In loving memory of Steve and Kathy Cannell
I’ve known Jeff Cannell since I was in 8th grade.
Jeff and I have traveled to Cambodia together to visit Asia’s Hope throughout the years, but this was the first year I was able to travel with both him and his wife Adrienne.
We attended the same middle school, and although we weren’t close as kids, we reconnected as adults and I now consider him one of my dearest friends. When Jeff and Adrienne announced that they were planting a church in our Columbus neighborhood, Kori and I were among the first in line to join the team.
As Central Vineyard Church took shape, we became close not only to Jeff, but to Adrienne, his kids Ian and Kathleen, and to his dad Steve, who was something of a financial guru/strategic advisor to our little congregation. I never really knew Jeff’s mom Kathy — she died when Jeff was in his early 20s — but so many people around me have stories of her kindness, humility and commitment to others.
When Steve Cannell passed away in 2021, Jeff and Adrienne Cannell wanted to honor him and his late wife Kathy by blessing Asia’s Hope with a significant gift from their estate. They decided that purchasing a permanent home for our Battambang student center would be a fitting tribute to Steve and Kathy’s lifetime of generosity to underprivileged students, and in line with Steve’s longstanding respect for our organization’s work.
In fact, when Jeff was a small child, his mom taught English to Khmer refugees at their Christian Missionary Alliance church. So before I’d even heard of the country, Jeff attended a youth group that was primarily composed of kids from my now-beloved Cambodia.
It was at Central Vineyard under Jeff’s leadership that I was ordained as a pastor. And Central Vineyard, despite being a tiny church with limited financial resources, was the first congregation to fully sponsor a children’s home, thus pioneering our whole-home partnership model, which allowed us to grow Asia’s Hope from three homes to 35 over the following decade and a half.
In recent years, Central Vineyard transitioned its sponsorship from the Prek Eng 2 home to the Battambang student center, which had since its founding resided in a series of rented properties, and which today houses 90 university students who grew up at Asia’s Hope.
If you’d like to honor a loved one with a special gift to Asia’s Hope, please contact Roxi Larsen, our Director of Strategic Partnerships: roxi@asiashope.org.
When Steve passed away in 2021, Jeff and Adrienne wanted to honor him and Kathy by blessing Asia’s Hope with a significant gift from his estate. They decided that purchasing a permanent home for our Battambang student center would be a fitting tribute to Steve and Kathy’s lifetime of generosity to underprivileged students, and in line with Steve’s longstanding respect for our organization’s work.
Both Jeff and Adrienne have traveled to Cambodia before — on Asia’s Hope trips and as representatives of their denomination’s Cambodian church planting teams. But I’ve never traveled with both them together, and I really wanted to be there when our Cambodian leaders celebrated the purchase of the new facility with official dedication ceremonies and celebrations.
So about two weeks ago, I and Benjamin Hiltner — our Director of Media — met Jeff and Adrienne in Phnom Penh. We spent a few days with the kids at our Prek Eng campus, where they reconnected with staff and kids they’d loved and supported for years. We had a joyous reunion party, and saw a lot of the young adults who had previously grown up at Prek Eng 2.
Kathy Cannell teaching English to a Cambodian refugee child in Columbus, Ohio in 1981.
We then traveled the five hours away to Battambang for a week of celebrations, officially dedicating the student center to the memory of Jeff’s parents. The two main events were on Saturday and Sunday night. On Saturday, we threw a huge pizza party for the 90+ kids who call the center home. We rented a stage, and had live music, karaoke and a dance party. On Sunday night, we had a grand gala event on our Asia’s Hope campus, home to 13 children’s homes and our middle and high schools.
We invited all of the university students, all of our staff, the kids currently living at our Battambang homes and a raft of government ministers and officials from local and national ministries and departments. We had a band, our kids performed skits and songs, and we even hired acrobats and clowns from the local circus!
We roasted two cows and three pigs, and had endless soft drinks, fruit and side dishes. No one went hungry; in fact, we ate leftover pork and beef at the homes for the next two days! As the sun set, the temperatures cooled and we danced for what seemed like hours. Half a week later, my feet still hurt!
At one point in the evening, Jeff and I took a break from the mayhem and watched about 100 formerly-orphaned kids dance, jump and shout with complete abandon — well-fed, well-loved, completely safe. He leaned over and said, “It’s like heaven here.”
Amen to that.
As I write this, Jeff and Adrienne are now on their way home; their plane is somewhere over the Pacific. And tomorrow morning, Benjamin and I will return to Phnom Penh where we’ll spend a couple more days with the kids and staff there.
But the work here remains. And at the Battambang student center, where 90 kids who grew up at Asia’s Hope and are enrolled in college, the work can go on for generation after generation. I’m proud of what we’ve done here, and I think Steve and Kathy, watching from heaven, are delighted as well.
We had a band, our kids performed skits and songs, and we even hired acrobats and clowns from the local circus!
We roasted two cows and three pigs, and had endless soft drinks, fruit and side dishes. No one went hungry; in fact, we’ve ate leftover pork and beef at the homes for the next two days!