Cambodia ~ by Chhenghorn Thean

Cheng lived in a slum-like camp for displaced persons in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

One day Cheng walked past a house and heard someone speaking to a group of people. Curious, she stared through a window. Was this a church? She wanted to study English, and she had heard that churches often teach English. She waited outside e until the program ended. A man walked out and introduced himself as Pastor Hang.

Image © Rolf Jansson from GoodSalt.com

I want to learn English, Cheng said. Pastor Hang told her that an English class met at the house-church on Wednesday afternoon.

On Wednesday afternoon Cheng returned for the English class. The teacher started the class with prayer, and when the class ended he invited Cheng to visit the church on Sabbath. She came to the worship service, but knew nothing about God and didn’t understand the sermon. Nevertheless, she wanted to return. She continued studying English on Wednesdays. Two weeks later Pastor Hang invited Cheng to a Bible class on Friday afternoon. She enjoyed learning more about the Christian God and invited Pastor Hang to come to her home to teach her.

Cheng told the pastor that she was having marital problems. She explained that she and her husband were not legally married, and her mother-in-law was trying to separate them so that her son could marry a Chinese girl. The couple moved, but then her mother-in-law took their two little sons and refused to allow Cheng to see them.

And then her husband began refusing to give her money from his earnings to buy food . The pastor listened sympathetically to Cheng’s sad story, then he offered a possible solution. He had noticed that Cheng was a natural salesperson. He invited her to sell Adventist books to earn some money. Chen agreed to try. The pastor continued to study the Bible with her and led her to Jesus.

He taught her how to sell the books. Cheng followed his directions, but she wasn’tt able to sell any books. The best places to sell books are in restaurants early in the morning and during the evening meals. But it was rainy season, and Cheng could not get to these restaurants easily.

When the rains stopped, Cheng prayed, God, if You are the true God, if You want me to follow You, please show Your power by helping me to sell some books tonight. Then she set a goal to sell three or four books for $1 each.

To be continued

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at www.adventistmission.org

Print/PDF/Email