From Darkness to Light

I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. - Acts 26:17-18


On Saturday we arrived in Poipet and met with Chomno, the director of Cambodian Hope Organization (CHO). While I’ve done a lot of research about CHO, I didn’t know much about Chomno and how he founded Cambodian Hope. His testimony is so powerful that it makes you wonder what you’ve been doing with your own life.

Chomno survived the genocide that occurred under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. When he was 14 years old he was forced to work in a labor camp. They had no roofs or walls, not even a pillow to lay their heads on. They slept on the ground and relied on the trees to provide them cover. The people that weren’t persecuted died of sleep deprivation, dehydration or starvation. Many felt that it was better to die than to survive such an awful existence.

Chomno was in the labor camp for nearly three years until a few of his friends at the camp decided to attempt an escape. How they saw it, if they stayed they only had one choice – death. If they tried to escape however, they had two choices – they would either survive or die trying. While some of Chomno’s friends were killed by either land mines or machine guns, Chomno managed to escape safely.

He walked for two months in the jungle to get from the camp back to his home village. When he arrived, he was fortunate to find that his parents were still alive. They asked him to escape to the refugee camp where it would be safer. But once there Chomno had other challenges. Food was scarce. At the refugee camp they only gave food to the women, as they wanted the men to be out fighting as soldiers. In order to eat, Chomno would need to find a way to raise money. Chomno was able to secure a job at the hospital where he made five dollars a month. Between that and eating left over scraps from patients at the hospital, Chomno was able to support himself.

Chomno had dedicated his life to become a Buddhist monk. But the Lord had other plans for Chomno. One of the doctors at the hospital began teaching Chomno how to speak English. Every day he would study to become a monk, and spend an hour learning how to speak English. It was during this time that Chomno also learned about Jesus. For one week he prayed to both Buddha and Jesus One evening Chomno had a vivid dream. He had a vision of both Jesus and Buddha. In his dream Jesus was surrounded by light, and Buddha was surrounded by darkness. That next morning Chomno decided to turn his life over to Jesus, and was soon after baptized.

Chomno later founded Cambodian Hope Organization, an NGO that serves to strengthen the quality of life for the disadvantaged rural people and children of Cambodia that are vulnerable to human trafficking. For the last 10 years, Chomno and his staff at CHO truly have been a light to the people of Cambodia. My team and I are both grateful and blessed to be able to walk alongside the staff at CHO and partner with them for such a worthy cause. Not only does CHO transform the lives of the men, women and children of Cambodia, but they have also changed ours.