Refugee returns to homeland with the gospel

by Chad Berry

The soldiers carried AK-47 machine guns and were dressed in the Khmer Rouge’s usual black garb. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Daniel Prak thought the soldiers were just going about their morning routine.

But nothing about this day would be routine, at least not for 13-year-old Daniel and his father.

“Angka wants you to go to the village to cut bamboo,” one of the soldiers told Daniel’s dad.

The words struck fear in Daniel’s heart. Angka was the Khmer Rouge’s ruling organization. Daniel knew what the soldier’s words really meant. His dad wasn’t going to cut bamboo. Instead, he was going to be taken and executed, another victim of Cambodia’s “killing fields.”

His father asked the soldiers for a few moments to say goodbye to his son. The soldiers consented. His father took off his watch and handed it to Daniel – it was something of value and possibly could be used to barter for food. He then told Daniel to take care of his mother and siblings.

“At that point, I wanted to cry and yell out at the soldiers, ‘Why don’t you let me go, too?’” Daniel recalls. “I wanted to go with him. (But) Every time I tried to yell out, it seemed like the words didn’t come.”

Their time was up. Daniel’s father walked ahead of the two soldiers who stood ready to shoot if his father tried to flee. Daniel felt helpless as his dad walked out of sight.

Growing up

In his early years, Daniel couldn’t have possibly imagined such a scenario. Originally from the village of Kutasat in western Cambodia, Daniel’s family moved to the city of Sisophon so Daniel and his eight siblings could go to school and have a better life.

And they did. Daniel’s father was an educated man, a school principal. Life was comfortable for the most part. Daniel went to school, played with children in the neighborhood and was a regular at the Buddhist temple, along with the rest of his family.

“I remember growing up, my parents were always involved with the temple on every occasion and wanted us children to be involved also,” Daniel recalls. Daniel describes life as “wonderful” in those years.

That all changed April 17, 1975, the day the infamous Khmer Rouge established its Communist regime in Cambodia. For the next three-plus years, Cambodia’s people lived in a state of fear as the Khmer Rouge turned Cambodia into the “killing fields” – a term derived from the 1984 Academy Award-winning movie depicting the Khmer Rouge’s genocide of as many as 2 million people.

After taking over, the Khmer Rouge, led by the authoritarian figure Pol Pot, began a systematic elimination of Cambodia’s intellectuals – teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers…anybody who was a possible threat. Daniel knew his dad was in danger.

“We couldn’t keep it a secret that my dad was a school principal,” he says.

However, the Khmer Rouge’s rule all started innocently enough, Daniel remembers.

“At first, it seemed calm and everything seemed to be okay,” Daniel says. “Then, a few days later, they started ordering people to leave the cities. At that point, we didn’t know where our destination was.”

The Khmer Rouge told the Cambodian people that the United States was about to bomb Cambodia’s cities and that they had to flee to the countryside. The plan worked. Cambodia’s cities turned into ghost towns.

Daniel and his countrymen soon learned the real reason for the evacuation. The Khmer Rouge began to divide parents and children into separate camps. Daniel, 10 at the time, was forced to work 15-hour days, seven days a week, as well as attend daily “brainwashing” sessions touting the regime’s philosophy. The goal was to turn Cambodia’s children against their parents and a build a sort of utopian society, utopian at least for the Khmer Rouge.

But it was anything but ideal for Daniel. Food was scarce in those days. He remembers secretly catching a fish one day – an act forbidden by the Khmer Rouge. It nearly cost him his life.

“I looked around and nobody was there. All of a sudden, the village leader came from out of nowhere and spotted me catching the fish,” Daniel says.

The leader – a member of the Khmer Rouge – was carrying a gun and a machete. He told Daniel if he got caught again, he would be killed.

“I was shaking,” Daniel says. “I was so scared. I thought I was going to get my head cut off right there.”

Family tragedy
The harsh conditions took their toll, as one of Daniel’s sisters died of starvation. Then came the day Daniel would never forget.

Daniel had been sick and was allowed to leave the children’s camp and go see his parents. When it was time to go to the fields the next day, Daniel was told he could join his father.

“I was so happy to be with him that day because we hadn’t seen each other for a year at least,” Daniel says.

