<3 Break my Heart for what Breaks Yours <3
We had the privilege last night to sit down with pastor Keat who is our contact here in Cambodia and hear his testimony of how he survived the Cambodian genocide and how he met his wife Sally. I have never in my life met someone that has been through so much and in the end still be able to give all the glory to the one true father. My heart broke for him, his family, and the Khmer, but what truly moved my heart was to be able to hear the way he could still give God all the glory and be thankful for all the trials he was put through that brought him to this place!
Pastor Keat was 17 years old when Pol Pot started the communist takeover here in Cambodia. His entire village was evacuated in one day without any time to prepare or grab their belongings. Every business was shut down and every single person lost all freedom of anything. They were separated from their families and Pastor Keat was sent to a youth brigade where all you could do was labor in the fields every day. The only way you could survive those days was to pretend you were dumb. Anyone that was a student, teacher, wore glasses, or they even thought could be educated was sent straight to the killing fields. They had no choice of clothing, no choice of what to eat, no choice of anything. For four years they didn’t wear shoes, they didn’t have soap, no toothbrush or toothpaste. They suffered from ringworm and body lice. They weren’t fed enough for the work they were doing… no breakfast, and for lunch and dinner they were given rice porridge which consists of white rice and water with some vegetables.. Rarely any meat. A lot of people died if they got an infection because they didn’t have any type of antibiotic, which is how he lost his brother. They worked every day (which means no weekends off) for 4 years straight.. Except for the three day holiday they received from April 17-19. EVERY DAY! Labor in the fields. The saying was “If you don’t work you don’t eat” .They were only able to see their families once a year. For four years the laborers didn’t know what time or day it was, they read their shadow for time and only new the seasons. For the first three years, 1975-1978, it was against the law to get married. If you talked, walked, or anything else with a female you were killed. Finally in 78 they changed the law and marriage was allowed. The rules were you had to marry someone from your village (there were 10 girls in pastor Keats village). Some villages were so strict that they just lined up the single men and the single women and decided that is who you would marry, luckily pastor Keats’ village had a tiny bit of freedom and he could chose which girl he wanted, mind you he still didn’t know any of these women. He asked permission to marry Sally cause she looked okay, but she didn’t have a choice so they got married. After working their normal day at the field they wore there usual black uniform they held the ceremony. There were 5 couples that got married that evening and the only vows they could make at the ceremony were to the communist- that they would go anywhere the communist sent them. No ring, no dress, no cake, they don’t even know the date. The next day they went back to work.
Finally after about four years the Vietnamese communist invaded Cambodia and pastor Keat and his family escaped to Thailand. They walked and caught rides with some army trucks to get to the border. Once there they only had one bike so pastor Keat had to, one by one, take his mother, father, grandmother, and wife to the refugee camp. It took a full day to take one person there and back. They had a baby 2 months premature that they lost because the nurse gave her spoiled milk and she was too weak to survive. It was in this refugee camp when they heard the gospel for the first time and they committed their lives to Christ. They spent the next six to seven months spreading the gospel and studying the bible. Pastor Keat had an uncle that was in LA and so his family transported to LA and then traveled up to Hawaii where he and his wife Sally settled and started working. He started contracting and built their entire first house and almost everything in it by scratch . To hear him say how much the Lord blessed him was truly humbling. He thanks the four years spend with the communist for giving him appreciation for freedom, for making him a hard worker, and for humility. That he and his family have been so blessed. They were called back to Cambodia and started this church and school and have been here for the last 17 years. They have two older sons and about 12 years ago they adopted a daughter. They’ve struggled some with their marriage because of all they have been through… but they know it was an act of God that brought them together. They have been married for over 30 years. There is a joy and a true happiness that just pours out of this man..
Thank you God for this man and his family.
I am changed forever because his story of Redemption.
" And we know that God causes all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them" Romans 8:28
