Sokhom's Story

Hiiiii.

Okay so I think it's time you guys get to hear the incredible story of a man named Sokhom.

Cambodia has had an incredibly violent past. The Vietnam War, civil wars, and rebellions are just a few things on the list of events that have shaped this country. It has been broken many times and is therefore, a fairly "new" country due to its lost heritage. One of the most known events in Cambodia's history were "The Killing Fields." This occurred during the "reign" of a man named Pol Pot from 1975-1979. He was a Communist leader who, when he came into power, began questioning and executing anyone that was "intelligent" and/or directly related to the previous government. Teacher? Executed. City official? Executed. If you wore eyeglasses? Executed. He had over 2,000,000 people killed durning those 4 years. Many were forced to work in labor camps, were then tortured, and eventually died. It was unimaginable.

Sokhom was directly involved in this genocide.

All growing up, Sokhom's father was the mayor and Justice of the Peace for their district in Cambodia. Sokhom grew up and began college. He was a student during the day and a Protector of the City (unofficial police officer) at night. When Pol Pot took over in 1975, Sokhom's father was interrogated and then executed due to his place in the previous government. Sokhom was brought in for questioning, admitted that he was a student, and was released. But a colleague turned him in for his night job and Sokhom was scheduled for execution. His life was spared due to his age and the need for his strength at the work camps. While Sokhom was in prison, he became malnourished and extremely sick from a blood infection. He endured unimaginable conditions and his life was spared many times. While he was moving to a different work camp, Sokhom escaped and went into hiding for a month while forming a sort of political resistance group. One day he went into the city of Phnom Penh and he came back to discover his apartment destroyed and his comrades killed. Sokhom was on the run again. He married Phaline in 1979 and they had their first daughter. They continued to hop from place to place until they decided to move to a refugee camp that was run by the UN. Sokhom and Phaline had to make the unimaginable decision to leave their daughter with friends due to the dangerous three week journey to the camp. They made it to the camp and stayed there for almost a year until they were moved to Dallas, Texas. Sokhom and Phaline were set up in a refugee community and began attending church at Highland Park Church of Christ through a refugee outreach program.

As they began their new life in America, Sokhom started to work on automobile upholstery and became one of the best upholsters in Dallas. He opened his own shop and was incredibly successful. By this time, Phaline had given birth to three more children and they lived a fairly comfortable life. But their memories and experiences from Cambodia stayed fresh in their minds. They began to learn more about the church's mission work and the Huns decided to take a two week mission trip back to Cambodia. They traveled back and had an incredible experience. They were reunited with their daughter and by the end of the two weeks, the Huns decided to move back and become full-time missionaries. In November 2009, they had moved back and had begun their mission work.

Since 2009, Sokhom and Phaline have started the Cambodian Bible School where they teach English and train student preachers. They also organize four mission trips a year and there is now a new medical clinic at CBS. They have had successful church plants and many baptisms. The Walnut Street Church of Christ in Dallas sponsors this family.

It's safe to say that God is using Sokhom and Phaline to do incredible things in Phnom Penh and that he is working in the lives of many through these amazing people.

Sarah and I CANNOT wait to be in Cambodia, working under this amazing couple and learning how to be God's hands and feet in a different country. We ask that you continue to pray for our journey as we prepare for this summer.

Thank you for your support. We are incredibly blessed.
Blessings,
Sarah & Cassie

 

5 Months To Go.

Guess what guys. Sarah and I are going to Cambodia.

CAMBODIA.

Lucky for you I have included this handy dandy world map and I will now share it with you. 

So here it is on the BIG map. PS it's the red thing.

Annnnd here it is up close. 

So that's precisely 9,105.8 miles from Dallas, Texas y'all. Making it a whopping 9,278.8 miles from Grand Ol' Abilene. The farthest I've ever been away from home was on my trip to North Carolina. When I was 3 years old. The only thing I can remember from that trip was having to chew spearmint gum because my ears were popping. 

That being said. This is a very new experience for me. Sarah has had the privilege of traveling to Thailand before and LOVED it. I unfortunately have not and I am SO excited.   

What the heck are we going to do there? Well lemme just tell you about it.

Abilene Christian University started an incredible program in 2001 called WorldWide Witness. This is a program that has sent over 400 university students abroad to work under experienced mentors and help spread God's kingdom. It is a two month internship that allows students to deeply experience missions while being mentored by incredible missionaries. Students typically stay with their missionary hosts or a local family while they are there. Pick a continent and go. How about Africa? Asia? Somewhere in the South Pacific? Latin America? Europe? Or even the USA? Basically, you can go anywhere and learn, firsthand, how to actively love God and his people. IT. ROCKS. 

I've always wanted to go to Africa. For two years I was dead set on attending Harding University; one of the main reasons being that they had a study abroad in Africa. I was at a block party my sophomore year and I told a neighbor that if ACU had a study abroad in Africa, I would be more open to going to school there. Little did I know that I was talking to one of the leaders for WorldWide Witness. He explained all the details to me and I nodded politely and pushed it to the back of my head. Tadaa, I'm at ACU and five months away from my internship with WorldWide Witness. GOD IS SO GOOD. 

As I was deciding which country to go to, Africa was of course my first choice. Why wouldn't I choose it? I've always dreamed of going to an orphanage there and holding babies and just LOVING on them all day. But as I sat and listened to all the countries and continents and opportunities, I was instantly flooded with new feelings and suddenly, Africa seemed to be bumped down on my mental list. I heard about an opportunity in Latvia that seemed to stay in my thoughts for several days. It was a program that worked with girls that had been sold into sex slavery. I would have the chance to go out on the street and minister to these girls. How crazy, scary, and absolutely incredible is that? I was dead-set on Latvia. 

Then I found out I couldn't go because I was a freshman. 

It makes absolute sense, but I was still so upset. I was so confused. I was going to do God's work in an extreme environment and one that was completely out of my comfort zone. Why were all of these doors being shut in my face?

I looked back at my list and realized Cambodia was one that I had expressed interest in. I had just jotted it down because it involved working with kids. I had no idea where Cambodia even was. Plus, no one knew too many details in the meeting because it was a brand new site, as of this year. I talked Sarah (who was also struggling with deciding on a location) about it and we decided to go seek the wisdom of our fearless leaders. As we sat and talked about our predicament, the idea of going to Cambodia became more and more exciting. We listened to the story of the couple we would be working under and the more we listened, the more we fell in love (more on their story and the work that I'll be doing with them later). We left the meeting feeling absolutely at peace with our decision and completely ecstatic about what was to come.  

So with all that being said, We'll be leaving for Phnom Pehn, Cambodia in early June and returning sometime in early August. We'll be keeping a blog starting right now and it will continue throughout our internship. It won't be an everyday post while we're here in the states, but you better believe we'll be blowing up this page with stories while we're 9,000 and something miles away. The dates aren't for sure yet, but we'll keep you posted. All I know is that we get to go and experience a culture completely different from our own, work under some incredible missionaries, learn life lessons, impact kids' lives, and share God's love with an entire country. 

GOD IS SO GOOD.  

We cannot wait. 

Blessings,
Cassie & Sarah