Survivor Stories

As usual I'm collecting people's stories. People here have the most amazing stories to tell. A group of friends went off last Friday to visit some survivors of the Killing Fields here, and since I had committed to teaching an Italian Cooking lesson I couldn't accompany them. However, at supper the next night, one of the people who did go shared some of what they heard from the pepole they met the day before.

One of the people my friends met was Sok. During the Khmer Rouge he was arrested and while in jail he was beaten for 8 hours, I believe, by a guard. He eventually got out of jail, and escaped to Thailand, where he was in a refugee camp. The Christians in the refugee camp fasted and prayed for the people who would arrive there. Could this be why so many people's stories of their spiritual pilgrimage begin in a refugee camp? In any case, Sok met Christians and was converted. Within a very short time of his conversion-- in the first hour, evidently-- he ran into the former prison guard who had beaten him. Now what? He ran up to his former tormentor and said, "I've just been completly forgiven of all my sins and I want you to know that I forgive you, too." Is it any wonder that the former prison guard also became a Christian?

Sok's wife, Savy experienced the grace and protection of God before she even knew Him. She was being forced to marry a Khmer Rouge soldier. On the day of the wedding, she said she needed to go out and buy some things for her wedding outfit, and took the opportunity to escape in a boat with her sister. After a while they heard a motor boat and saw that it was filled with soldiers, so they slipped into the river to escape. They made their way to Thailand, which is no mean feat for any of these people. It meant walking through the jungle and swimming across rivers and avoiding soldiers and land mines. That any of them made it was God's grace. At one point Savy and her sister knew that they needed to cross a river but were unsure of where to go. It was a dark night and they really couldn't tell where to go. Suddenly the clouds parted briefly and the full moon shone brightly on the river so that they could see where to go and they were able to cross. The irony of all this is that there was no full moon that night. It was really only a sliver. But Savy made it to Thailand and the refugee camp, became a Christian and married Sok.

In their years in Canada they planted 3 Cambodian churches in Ontario and are back here to run a "modular seminary" where pastors come and study for something like 11 days at a time and don't have to leave their families or their churches for an extended time.

I'm overwhelmed by the stories I hear. These people have been through suffering that we can't begin to imagine, and yet in the midst of all the horror and the cruelty and sin involved, God is calling out a people for Himself in this part of the world and showing them grace. It may be that when people have nothing, no homes, no posessions, no safety, they realize how much they need a God who will save them, protect them and guide them.