Church Behind the Wire: A Story of Faith in the Killing Fields

From the oppression and terror of the killing fields in Cambodia, this is the story of how one man's conversion led to a rebirth of faith that brought hope to a nation. Commissioned by Communists to spy on a Christian evangelistic crusade, Barnabas Mam instead discovered Jesus and came to faith in Him. After spending four years in prison camps at the hands of the Khmer Rouge Barnabas emerged as one of only 200 surviving Christians in all of Cambodia. God raised him up to became the foremost evangelist and church planter in a land broken by genocide. An inspiring story on a personal, church, and national level, this is more than a narrative--it's a blueprint for success for church growth of the most powerful kind.

“You may have heard of the Killing Fields. You may even know it is a five-year epoch that fits somewhere within the complex history of the Vietnam War. You may not know that there are specific places in the Cambodian countryside where the bones of our people still emerge from the ground after a heavy rain…”

Barnabas Mam’s conversion to Christianity in the 1970s coincided with the rise of a notoriously deadly regime. One of only 200 Christians to survive Pol Pot’s genocidal campaign known as the Killing Fields, Barnabas proceeded to become the foremost evangelist and church planter in Cambodia. Church Behind the Wire is his story.

Barnabas Mam has been the regional director in Asia for Ambassadors for Christ International since 2007. He joined the Communist party as a teenager and was converted to Christ while spying on a Christian evangelistic meeting in the early 1970s. He was later arrested and sent to the Killing Fields where he spent four years in captivity. After his release, Barnabas was forced to flee the country where he spent another eight years in a refugee camp in Thailand. After returning home, Barnabas helped rebuild the church in his native land. Over 400 churches have been planted in Cambodia since.