Church Buildings In Cambodia

With all the materials we have been assembling for one of our projects we have learned a lot about the LDS church buildings in Cambodia. We thought we might share some of that information.

The Phnom Penh South Stake Center (which is really in the East District) is the oldest of the church owned buildings and is about 11 years old. This building is also the largest square foot because it has an extra wing, which is where our office is.  The North Stake building is second oldest, which is about 7 years old. There is a building in Steung Mean Chey which is also about 7 years old. The Steung Mean Chey property is the largest of all the lots, allowing for potential expansion. The church owned buildings look very much like the chapels you might find anywhere around the world. There are not as many classrooms here, however, as we have in Utah.

There are a few other buildings in Phnom Penh which the church has leased that are older than these buildings. These are mostly villas and large houses being used as meetinghouses. There are also some newer buildings around the country. We have seen the chapels in Battambang, Siem Reap, Kampong Thom and Ta Khmao. There are two rented buildings in Kampong Cham that will be replaced hopefully about the end of the year with a beautiful new building. Each of these have a secure gate for protection.

The buildings are a representation of the growing church here in Southeast Asia. The church has been in Cambodia for just over 21 years, and has two stakes and five districts. They are hopeful that one of the districts will soon become an additional stake. There are other areas that members have moved to that really need groups or branches because the distance and lack of transportation makes attending church meetings almost impossible.

All this has brought a greater understanding of how blessed we have been, having so many church members close together. Blessed to have chapels close enough, and good sidewalks, which makes walking to church no problem. Or just being able to get in the car for a short ride to church. We were so blessed to be surrounded by so many temples, again close enough to walk. We were blessed to be surrounded by so much that it took us traveling around the world to see how many big blessings we had seen as just one more little thing in our lives.