Neither Myanmar nor Cambodia would rank highly on a list of most people's holiday destinations, 'but it's where God wants us' Jean and Billy Campbell told the members and friends of Bethel Baptist Church, Pembroke Dock, and Westgate Evangelical Church Pembroke, last week.

Jean (originally from Carmarthen) and Billy (an Ulsterman) met in Bible college and spent many years serving as missionaries in the Far East before they established Silk Road Ministries in 1997.

"We set up Silk Road Ministries at the time Hong Kong was handed back to China," they explained.

"We had served as traditional missionaries, but we felt we should set up a registered charity in the UK so that we could work in limited access countries and raise finds for projects wherever they were needed.

"We are currently working in Myanmar and Cambodia. We have been responsible for raising funds for two Bible schools, an orphanage and a prison ministry in Myanmar while our work in Cambodia has particularly focused on a schools ministry."

"We were particularly encouraged by the work in Cambodia," Pastor Rob James explained.

"It was thrilling to be reminded that God is bringing fresh hope to a land that is still scarred from its experience of 'The Killing Fields'. (Estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from 1.7 to 2.5 million out of a population of around eight million)

The Hope House Project, for example, began to take shape in 2004 with the purchase of a barren site in Kompong Speu, a remote area some 60k SW of Phnom.

The Hope House Education Centre opened in 2006. It continues to be developed and transformed with flowers, fruit trees and play areas and as a result more than 200 children who would not otherwise have had the opportunity of going to school are receiving basic education.

Graduates of the school attend the skills training centre which equips them with the skills they need to find employment of to establish business of their own.

An additional building was erected in 2011 providing the project with a library, a resource centre, staff quarters, guest rooms as well as a kitchen designed to be used for cooking classes.

"Many organisations confine their activities to the urban areas," Rob James continued.

"It is particularly gratifying to find people want to reach out to the rural poor who need just as much help and support. We were hugely encouraged to hear of all that is happening and delighted to support a work that aims to show God's love in action by teaching, equipping and resourcing local Cambodians. It's what church is supposed to be all about."

For more information, contact Silk Road Ministries, PO Box 69, St. Helens, Merseysde WA11 7GA, tel. 0151 426 0266 or email [email protected]">[email protected]