Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Feb/81

Contributor - Lou Harvey

Title - Our Experience With Some Cambodian Immigrants

Topic - Helping Others

The telephone rang and a very familiar voice said, "We have just found out that there are refugees from Cambodia who are living in Welland. They are related to the family that we are supporting. Will you go and visit them?" I immediately id Yes, l will go and visit them",and 'We began to wonder how would all this work out since I cannot speak Cambodian and they cannot speak English. Well, I'd done it before so somehow it would work out. With a lot of hand signs and smiles and patience, we would try to communicate.

One of the four understood a little English and that was better than none at all. I took our Korean friend, Choon Park, with me hoping that perhaps he would be able to find a common ground of communication. His presence was very helpful as a Christian brother and as a new, three-year immigrant to Canada who was also learning the very difficult English language.

After that first visit I continued to call on them. Sometimes Mrs. Harvey would go along. We were able to find a need that we could minister to. Three of the tour were working, two of them still going to English language school, sponsored by the government, but not processing very fast in speaking English.

Mrs. Harvey offered to help them with their lessons. Since our initial contact with these people she has tried to spend one night a week helping them put into practice what they had learned in their English class.

We also invited them to come and worship on Sundays with us. As many other sponsors do, we go and pick them up and take them home again. To our surprise they were willing to come almost every Sunday even though they could not understand and had no experience whatsoever in a worship service as we know it. Yet they kept coming. Soon we were able to determine that they knew nothing about our God, had never heard of Jesus Christ our Lord. It was all totally new to them. Yet, they continued to come week after week. One day we found out why. These young Cambodians told us that they had never seen or experienced such "happy people" before, people who could love and help each other and enjoy being together. Our Christian witness was having an influence on them and to that point we were not even aware of it.

These Cambodians, "boat people" as some call them, had already seen a lot of heartache, life, death, and misery in their young lives. Eak and Srun, 19 and 20 year-old young men, had years earlier walked out of Cambodia, through Vietnam, and had left there on an over-loaded, almost sinking boat. Kheng had lost his wife and children. They were all sponsored by the Government of Canada to come here.

As happens with many of these people, soon they showed us a picture of a sister, and confronted us with the question, "Can you help us to get our sister here?" The outcome of this was that we, of Christ Community Church, agreed to help them. The Canadian Immigration agreed to our sponsorship of the sister, Noi Ly, but to the surprise of the Immigration office and ourselves, a notice came through that the Thailand government would not allow anyone of that refugee camp to be released. This was in July. The Immigration office asked if we would sponsor someone else. We said, "No, we will pray for this sister, Noi Ly, that she will be permitted to come". We continued in prayer for the next several months. In November, without advance notice, word was received that she would arrive in Hamilton on November 20. Praise the Lord! What a witness to these Cambodians of the power of God! At least two of these people are praising God with us every Sunday yet. They want to be with us to learn more and sing more about our God.

We have also had some surprises. For example, we learned later that the two young fellows were not related and that Kim and Kheng are not their aunt and uncle as we had been told. In fact, not so long ago we attended the marriage ceremony of Kim and Srun and they are now husband and wife. Why did they say . ,

They were related? Because they thought, and rightly so, that families would be helped first, and if they were all related, it would be helpful in getting out of a refugee camp more quickly. It was. We still have a good relationship with all of them and are trying to teach them, not only the Canadian way of life, but, more so, the Christian way of life. Two of the five Cambodians whom we work with are in the picture following, and are very faithful in coming to our worship services and other activities. These two are brother and sister - both very thankful to be together again after being separated five years ago in Cambodia.

Our experience with these people has been good and positive. We thank God for our exposure to their needs, their requirements, and the privilege we have as Christians to share the love of our Lord Jesus with them. These Cambodian friends whom we know and work with are an asset to Canada. I thank God that we can minister and help them in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

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