It was that day – nearly three years after the regime’s murderous purge began - when the soldiers took his father away. Daniel later learned that the Khmer Rouge herded all of the teachers and administrators into a truck and drove them to one of the killing fields, where they were all executed. Since that time, Daniel has returned to the area to search for his father’s name and picture, but to no avail.

“I tried to look on there and see if I could find my dad’s name,” Daniel says, “but there are so many. After a while, you give up because there are so many of them.”

Fleeing to Thailand
Not long after his father’s disappearance, the Khmer Rouge invaded neighboring Vietnam. The Vietnamese, however, proved too stiff a foe and drove the Khmer Rouge back, taking over most of Cambodia. It was an uncertain time for Daniel and his family.

They eventually found each other and lived in a rice field, scrounging for food. Daniel went through the flooded rice fields trying to catch fish while his mother sifted through piles of hay picking out every grain of rice she could find. The family often found themselves in the middle of crossfire between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces. One of Daniel’s cousins was decapitated by a bullet. An uncle lost both legs and bled to death.

“At this point, we were in the middle of chaos, not knowing what we’re suppose to do,” remembers Daniel.

Daniel’s family eventually moved back to the city. They made ends meet by selling fish at the market or traveling long distances for food. Meanwhile, one of Daniel’s other uncles heard about a refugee camp across the Cambodian border in Thailand. He decided to go and take Daniel’s grandmother and brother – who was suffering from a debilitating leg injury – with him. Daniel’s mother refused to join them. She didn’t want to leave her homeland, even as desolate as it was.

Soon after, Daniel visited his brother and uncle to survey the conditions at the camp. He had heard there was food, but was the information correct? Upon arriving at the camp, Daniel found the rumor to be true. Daniel’s grandmother devised a plan to get Daniel and his mother to join the rest of the family.

“Grandma told me to tell my mother that they were going to amputate my brother’s leg and my brother needed to see my mother,” he recalls. “This was a big trick, but I knew that was the only way she would go to the camp.”

The trick worked. Daniel’s mother agreed to go to the camp to be with her ailing son. Once inside the camp, however, the Prak family’s struggle to survive continued. Yes, there was food and conditions were safer –but not much. They were forced to sleep under the trees, away from shelter, while the sounds of war raged nearby.

Eventually, the family was transferred to the Khao I Dang camp further into Thailand. Here, the family could build a shelter while also having plenty to eat. By 1980, the Khao Dang camp was home to nearly 130,000 Cambodia refugees like Daniel.

But it wasn’t just physical nourishment that Daniel received at the camp. Daniel also found food for the soul.

Turning to Christ
Among the foreigners working with the Cambodian refugees were several Christian missionaries. Daniel remembers that, ironically, the camp’s church was positioned next door to a Buddhist temple.

But Daniel had given Buddhism a try. He had tried to follow all the rules and be a good person, but had never felt the assurance that he was “good enough.” What would happen when he died? Was there life after death? How could he know where he would spend eternity? The questions nagged at Daniel’s soul.

The missionaries seemed to have an answer. They told him about Jesus Christ and his offer of forgiveness and eternal salvation. Daniel was interested, but non-committal at first. He later heard a Cambodian pastor by the name of Reach Yeah share the plan of salvation. This time, Daniel was ready to respond. It was in the early months of 1980.

“It made sense compared to the Buddhist way,” Daniel says, “so it made sense to me to accept Christ and receive forgiveness of sins and salvation.”

Daniel soon began going to Bible studies and felt God’s call on his life into ministry. But not all was well in Daniel’s soul. His heart was still filled with hate towards his father’s killers. He had promised himself that one day he would join the army and take revenge on the Khmer Rouge.

Coming to America
In early 1981, Daniel and his family left Cambodia and went to another camp in Indonesia. While there, Daniel’s faith began to grow by leaps and bounds. He became a regular at Bible study, joined the choir and was given a job as a greeter at the church.

All the while, his family awaited word on whether they would be approved to migrate to a Western country. While in Khao Dang, they had filled out applications to receive a sponsorship so they could go. Finally, in September 1981, their names appeared on a list. The Prak family was headed for Houston, Texas.

Restarting their lives in the United States was no easy task. The family shared a one-bedroom house with another Cambodian family, making for tight quarters. None of the group could speak much English and modern conventions like the microwave oven were totally foreign to Daniel and his family.

