I met Pov Song in 2015 when I travelled from Australia to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to volunteer for two weeks. Pov Song was a young, single man and he was the interpreter for our group. 

He impressed me immediately! He was polite, attentive and a Christian. 

His story was most interesting. His parents had two young children when Pol Pot evacuated Phnom Penh in 1975. During Pol Pot’s regime they watched their two young children starve to death. Pov Song & his older sister were born after Pol Pot was defeated, when Cambodia had to heal and rebuild. 

Pov said that he was very rebellious and ‘naughty’ in his early teenage years, and that his life was headed in a very wrong direction. But God over-ruled! Pov understood that he needed to learn to speak English if he wanted to earn money. The Christians all seemed to speak English, and so he decided to mix with Christians. Because of this decision Pov learned about Jesus and Jesus’ love for him and gave His heart to the Lord. 

I loved Pov’s story and my heart went out to his mother and their journey as a family … as my heart did to all Cambodian’s who suffered under Pol Pot’s regime. 

But I knew Pov was special and I just felt that God was going to use him in a special way. 

I visited Cambodia several times after that meeting and I kept contact with Pov through Facebook. Pov had a dream. His dream was to save hard so that he could pay for further University studies, and so create a better future for himself, his family, and for I wife that he hoped to have one day. 

 

After a few years Pov fell in love with Srey Leak. He learned that Srey Leak had a dream – an unfulfilled dream. Srey Leak was an excellent seamstress and dreamed of opening her own business, but did not have the funds required to do this – she could see no way of gaining the required money – and so she put her dream aside. 

 

Pov decided that he would give up his dream in or der to fulfil hers. Pov used the money that he had saved to set Srey Leak up in a sewing business – and she has worked hard at that ever since. She is an amazingly talented young woman. 

 

I happened to ask Pov when he was going to commence his studies again and he told me that he was no longer going to do this because he had used the money that he had saved. God immediately laid upon my heart to do something about this. I felt deeply moved that Pov had laid aside his dream for his, now wife … and I also felt very strongly that I was not to let this go. 

I spoke to my husband, who was the income earner in our home. Without hesitation he instructed me to find out how much Pov required and we sent him the money. 

 

And now Pov is the Principal of New Life Christian School. Not only is he guiding a school in Christian education as a whole, but he and his wife also sponsor children to attend the school. 

 

My husband and I are eternally grateful that God gave us the nudge to do that small thing for Pov Song, that now continues on through him and his heart for God. 

 

Thank you, Mrs Robyn WHITE