Kevin and Robin Olson

Missionaries to Cambodia

Kevin was raised Roman Catholic in a loving and stable home. In high school, he got involved in drugs and alcohol, and lived a godless and immoral lifestyle. God graciously called Kevin to himself in February of 1987 using a book that had been given to Kevin by a family friend. Within a month of his conversion to Christ, he was baptized and had his first meeting with Robin Enander (later Robin Olson) on a church bus during a church outreach.

The Lord immediately gave Kevin a joyful passion for prayer and Bible study. Over a period of months at a regular Saturday morning prayer meeting, the Lord nudged Kevin to go on a short-term missions trip to inner-city Brooklyn, USA, in July of 1987. It was the beginning of a vision for cross-cultural ministry.

Robin grew up in a loving Christian farm home. At age eight, during a home town revival meeting, she accepted Jesus Christ as savior and Lord. In second grade she had her first sense of a call to missions, and began to tell everyone that she was going to be a missionary when she grew up. Missionary speakers were the highlight of her weeks at summer Bible camp.
At 15, Robin had her first missions experience, working with a team doing evangelism in the southern United States. In 1987 she attended Urbana and met with an OMF representative. She pursued a degree at North Dakota State University and got her B.S. in dietetics.

Kevin and Robin both went to Brooklyn on another short-term team in the summer of 1988. They were married in 1989 and in early 1990, they traveled to China on a “scouting” trip. However, they were called to go to Cambodia in September of that same year. From 1990 to 1992 they taught English at the College of Medicine in Phnom Penh. After their return to the U.S. in 1992, Kevin attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, and graduated in 1995 with a concentration in cross-cultural ministries. In 1996 he received a TESL certificate from Hamline University. During that time Kevin had the privilege to serve as a member of a leadership team in a Cambodian church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Kevin and Robin returned to Cambodia in 1997, ministering to the Krung, Brou and Tampuen ethnic minorities in Ratanakiri province. They returned to the U.S. in 1999, and pursued membership in OMF International. In 2003 the Olsons returned to Cambodia with OMF, and moved back to Ratanakiri province. They are currently involved with church work among the Brou.

Kevin and Robin have four children: Evan Narith (1996), Emily Sarin (1998), Alice Thea (2000) and David Tha (2004).