Money was hard to come by, too. Daniel eventually got a job picking up trash on the freeway for $3.35 an hour. He later worked at a fast food restaurant as a busboy and dish washer.

After seven months in Texas, the Praks opted to join some Cambodian friends in Oregon. In Oregon, Daniel took English classes and applied for training through the Job Corps. After two years of training in Washington, Daniel got a job as a mechanic and returned to Oregon.

It was about this time when Daniel met an American girl named Suzanne at his Cambodian church. Within months, they were engaged. They were married in March 1985 and soon started their family. Peter was born in 1985, Michelle in 1987 and Andrew in 1989. In the late 1980s, the Praks moved to California, where Daniel attended San Jose Christian College for two years and Suzanne began going to nursing school.

And though it had been several years since his conversion, Daniel continued to struggle with feelings of hatred towards the Khmer Rouge. Gradually, he came to terms with his anger. The Word of God played a crucial role in this process, particularly Romans 12:17-19 – “Do not repay anyone evil for evil…Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord,’” and Matthew 5:44, “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” It was a freeing, life-changing transformation for Daniel.

“Without Christ, I would not have been able to rebuild my life, but by His grace, I am able to forgive and let go of the hurt, hatred and bitterness,” Daniel says now.

Back to Cambodia
Over time, the Praks’ life settled into a state of normalcy. Suzanne graduated from nursing school and got a nice job. Daniel worked at his job as campus supervisor of security at a California high school. The couple adopted two children – Josh and Sarah – in 1999.
But Daniel and Suzanne had shared a heart for the Cambodian people since the day they’d met. At the time of their marriage in 1985, the idea of being missionaries to Cambodia seemed far-fetched, but by the late 1990s, the political situation had stabilized.

Daniel decided to return to his native country in 2001 to visit his sister. His plans were to see her and do some sightseeing. But God had other ideas. When Daniel returned to his village of Kutasat, the people were eager to hear the Word of God.

“People would call out to me, ‘Come over to our house and share your God with us,’” he recalls. “So I did. I was stunned by so many needs and the openness to the Gospel by the people.”

During Daniel’s month-long trip to Cambodia, seven people in his village came to Christ. Daniel’s heart for his people was rekindled.
“That tells me this is God’s doing, not me,” he says. “Maybe the Lord wants to use me, to call me to Cambodia to help people.”

Suzanne says she wasn’t totally surprised when Daniel returned with a new passion for Cambodia. Though they were living the American dream, their hearts were in East Asia.

“It wasn’t exactly a new thought to us,” says Suzanne. “There was always an undercurrent for us that we weren’t yet satisfied.”

They soon began making preparations for a return to Cambodia with their whole family. That goal was initially realized in the fall of 2004 when the Praks and their children went to Cambodia through OMF’s Serve Asia program. During their three-month stay, the Praks worked with a church in the capital of Phnom Penh, helping with Sunday school, the youth group and teaching English. They also visited an OMF hostel for factory girls and took trips to various OMF church planting ministries throughout Cambodia.

And they went back to Kutasat, Daniel’s home village. While attending a church service in the village, the church’s leader made an announcement that anyone who wanted to receive Christ should stand up. Amazingly, 30 people stood to their feet. The leader then asked Daniel to come and lead them in a prayer to receive Christ. The group of people had been waiting for three years for Daniel to return so he could lead them in the prayer!

“They were literally afraid they didn’t know the right words to say,” says Suzanne.

The Praks praised God for such an incredible turn of events. But they also were challenged. The fact that 30 people had waited for three years to receive Christ spoke volumes to them.

“Even though they heard the Gospel, they were still waiting for us to be there and lead them to Christ, because a lack of leadership training,” Daniel says.

The Cambodian church has experienced impressive growth in recent years. In 1990, only 1,000 Protestant Christians lived in Cambodia. Today, that number has mushroomed to 200,000. However, 11 million Cambodians are still without Christ.

The Praks hope to change that. They attended Candidate Course in the U.S. in June 2005 and are currently raising support as OMF members. The Praks’ desire is to work in a church planting and leadership training ministry in western Cambodia. Daniel thinks his homeland of Cambodia, formerly home to the “killing fields,” is now fertile ground for the gospel.

“People are hungry,” says Daniel. “They’re looking for something new. I don’t think Buddhism is the answer to them.”

Copyright 2005 OMF International