NEW DIRECTOR
No stranger to poverty, drugs, broken relationships and gang culture, Bunnavuth became the new director of Teen Challenge in September, 2014. His life has ably equipped for this role. At the age of 15, Bunnavuth’s family went through financial difficulties due to corruption; losing everything they had. In grade 9, he quickly went from being a good student to hanging out with the wrong crowd, drinking, smoking, abusing drugs, and skipping school. He would travel from his hometown in Kandal province to Phnom Penh to wreck havoc in the capital, getting into fights and clubbing. Shortly after, he joined a gang, continuing the drug and violent lifestyle. After the gang went through some restructuring, they spread out throughout the country, where they were instructed to recruit members from their hometowns, hence returning home to Kandal Province where he used his home as a gang base while his parents worked full time. He transported drugs from the capital to his province, went through girl after girl and quickly became infamous in his part of town. During these times he felt depressed, suicidal and hopeless, with no way out. All this activity came to a screeching halt in 2004, when 3 of his friends got put in jail. He told himself he would do anything to change his life if he got to escape prison.
Not long after, his sister got into a bad accident, and while he and his mom were at the hospital, they met a young Christian man, David, also visiting a friend. His mother invited David to wait with them and David shared a bit about Christ to them, and told them about New Life Fellowship’s Dorm ministry, where there were free English and computer classes. No longer wanting to tolerate her son’s behavior, Bunnavuth’s mother kicked him out of the house gave him an ultimatum—to either go to live in a pagoda as a monk, or to live in this Dorm ministry that David had told them about. After some deliberation, Bunnavuth decided to go with the dorm option, as there was an opportunity for education, which meant hope for the future.
In this living situation he was introduced to Christ, but the transition to live in the dorms was not at all easy. The dorms were full of young men from all over the country, with various backgrounds and all different walks of life. The Christian environment was very foreign to him and he did not enjoy the classes they offered. He wanted to leave but had nowhere to go so he followed the rules and policies of the dormitory. About 6 months after living at the dorms, on one Mother’s Day service at church, there was a skit performed where a mother said, “Son, I have done everything I know to make you into the best person possible,” while the son pointed out all the wrongs she had made in her life. This made him so uncomfortable he left and hid in the toilets crying, and it was then he decided to follow Jesus and allow him to change his life.
He quickly found hope and things to look forward to in life with Christ, and stopped drinking and smoking entirely. He discovered a love for studying and excelled in class. Later on, he volunteered in the computer and English classes as a teacher. When he went back to his province to visit his mother, his mother saw a different son, one who spoke kindly to her and when he told her about this Jesus that he had discovered, she was excited about how God could change her son so drastically, while in her 21 years of upbringing she could not. One after another, his family members turned to Christ as he disassociated himself with his old gang members and past life. When you look at Bunnavuth’s difficult past and his job history, it is obvious God has been preparing him for this role as director of Teen Challenge. In the past 10 years since being saved, he has worked as a volunteer English and Computer teacher, a security guard, a church planter, an outreach officer with Hosea Ministry (working with street children and drug users), at Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia, working in communications/IT, and most recently at World vision as a communications officer for creative youth. He is delighted and excited with this role, a little nervous about filling some big shoes, yet with God he is confident that all things are possible. He hopes to learn and grow more, and spread God’s love and care to the youths of Cambodia.
Rath Bunnavuth and Daneth
Country Director
No stranger to poverty, drugs, broken relationships and gang culture, Bunnavuth became the new director of Teen Challenge in September, 2014. His life has ably equipped for this role. At the age of 15, Bunnavuth’s family went through financial difficulties due to corruption; losing everything they had. In grade 9, he quickly went from being a good student to hanging out with the wrong crowd, drinking, smoking, abusing drugs, and skipping school. He would travel from his hometown in Kandal province to Phnom Penh to wreck havoc in the capital, getting into fights and clubbing. Shortly after, he joined a gang, continuing the drug and violent lifestyle. After the gang went through some restructuring, they spread out throughout the country, where they were instructed to recruit members from their hometowns, hence returning home to Kandal Province where he used his home as a gang base while his parents worked full time. He transported drugs from the capital to his province, went through girl after girl and quickly became infamous in his part of town. During these times he felt depressed, suicidal and hopeless, with no way out. All this activity came to a screeching halt in 2004, when 3 of his friends got put in jail. He told himself he would do anything to change his life if he got to escape prison.
Not long after, his sister got into a bad accident, and while he and his mom were at the hospital, they met a young Christian man, David, also visiting a friend. His mother invited David to wait with them and David shared a bit about Christ to them, and told them about New Life Fellowship’s Dorm ministry, where there were free English and computer classes. No longer wanting to tolerate her son’s behavior, Bunnavuth’s mother kicked him out of the house gave him an ultimatum—to either go to live in a pagoda as a monk, or to live in this Dorm ministry that David had told them about. After some deliberation, Bunnavuth decided to go with the dorm option, as there was an opportunity for education, which meant hope for the future.
In this living situation he was introduced to Christ, but the transition to live in the dorms was not at all easy. The dorms were full of young men from all over the country, with various backgrounds and all different walks of life. The Christian environment was very foreign to him and he did not enjoy the classes they offered. He wanted to leave but had nowhere to go so he followed the rules and policies of the dormitory. About 6 months after living at the dorms, on one Mother’s Day service at church, there was a skit performed where a mother said, “Son, I have done everything I know to make you into the best person possible,” while the son pointed out all the wrongs she had made in her life. This made him so uncomfortable he left and hid in the toilets crying, and it was then he decided to follow Jesus and allow him to change his life.
He quickly found hope and things to look forward to in life with Christ, and stopped drinking and smoking entirely. He discovered a love for studying and excelled in class. Later on, he volunteered in the computer and English classes as a teacher. When he went back to his province to visit his mother, his mother saw a different son, one who spoke kindly to her and when he told her about this Jesus that he had discovered, she was excited about how God could change her son so drastically, while in her 21 years of upbringing she could not. One after another, his family members turned to Christ as he disassociated himself with his old gang members and past life. When you look at Bunnavuth’s difficult past and his job history, it is obvious God has been preparing him for this role as director of Teen Challenge. In the past 10 years since being saved, he has worked as a volunteer English and Computer teacher, a security guard, a church planter, an outreach officer with Hosea Ministry (working with street children and drug users), at Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia, working in communications/IT, and most recently at World vision as a communications officer for creative youth. He is delighted and excited with this role, a little nervous about filling some big shoes, yet with God he is confident that all things are possible. He hopes to learn and grow more, and spread God’s love and care to the youths of Cambodia.
Rath Bunnavuth and Daneth
Country Director
