Spreading the good word

Missionary family from Michigan will return to Cambodia to continue their work

Mark, Deb and Zach Wilson of Holland, Mich., are returning to a land they love to continue their quest to share Christ and his works with people in need.

A five-year excursion from Southeast Asia to Holland has helped prepare them to resume missionary work in Cambodia, the family said.

They departed July 1 for a five-year commitment as part of a partnership between the Reformed Church in America and the organization Food for the Hungry. They will live in the capital city of Phnom Penh.

“Folks in Cambodia have suffered so much. They continue to suffer from some very severe poverty and also a lot of fear and fatalism,” Deb Wilson said. “They don’t feel like they can change their lives. A lot of them don’t know about Christianity at all.

“Christ has so much love to pour out for them and comfort for all they’ve suffered. His power gives them a chance to change their lives.”

“The 10 years we were there, we began to see that (change) happen. It’s exciting to return to be a part of that,” said Mark Wilson.

Nearly 30 churches across the United States have pledged financial support to the Wilson’s work with RCA Global Mission.

Cambodia still is recovering from Pol Pot’s deadly rule from 1975-79, where a reported 25 percent of the population died from starvation, overwork and executions during his quest with the Khmer Rouge to create a Communist peasant farming society.

Before that, an estimated 150,000 Cambodian peasants died in the eastern part of the country as the United States intermittently bombed North Vietnamese troops encamped there between 1969 and 1973 during the Vietnam War.

The Wilsons were married in 1995, and then they began working together as missionaries. The couple met in 1993 at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Mich.

After 10 years in Cambodia, they moved to Thailand for two years before coming to Michigan in 2006 so Mark Wilson could attend Western Theological Seminary in Holland. He graduated last spring with a Master of Divinity degree, and he became an ordained RCA minister.

ZachWilson, now 14, recently completed eighth grade. He is proud of the work his parents do.

“It’s hard being a missionary, but it’s what God has called them to do,” Zach Wilson said. “They are open-hearted, have good personality and work well with people.”

The Wilsons say Holland has been a place of healing and education for them. Mark and Deb Wilson admitted having some ‘compassion fatigue’ after serving in Thailand for two years following the devastating 2004 earthquake and tsunami that is among the worst in world history.

National Geographic reported the Indian Ocean tsunami initially left more than 150,000 people dead or missing, and millions more were homeless in 11 countries.

“It’s been a good place to live,” Mark Wilson said. “It’s a diverse community. There’s a large Hispanic population. I lived in South America. There’s a Cambodian community. We enjoyed our neighborhood and our neighbors.

“And, Western Seminary has prepared me for this mission.”