Pouv's Story

My name is Pouv Chum. I am Cambodian. I have two younger brothers, and one sister. There are five of us in my family. I am the second oldest after my sister. I was born in Pursat, Cambodia in 1988. My father is half Vietnamese, and half American. My mother is Khmer. I am half Khmer, and half Vietnamese/ American.

When I was very young, and living in Pursat, my family was living very happily together. But, in 1990 my father went to work in Thailand, and he left our family in Cambodia. My father was a good man; he was responsible for us, and he worked hard in the rice field to grow enough food for my family. A lot of people admired my father. Every job he had he worked at hard, and worked fast. I was so scared of him in my childhood. I was too young to understand why. When my father left for Thailand my younger brother, Colar, cried out and ran after the van to stop it. I myself felt very depressed in my heart. I could not cry.

After my father left for Thailand, my mother raised us on her own. She was in charge, and looked after all of us. My father sent us money for just two months, and then he said he was in love with another woman. He talked to my mom on the phone and said, "I want a new wife. Would it be okay?" My mom replied, "Yes, but please help the kids with money for them to go to school, and buy food." Unfortunately two of my cousins heard about how my father was taking a new wife. They were very angry, so they went to Thailand to meet him and fight him. My father found out my cousins were coming to fight him, so he ran away from where he was staying. Since then I have not heard anything about my father.

My mom decided to move to Poipet. We heard that it was easy to find jobs, and easy to make money. In 1995 I first arrived in Poipet. Everything was so new to me. I did not go to school. Our family spent all our money on building a small house. The house had no walls, it just had a roof. We were very cold at night time. My mom said we only had two baht [about 5 cents], so she decided to go find a job... During this time I was a beggar, and a bag boy, at the market on the Thailand side of the border. I did this for eight years.

During my time as a beggar, two times things went very terrible for me. One time the Thailand police caught me while I was begging. They beat me. After, they made me walk across the border into Cambodia by walking through a mine field. The second time I was caught again by the Thailand police. They sent me to the Thailand police station. At night time a man, I don't know where he came from, came and beat me. He was drunk. The man beat me very badly that night. He hit me on the head with a big stick hundreds of times. I cried out with pain. In the morning they let me go. My face was swollen, and there was dried blood stuck to my face. After all this happened, I told myself that I would take revenge on them. I wanted to have a high position in the government. I began to study English very hard so that I could teach my friends, so that I could make money to continue my studies.

When I believed in Jesus my desire to take revenge faded away little by little until it was gone. God's word was touching my heart more each day. Now I know that Jesus has a plan for me. I survived walking through the mine field, and I survived the beatings. Now my goal is to be a pastor, and language teacher. I want to give my life to tell people about God.