Testimony

Pastor Sinai’s Testimony

I was born to Buddhist parents in 1969 in Bantey Meanchay Province. I have eight siblings. My father was a Buddhist priest and a farmer before our country was taken over by the Khmer Rouge. The only thing I remember about my childhood was war and running for safety from one place to another. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge forced everyone to leave the capital city. Everyone had to work in the countryside fields to serve ‘Angkar.’ Under the Khmer Rouge, my father was forced to become a fisherman and my mother a rice planter, who was also forced to build ditch-water irrigation systems. All children were separated into age groups and given duties. The duty of my group was to collect cow manure as fertilizer for the fields. We worked long hours and I seldom saw my family. We were given watery porridge twice a day and many died of hunger and thirst, others were killed for no reason. One time 50 people were tied together and killed before my eyes.

When the Vietnamese came to intervene in 1979 we ran away to escape the now moving Khmer Rouge. Due to confusion my parents became separated, and I held my baby sister in my arms and ran with my mother. Two of Pol Pot’s soldiers on horseback opened fire on us with their rifles, shooting those that were fleeing. When we looked back we saw many dead and injured from the shooting. We jumped into the river and swam to the other side fleeing into the jungle. Every day we ran from place to place with very little and often times no food or water. Each night we slept beneath the jungle’s canopy. At this time the Khmer Rouge was capturing the “simple families” using them as pawns to surround themselves and their encampments to deter the Vietnamese troops from engaging and opening fire on them. It was during this time that many children died of hunger, thirst and disease, considered merely ‘casualties of war.’ We lived as captives under the Khmer Rouge for nearly three months, hiding with them in the jungle. We finally managed to linger behind the moving group and fled when they were out of sight. We then made it back to our village which was now guarded by Vietnamese-organized troops. There, after about three months, we were reunited with our father who had been searching relentlessly for us. He was fortunate to have made it alongside the Vietnamese troops not long after our separation. Soon after the Vietnamese secured our homeland area and set up a base camp including training facilities.

Under the Vietnamese I was given an opportunity for an education and studied for eight years. After that, I was required to join the Vietnamese-organized army as an accountant. Many were killed daily in the ongoing clashes with the Khmer Rouge. One day the Khmer Rouge surrounded our camp and everyone had to fight. Many people died that day at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and their gruesome style; cutting off the enemy’s heads is haunting. During the battle my face was badly injured, I tried stopping the blood by holding my hand over my face and I fled. The only route of escape was through our own camp’s land-mine field, in which many of the mines I helped to plant myself. As I was crouched down making my way through the mine field, a young boy fighting for the Khmer Rouge quickly stood up from the tall grass and pointed his rifle directly at my head. I pleaded with him saying, ‘Please don’t kill me, I want to see my parents and the future, I don’t want to die.’ After pleading with him he finally spoke and said, ‘Okay. Go!’ I made my way back to my village where my mother was in mourning, certain that I had died with the others. When my mother saw me she thought that I was a ghost. She was so surprised that I survived when all of the others had died.

A couple of months later, a Vietnamese-Khmer formed troop came to my village and the commander put a gun to my head and told me I must return and fight (this was the last I ever saw of my mother). He sent me to another camp where not long after we were surrounded by the Khmer Rouge. It was late in the evening and I was on guard near the entrance to the camp. To my surprise a series of about a dozen missiles were fired in my direction, one of which lunged me into the air. When I hit the ground I was stunned. I continued to lay there motionless acting as though I was dead. I heard them yelling, ‘One’s dead already, let’s go!’ They passed by me and entered the camp while the soldiers in the camp fled out the other side. I don’t know what happened after that. When it was clear I escaped. With only the clothes I was wearing, I made a tiring journey of several days to the Thai border. I was very hungry and had no food, but I know that God gave me the strength to make it. I found my way to a refugee camp, one of the largest in Thailand with over 150,000 refugees. As I had no family, there was no place for me to stay. A kind man offered to let me stay with him and I accepted his offer. The hand of God must have led me. This man, who was serving as a pastor under Campus Crusade for Christ, introduced me to Jesus but I refused to accept Him as my Savior because it meant betraying my family and our traditional beliefs, so I left him. Another person offered me a place to stay and I accepted, but discovered that he too was a church leader. At his invitation I attended a church service though I didn’t understand anything about it. Out of obligation, l continued going. On the fourth time, the pastor spoke on love and hope, and the messages touched me. That day I asked the Lord to take my life and I committed my past, present, and future to God. Since then I have found joy, meaning and hope. I thank God for His saving grace in my life.

