Our Story

It began with a stranger and 28 hungry children. In 2009, co-founders Bob Petrik and Rob Corley were visiting a business-as-mission project in the countryside near Battambang — a land still healing from the wounds of the Killing Fields — when a man they had never met, known only as David, led them to a small orphanage. Inside, 28 children were without food: the home's funding partner had died, leaving no money and no instructions. Food was provided that very day — and Rob and Bob found that they could not simply walk away. Returning home, they gathered family and friends and founded the Lydia Project, so that these children would never again be forgotten.

What started as a single act of compassion has grown into a family. Today, through the sacrificial generosity of more than 80 families, those first children and over 170 who have followed have been given a home, nutrition, care, and an education. That family now reaches far beyond one orphanage — to college students at five residential homes; to children at Jesus School beside the city dump, four more schools across the country, and after-school programs in rural villages; to more than 300 widows cared for through the Melody House and our pastor-led ministry, with rice provided every month; to girls finding rescue and restoration at Grace Fields; and to over 85 future pastors in training and 400 graduates planting churches through the School of Discipleship. From 28 children to a nationwide network of churches, schools, and homes, the Lydia Project's story is still being written — one life at a time.