Few think of Cambodia as a source of inspirational leadership. The Southeast Asian country has been plagued by poverty, war, and corruption for decades. But since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, whose genocidal reign was depicted in the 1984 film The Killing Fields, the church in Cambodia has been slowly growing and making an impact. We spoke with Dr. Kent Copeland, an American physician working with church planters in Poipet, Cambodia, about the challenges of ministry in such a place.

Poipet has been called the "Wild West" of Cambodia. What's the city like?

It's full of vices like prostitution, drugs, and gambling. Most disturbing is the child sex industry. A person can literally buy a child on the street for $25 and take them across the border into Thailand. And of course there is a lot of violence. For example, one murderer killed and robbed over 100 taxi drivers a few years ago. When the police apprehended him, to ensure that justice was done, a gang of taxi drivers took him from the police, ...