My name is Chheurn Oeun. I’m 46 years old; my wife’s name is Sun Sokleap, age 42. My son’s name is Oeun Narin, age 3.
Before I believed in God, during 2007-2008, my family faced a great many difficulties. I am disabled and have AIDS and I had no employment. My wife also has AIDS. When she could walk, she picked up scrap to sell and used the daily income to buy food for the day. It was very hard for us. Also our child was very small. We rented a small place to stay, but we did not have enough food to eat and I kept losing weight and strength. As a result, AIDS and other diseases began working very hard in my body. Finally my wife took me to stay at Samdech Ov hospital and we stayed there for about a month. It so happened that Mrs. Seng Sopheak went to visit her members at the hospital and prayed for them. At the same time she shared the gospel with my wife and me, and prayed for us. This really lifted my spirits, because it seemed that finally we had some friends, instead of being all alone as we had been in the hospital and even before that. I especially remember that she told me, “God can hear us when we talk with Him.”
Before I left the hospital, I said to my wife, “Dearest wife, in a few more days the doctors are going to tell us to leave the hospital because we are getting better. So when we leave, where are we going? We don’t have money to rent a house.” She replied, “We will go to stay by the wall of the pagoda.” I said to her, “We don’t even have a tent for a roof covering, and we need poles too. How will we find those things?” My wife and I took a long breath and thought about this for a few minutes.
Then I remembered what Seng Sopheak told me about God, who is so great. She said He can take care of those who believe in Him. So I knelt down with my wife and prayed, “Oh! My true God, You who are so great, now today I pray to You and I hope that You have ears to hear my poor voice as I beg You for help. Lord, please don’t ignore us; please answer my prayer. In just a few days we will have no place to stay, so please show us a way to find a temporary place to stay. Amen.”
Three days later we packed up to leave the hospital. We had $5. We hired a tuk-tuk to take us to Nirod pagoda. The tuk-tuk dropped us off there, and we walked around looking for a place to stay. We saw a small bed with a small roof. It was a little shop, but it was vacant, so we decided to stay, thinking that if the owner should come, we would move out. We stayed there about three days, and we noticed a few people walked by the place with a book that was black and red. I asked them, “Where did you go?” and they replied, “We went to church.” I asked them, “Can I go with you?” They answered “Yes, please come.” I was so happy that these people were willing to talk with me! My wife and I quickly put on different clothes and went with them. And then they brought me to see the church leader. I was so surprised to see that the leader was the same lady that told me about God at Samdech hospital! Wow! God is so great! He brought me to the church where I would meet Seng Sopheak. I am very thankful to God for answering my prayer.
Later, God blessed me by calling me to stay with Seng Sopheak at the Sda Center. I thank ASAP for providing us with a place to stay and food. Please continue to help us because we are sick and we can’t feed ourselves. We pray a lot for land and a church building, and we also pray every day for ASAP.
-Chheurn Oeun