I then witnessed to many friends who were despondent and frustrated, some were suicidal. Life in the refugee camp was difficult. No one could go outside the fenced area that was surrounded by land mines. Families were only provided with bamboo, palm leaves, and a small space on which to build a hut. Each person was given two kilos of rice, two cans of fish, two eggs and some vegetables each week. Oil and water were also provided. The only opportunities available were vocational schools which offered diploma courses. But God continued to reveal Himself. Campus Crusade for Christ gave me the opportunity to go to Chiang Mai, Thailand, where I was enrolled in Biblical Studies for one year. In 1993 the UNHCR (United Nations) brought us back to Cambodia where we found sanctuary in similar facilities as in the refugee camp. Apart from God’s intervention though, the only future I had was that of farming or joining a Thai company. So I spent three days in prayer and fasting, and the Lord led me to the Phnom Penh Bible College where the director offered me a scholarship. I studied there for three years. Today I serve as senior pastor of Fellowship Word of Life Church. I am married to Somalay, also a graduate of the Bible School, and have three lovely daughters named Rebecca, Debora and Angela.”

Pastor Sinai’s wife Somalay tells the touching story of how God delivered her from certain death, brought her to salvation and called her into the ministry.

Somalay’s Testimony

I was 13 years old when the Khmer Rouge evacuated my family and I from Phnom Penh. Hunted by soldiers commissioned by Pol Pot to exterminate all professionals; my father, a college professor, was in constant danger. My family and I fled into the countryside for safety. The Khmer Rouge soldiers found our family living in a small hut and captured my father. He was tied to a horse and dragged to death as I watched helplessly from hiding. A neighbor took me in for a few hours and then sent me away to hide in the jungle. On the second day, I was very hungry and I saw a tree with fruit on it. I didn’t know if it was safe to eat, so I prayed to the ‘god of the tree,’ asking if the fruit was edible. Just as I prayed, a piece of fruit fell to the ground and a bird started eating it. I decided that it was a sign that I could eat it too. As I look back on that incident, I know that our true God heard my prayer and provided the fruit to sustain me. A woman found me and together we wandered in the jungle for several months. But the lack of food was a constant threat; we separated. On the way through the jungle a cobra (a very poisonous snake) bit my leg. I knew that I would die soon, but a great miracle happened next. God sent a couple along on an ox cart during the night. They heard the sound of somebody crying, they stopped and found me; a young girl in the jungle. They saw the snake bite and miraculously had traditional medicine with them to cure me. They told me that I was a lucky girl because the only reason they were out travelling that night was because of a dream someone had told them about. I know it was the hand of God and His purpose to save my life. Later, continual fear and memories of my father’s torture caused me to almost lose my mind. One day I heard a woman talking to some people about Jesus. Listening to the message, I later asked the woman to tell me more. The Christian woman told me that Jesus loved me, would be a Father to me, and He would never leave me. This touched me so much, still grieving for my father; I opened my heart to receive Jesus. I was given a new life of hope; He restored my mind and miraculously reunited me with my remaining family. I later met Sinai at Bible College. Today we’re happily married, have three wonderful daughters and minister together.”

Pastor Sinai Phouek and his wife Somalay’s story is one of suffering and struggle. But it is a living testimony of how God can turn what Satan intended for evil into good. Today, Sinai is senior pastor of more than 40 Churches in Cambodia and the director of New Hope for Orphans, and he is the director of Cambodian Christian School Network in Cambodia, as well as overseeing numerous ministry projects that are shaping the Christian community throughout Cambodia.