Saturday, 12 July 2008

Albany missionary prepares for 4 more years in Cambodia

Friday, July 11, 2008
By Carrie Petersen
Albany Democrat-Herald

Ken Huff is getting ready to return at the end of this month to Cambodia for another four-year stint as a missionary with Assemblies of God.

Huff first went to work in Cambodia in January 1999, leaving behind his job as a youth pastor at First Assembly of God in Albany.

“I wanted to go to where most people hadn’t heard the gospel and where they were very poor,” he said.

Why work with the poor? “Probably because Jesus worked a lot with the poor,” he said.

Huff, a 1980 graduate of West Albany High School who went on to play basketball for Linn-Benton Community College, is now the Assemblies of God country director in Cambodia.

He is a representative to the government, works with the national church, and is involved with other missionary projects.

One of those projects is schools. Assemblies of God sponsors five public schools and operates two Christian schools in Cambodia.

Other projects include an orphanage, community development and medical teams.

First Assembly of God in Albany sends a medical and dental team to Cambodia once a year to set up a clinic in a rural area, “where people are really poor and don’t get any care,” Huff said.

Huff was a sophomore in college when he became a Christian, which “changed the direction of everything,” he said.

He left Albany and went to Evangel University in Springfield, Mo., graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

He returned to Albany, volunteering at First Assembly of God and then joined the staff in 1987.

He was a youth intern for four years before he became the youth pastor.

The youth at First Assembly have continued to support Huff, buying him a Toyota Hilux in 2000 to get him around the roads of Cambodia.

Huff will speak at 6 p.m. July 20 at Albany’s First Assembly of God about Cambodia and his work there. Everyone is welcome.

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