Mark Fishel, LCC ’91, LCS ’08 has been an overseas missionary for 16 years. He first served in Szeged, Hungary with a local church, then in Prague, Czech Republic with a college ministry. For the past nine years he has served in Cambodia.
Missions was the farthest thing from Mark’s mind when he entered LCC in the fall of 1986. He remembers telling a classmate, “I cannot ever imagine living in another country and learning another language and culture. I just could not do it. I could never be a missionary.” Mark readily admits that this is still the case today. “If God did not equip me, empower me, and sustain me, I could never do the work I do.”
Mark lives in Phnom Penh, which is the capitol city of Cambodia. His ministry focus is in three areas. First, he co-leads a local church with a Cambodian preacher. He helped plant this church in 2016. It will celebrate its two year anniversary in January 2018. The church is located in the city where he resides. Second, Mark serves with a fellowship of churches called Kampuchea Christian Community, a group of independent churches that come together for teaching and fellowship. The church he helped plant is also part of this fellowship of churches. He serves as an advisor for this group and helps teach continuing education seminars for the ministers and lay-leaders in these congregations. Third, Mark is working with local churches to help them be more self-sustaining as congregations. Most churches in Cambodia are very poor and rely heavily on foreign funds to operate. He is helping them to find small business ventures to fund the ministries of the local churches.
If you would like to find out more about Mark’s ministry in Cambodia or would like to receive his email updates, you can contact him at markfishel2010@gmail.com
His sending agency is Ripe for Harvest World Outreach