. But it was January, in the dry season, and the water had returned to its banks. As we walked toward the local Alliance church—an electric robin’s egg blue structure in the distance— international workers Soeuth and Syna Lao pointed out certain homes and buildings as we passed. Next door to the church, there was one house on tall stilts, which they told us was Kean’s home, a local church leader and the person whose story we had come to hear. This was the second part of a continuing story about two brothers and God’s call on their lives. Kean and his brother Kong grew up around the Tonlé Sap Lake. As teenagers, they were wild, rough, and afraid of nothing. According to one of their childhood friends, Savy, Kong would even hunt crocodiles with his bare hands, selling their skins to be made into purses, shoes, or belts. And as the years passed, these wild boys grew up into even rougher men—especially Kong, whose recklessness had hardened into violence.

Healing a Broken Man

As adults, Savy, Kong, and their other friend, Sen, lived with their families as squatters in a village called Tuol Krous. These were evil men—criminals, often drunk, and physically abusive to their wives and children. “I had no love for anybody,” Kong said of those days. Things were so bad that, one by one, their wives and children began running away. Kong eventually decided to leave his friends behind to go and find his wife, Kune. He followed her trail to Anlong Veng, where he found her changed. She was part of a Cambodian Alliance church—which she begged him to attend with her and their small son. He refused. Yet it was at this time that God caught hold of him.

“One day, I was working in an empty charcoal oven when the wall caved in on me and my little boy,” Kong said. “I heard my wife cry out, ‘Jesus, help my husband!’ I felt two hands grip my shoulders, and I realized I was already outside the cave.” Injured and coughing up blood, Kong’s right eye popped out of its socket. His wife and his neighbor helped him to the closest hospital, where every doctor he saw told him that they could not treat him. “I told my wife, ‘You must take me to your church. I have no other hope,’” he said.

Once there, Kong asked the pastor, Pastor Dy, to pray for him. “As he prayed,” Kong shared, “I felt something from inside was pulling my eyeball to its place, and when everyone opened their eyes to look at me, I shouted, ‘I am healed!’” Feeling overwhelmed with joy and awe, Kong realized what God had done for him. This healing sparked an urgency in his heart. He wanted to go and tell everyone about Jesus, and he prayed fervently that God would give him direction. “From now on,” he prayed, “whether I live or die, I am devoted to You. Where You send me, I will go.” As soon as he was able, Kong rode on his motorbike to visit his nine siblings to tell them about Jesus. The drastic change in him caught everyone’s attention. Their violent brother had become a kind and gentle one, and that testimony captured their hearts. Among those most affected by Kong’s transformation was his younger brother, Kean. Kean, who had been a Buddhist priest for many years, heard the message of salvation that Kong presented to him, and it stirred his heart. He decided that he wanted to be part of the family of God too. “I asked my brother, ‘How can I follow Jesus?’” Kean says. “I prayed, ‘God, where You send me, I will go.’” Kong continued to preach the gospel—first in his own village, where the testimony of his transformation began to lead people to put their trust in Jesus. Then he began traveling longer distances to bring the good news.

In 2018, when he visited Tuol Krous again, Kong went to look for Savy. It was a shocking reunion for Savy, who, perhaps more than most, saw the extreme transformation in his friend. It captured his attention in such a way that after Kong shared the story of salvation, Savy immediately accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. His subsequent transformation in character became a further amazement to the community. If Jesus could transform these men, what couldn’t He do?

On the Lake and the Land

God also lit an urgent spark in Kean to go and preach the gospel. While Kong rode his motorbike near and far to minister on land, Kean became a church planter, over- seer, and leader, ministering to those people living on the lake in the floating villages. At that time, Kean worked in law enforcement and was very well respected in the area. With boldness, he committed himself to preaching the gospel—especially to Buddhist monks and priests, village leaders, and other local police. A devoted disciple of God’s Word, Kean spent much time studying Scripture.

Kong and Kean threw themselves into spreading the gospel as true evangelists. And while they did ministry on their own, they also often helped and ministered alongside one another.

The church in Anlong Veng and surrounding villages, as well as near Siem Reap, were multiplying and growing rapidly. Alliance international workers, Soeuth and Syna Lao, who were busy strengthening the local churches and doing extensive discipleship work, found themselves barely able to keep up with the number of new believers coming to Christ.

In April 2022, it was in this season of fruitfulness that Kong and Kean went together on a small tuk-tuk to
another province to minister. Yet in a moment of inexplicable tragedy, the brothers’ vehicle was hit by a dangerously speeding 18-wheeler truck. Kong died on impact. Kean, who had suffered a head injury and a few cuts, was taken to the local emergency room for treatment. At Kong’s funeral, Savy spoke about his friend as tears streamed down his face. “Kong is resting with Jesus now, but his amazing legacy is still alive and is living inside of me and inside my family,” he said. “I am saved and so is my family—thanks to the testimony of the transformed life in my dear friend, Mr. Kong.” As for Kean, he grieved. He had planned to minister together with Kong for many more years to come. He felt as though God had removed his right arm, Syna told us.

Carry on the Torch

It was less than a year later that we visited Kampong Khleang. After a small church service in that robin’s egg blue church and eating lunch together, I followed Syna and two Alliance Video team members up to Kean’s house. I remember the hush and holiness of that moment—and the grief. Kean had lost his older brother, and Soeuth and Syna had lost their dear friend. Kean told us his story—of how he met Jesus, of the ministry he had done by himself and with his brother, and about the accident. He stood up to show us exactly where there had been tire marks on his clothes after the collision. And he told us where God was leading him. “When I said yes to God’s call, I didn’t fully understand how hard it would be,” he says. “Following Jesus means carrying my cross just like He did.” Shortly after his brother went to be with Jesus, Kean quit his job. Soeuth and Syna were surprised to hear this—he had a very successful job as a chief of police; why would he quit before retirement? But as he prayed, Kean had begun to feel a sense of urgency, that life is short, and that people were dying every day who had never heard the good news of Jesus. “I see sheep without a shepherd, and I’m ready to take care of them,” Kean says. “They are lost and confused. I have no reward on Earth to offer them, but God promised a bigger reward.”

The demands of the ministry were difficult, but Kean dedicated himself to the task with all his heart, even
travelling without money, trusting God that He would provide—even if it meant putting his life at risk so that people would hear the good news. The floating villages around Tonlé Sap are remote and difficult to reach, costing valuable resources just to get there. “It’s a lonely place, so they welcome the visit,” Syna
says. “Kean demonstrates that love of Christ by going to visit them, even when nobody is willing to go to them.”

With passion in his voice, Kean says, “As long as God gives me breath, I will continue to carry on the torch of my brother, and this is what keeps me going in the hardships. My God is faithful.”

Willing to Go

After the interview, we followed Kean as he went to minister to a local family in another nearby floating village. Walking down the streets there, he stopped to speak to nearly every person we passed, eliciting bright smiles from many. At the family’s house, he spoke and prayed with them. Then, almost out of nowhere, a tarp was produced, which was laid on the ground in front of their home. Sitting together with the family, some other local believers, and even several others who were drawn by the sight, Kean led a time of worship and teaching from Scripture. It was simple, peaceful, and awash in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

When I think of all the church services and gatherings of believers I have had the privilege of attending, that day on the tarp will always be one of the most precious. And I think I will always carry with me the testimony of these men’s lives—whose hearts of obedience before the Lord vowed, “Where You send me, I will go.”