Go Beyond

Poipet en route to Siem Reap, Cambodia

By his own admission, David Chai should have died in 1979. And, he would have died had it not been for eight monkeys that saved his life. David, a Buddhist, was a teenager during the mid-1970’s when the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia and he was taken captive. He was forced to work long hours in the fields with little rest and allowed only one bowl of rice porridge per day. David said that everyone was malnourished and many died of starvation during his years in captivity. One day, while working in the fields, he spotted a small crab. He was so hungry that he picked it up and ate it raw. A Khmer Rouge soldier saw him eat the crab and accused him of stealing from the state. He reminded David that everything belonged to the state, including the small crab he had eaten. The young soldier then sentenced David to be executed for his crime against the state. The Khmer Rouge needed little excuse to execute their captives, especially during their final days in power. David, weak and under-nourished, was doomed to die.

Two Khmer Rouge soldiers took David and several others to a remote location and forced them to dig a mass grave. And then, one by one, they made each individual kneel in front of the grave, bludgeoned them on the back of the head, and dumped their lifeless remains into the grave. David was the last in line and witnessed the horrible execution of the others. Just moments before the soldiers called David to kneel in front of the mass grave, eight monkeys appeared in the trees. The Khmer Rouge soldiers turned their attention away from David and shot and killed all eight monkeys. Too lazy to carry eight dead monkeys back to their camp, the soldiers untied David and told him to carry the monkeys for them. So, instead of executing him, they warned David to never steal from the state again. David’s life was spared at the last possible moment because eight monkeys emerged from the jungle and were killed by two hungry soldiers.

Weeks later, when the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, David and fifteen others escaped from the Khmer Rouge and began a cross-county trek toward Thailand. Only seven survived. The others were either killed by Khmer soldiers along the way or stepped on land mines. During their escape David was shot in the leg and had his feet pierced in a bamboo booby-trap. Nevertheless, he and the others continued on until they reached a refugee camp in Thailand. A couple of years later a Mennonite pastor sponsored David to live in America where he later became a Christian. David lived in the United States for thirty years. Two years ago, he sold his home in America and returned to Cambodia to help his people, to care for orphans, and to share the story of Jesus.

Soon after David arrived in Cambodia, he purchased seventy acres of land in the same province where he had almost lost his life. He also searched for and found the place where the Khmer Rouge almost killed him. David led twenty people who live nearby that place to faith in Christ. David is committed to spending the remainder of his days sowing seeds of life in Cambodia’s former killing fields. He is also committed to starting churches and caring for orphans. He does all of this and more as he runs his farm and produces the rice that feed the children in Steve Hyde’s orphanages. Today, Pastor Alex and I were privileged to meet this remarkable man and to hear the story of how God preserved his life. Cambodia is a better place today because of people like David — people who are willing to love God, to forgive those who have hurt them, and to change their nation one life at a time.