Dear CCAM Partners and Friends,

The memory of my first three years living with my mother and father and older brother are not very clear, but I have positive impressions of that time. At least we had our own thatch house to live in and enough food to eat. However, when I was about three years old, my father, who was a soldier, was shot and killed by a thief who stole his motorcycle. After that, my mother tried to support us alone, but eventually had to sell our house to get money for food, and so we became homeless.

Then my mom sent my brother Bunthai (age seven) and me (age five) to live with relatives, while she got a job. However, my auntie was poor, and sometimes we had only rice with fish sauce to eat. Every day, when we came home from half-day of school, we were required to take the cow to pasture. Then I had to cook the rice and watch my auntie's children. Bunthai had to take care of the pigs and help thresh the rice. My auntie gave 1000 riel (25 cents) to her own children for school snack money, but gave only 500 riel to us. This made me angry and disappointed. Sometimes I wondered why my mom sent me there, because my auntie did not love me.

During our childhood, no one ever taught us right from wrong, so we committed a lot of sins and didn't even know. One Sunday, my grandma took me with her to the temple, where we sat down together on the floor. When Grandma closed her eyes to listen to the monks chanting, I stole 100 riel from her pocket and tiptoed outside, planning to buy myself a snack. But when I got outside, I saw Bunthai fighting with some other boys. They threw rocks at him and seriously wounded his head. I ran to call Grandma, and she took Bunthai to the hospital, where he stayed for five days.

One day, my auntie's rice was all gone. She groaned that Bunthai and I must go back to stay with our mom. Finally she convinced my mom to pick us up. My mom sent Bunthai away to live with other relatives, but she kept me with her. During that time, my mom started living with a man who said he loved her, and she gave birth to my brother Bunjame. I helped take care of him. But then that man left us to live with another woman.

After that, my mom searched for an organization to help us. She found HAGAR, where she was allowed to stay with all of her children, so she brought Bunthai back to live with us. At that time, Bunthai was nine and I was seven. My mom studied sewing at HAGAR for two years. But at the end of two years, we were required to leave.

After that, we ended up living in a shack along the railroad tracks. My mom could not find any sewing work, and when she couldn't pay the rent for the shack, the landlord kicked us out. So my mom left us with a neighbor temporarily while she went to find some other help for us. In the meantime, the neighbor gave us only rice with fish sauce to eat and expected us to watch her children and clean the house. And they wouldn't allow us to use their soap to wash our clothes or to take a bath.

In about ten days, my mom came back for us and said that she had found a Christian orphanage school where Bunthai and I could stay. All four of us piled onto the back of a moto taxi and started to go there, but my mom forgot the way and couldn't find it. So she asked the moto driver if he knew where any Christian orphanage school was. The driver said that he knew. Then he brought us straight to the gate of CCAMS (Cambodian Christian Arts Ministry School). Now I know that it was the Lord Jesus Christ who used that moto driver to bring us to His place.

That day, when I was nine years old, I first met Makom Noren, Mommy Gioia, and Teacher Tikhia. Since then, they have been my mothers and my teachers for the past three years. Ever since I came to CCAMS, I have been so happy and have felt truly loved. At CCAMS, all of us children have good food, a safe place to stay, nice clothes to wear, and plenty of clean water and soap! Here we are taught right from wrong. And here we have a chance to study all kinds of education, especially the arts that I love so much. I was so happy when my teachers chose me to play the part of Molly in "Annie" and to be a member of the European Concert Tour Team.

Although I had heard the name of the Lord Jesus Christ at HAGAR, I only began to understand the Bible and what salvation was all about at CCAMS. But I had never received Jesus as my personal Savior and Lord...until a few weeks ago, when I began to have headaches and couldn't see out of my right eye. Then the CCAMS doctor asked Makom Noren to take me to have scans made of my head. The scan pictures showed that there was a tumor growing inside my head! When Makom Noren and Mommy Gioia told me the truth, I was so afraid. But they encouraged me to trust the Lord Jesus, and we prayed together. Then they led me to confess my sins and to receive the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ into my heart. After praying that day, I felt so peaceful inside. Since then, my attitude has completely changed, because I have begun to seek God's presence every day. Because of my illness, my mother and my brother have also personally received the Lord Jesus and have agreed to put me into His hands.

At CCAMS, we pray every day that the Lord will do a miracle and cause the tumor to disappear, so that I will be able to see out of my right eye again! But God has many ways of healing. So I am also thankful to God for using Mommy Gioia to try to arrange to take me outside Cambodia to a special doctor who might be able to remove the tumor. For God to provide all of that money would also be a miracle!

Now I am ready for whatever happens. I know that I might die because of this tumor, but if so, I also know that I will go to heaven to be with my Lord Jesus and to receive my complete healing over there. But I hope that the Lord will spare my life on this earth, so that I will have a chance to give my life back to Him as a living sacrifice. I hope to finish my training at CCAMS and serve Him here with all of my gifts.

Buntheep Chun (12 years old)

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