He Ate Frogs to Survive

 Left Ralph: Head of Hope for The Nations  Right : Chomna, Founder and head of CHO

I must tell you the testimony  of Chomna.  He is the founder and  head of Cambodia Hope Organization. What a testimony.  When he was a little boy the Khmer Rouge, in order to weaken the family, divided the children from their parents.  Chomna was taken from his parents and taken along with many other children into the jungle.  At night they slept under the trees. It was very hard to sleep, Chomna said.  There were many bugs and  in the rainy season you were always wet and uncomfortable.  Crying was not allowed. Complaining was not allowed. If you did either you would be killed. Not usually with bullets as there were only a few of these.  They often used bamboo fronds to cut your throat which, he explained, often did not kill quickly and was more a method of torture.  Many died from malaria, wild animals or snakes.  They were given very little food but were forced to work very hard.  If they did not work hard they were beaten.  If they ran away they were shot. Many, however before they were shot were blown up by land mines.  If there were two or three together when the land mine blew it would give away the location of the others who would then be shot. At some point Chomna decided he would risk it and run away.  He did get away. It took him 2 months alone in the jungle to find his way home.  He survived by eating frogs and other things that he could catch. He did not dare cook them for fear a fire would give away his location.  He made it home.

At some point, Chomna’s mother was ill. He tooke her to the hospital to get her help but hey refused them because they had no money.  He knew then and there that he wanted to be a doctor so that this did not happen to others  Chomna began work assiting doctors at the Cambodia - Thailand border.  All the doctors were from Thailand (there were no Cambodian doctors..most would have been killed by the khmer Rouge) At night, the doctors had to return to Thailand. So Chomna, and others like him were left without doctors and had full responsibility for the patients.  This was very hard.  Vietnamese would come with their inujured comrades take their machine guns and shoot between Chomna’s legs demanding that he fix their friend or die.  He would do what he had to and became an expert at performing amputations.  He learned a lot from the doctor he worked with.  This doctor spoke to him about Jesus and had him pray with the patients.  He did not think much about what the doctor said but he liked him and did not mind listening to him.  After one of his many scares with the Vietnamese, Chomna decided he would become a monk.  There they would provide him with all his needs.  Food , clothing shelter.  He completed his training and was two weeks away from becoming a monk.  As it would happen, and I could be wrong as sometimes his accent was hard to discern, he was also supposed to be baptized in 2 weeks.  He noticed this and began to question which God he should serve.  So he prayed to both Gods and asked for an answer.  One night shortly thereafter he had a simple dream.  On one side he saw Budha and the temple and it was dark.  On the other side he saw Jesus and it was light and he had his answer.  But he was afraid.  How would he live? How would he feed himself?  He went to the monks.  When he told them they kicked him out of the temple that night. But, Chomna said, God provides and his friend who still worked at the hospital would bring him home the patients leftover food.  Shortly after Chomna met a women named Kim, fell in love and got married.  The wedding and the illness of his mother in law took all the money he had saved.  Without money his dreams of being a doctor could not be realized but he felt God calling him to come to Poipet to work with needy children.  He sold his house (missing part of the story here) for 5000 dollars and began a little something called CHO in Poipet.  The money ran out. But still he believed that this is what God was calling him to do.  The more he prayed the stronger he felt about this and the support began to arrive.  Today CHO is partnered with Hope for the nations and many others.  It has taken us three days in Poipet to see what CHO partnered with these other organizations had done and how they are changing a nation.  The scope of their influence is perhaps most noteable in the fact that the mayor of Poipet has asked Chomna and Hope For The Nations to help with the development plan for the city of Poipet.  What an impact that can have.  God willing what an impact that will have.

I have done no justice to Chomna’s testimony.  He really needs to write a book!

In the three days that we spent in Poipet we have seen CHO and Hope for the Nation’s involvement in CDC, School on a mat, sewing schools, bike building classes, safe haven village (complete with its school, welding shop, pastors school), three safe houses, and the khmer Rouge Village.  In addition to this, during our short visit, we saw three other ministries that were visiting Chomna to see how they could help the people of Cambodia. Truly amazing!