Cambodian Ministry

Duvon C. Corbitt, D.M.D.
(Corbitt Medical Missions - Ministry in Cambodia)

It is with gratitude to God and The Francis Asbury Society for faithful contributors that I am able to continue my ministry that was started in 1999.

I travel to Cambodia twice a year for five or six weeks at each visit, providing dental care and medicine to villages, provinces, and orphanages, and assisting them with basic needs such as shoes, money for pastors, delivering Bibles, etc.

The emphasis of my calling in Cambodia is three-fold.  First, to witness of God’s confirming grace and undying love to a people steeped in Buddhism and its darkness.  Secondly, to relieve pain and suffering through the ministry of dentistry.  Third, to support and encourage the rural pastors, most of whom have little education, very small salaries and very little prestige or respect among their own people.

Evangelism is done mostly by the pastor’s witness and working with patients individually as they come through the line for medical or dental care.  If anyone in the family can read, they are given Bibles and booklets in their own Khmer language.

When I am in Phnom Penh I have many opportunities to witness to hotel staff, homeless people, moped and taxi drivers, and theology students that gather nightly on the water front.  They are delighted to have English Bibles, and a local Christian bookstore has supplied us with a number of Bibles to use for this purpose.

The ministry of dentistry is unending, and the suffering is great.  Many times they ask for all of their teeth to be pulled.  We average at least 100 extractions per day and 70-100 medical patients with AIDS, malnutrition, digestive problems, malaria, parasites, arthritis, and TB.  These patients hear that we are coming by word of mouth and travel long distances by foot and bicycle.

This past year I spent over three months working in eleven villages in seven provinces.  I have developed a friendship with the head of the provincial hospital in the Kampong Chnang province. I supply him with medicines that he cannot afford or cannot get.  He takes my referrals of patients and cares for them.  As you can imagine, conditions are far from ideal, and in one village my dental assistant is the local butcher.  In other villages my assistant is a lawyer or a pastor.   In the states, not many dentists would boast about these assistants.  One of the drastic needs is clean drinking water.  I try to educate people in better health practices, but much more help is needed in this area.

I treasure the privilege of working with the local pastors who are a God-fearing dedicated group of men with glowing countenances.  They can easily be picked out of a crowd because of this.  In order to support their families, they work as rice farmers.  Their faith and reliance on God’s provision is astounding and puts us to shame.

With each trip I make to Cambodia, God continues to give me opportunities to share the gospel and to use dentistry for His Kingdom.  I am grateful to The Francis Asbury Society for their association and partnership of God’s work in Cambodia.

(Corbitt Medical Mission is a ministry to Cambodia and is supported through The Francis Asbury Society, Inc.)

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