The Words of the Chay Family
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The Words of the Chay Family |
Sam Chay is a brother from Cambodia. A few years before he was born, his nation was taken over by a communist leader whose concept of actualizing the communist ideal involved the relocation of millions of his country's citizens to collective farms.. Between 1975 and 1979, at least one and a half million people were killed or died of overwork or starvation. Anyone who had received higher education or who had overseas connections were targeted for execution. Chay has grown up in a nation that is rebuilding; there, the Family Federation is doing good work and he is upbeat about the future. We asked him about the, growth of the movement in Cambodia and about his personal experience in relation to that.
Please could you say something about your background?
I joined as a university student, doing teacher training. I was living with my uncle in Phnom Penh while I was studying. My parents live in the countryside around sixty kilometers from Phnom Penh. They are farmers. I have one brother and three sisters. 1 also worked as a high school teacher for one year, and this experience has helped me in my church life.
Your parents experienced the Pol Pot regime. Have they spoken to you about that time?
My parents generation still feels a lot of pain in their hearts, and still fear that communism could resurge in Cambodia. My own parents have not spoken to me so much about their personal experience. My mother worked on a collective farm under the hot sun and torrential rain; she carried cow manure to put on the growing rice. My father was more fortunate; he was a performer, and did demonstrations of how to farm. They told me it was a time of no hope. There was almost no food. They expected to die at any time. Everything was so strictly organized; you had to eat only when everyone ate; if you ate any of the farm produce, even though you were starving, you would be killed. Nobody could own anything, or even eat anything without permission.
Families were not able to stay together. Older people who could not work in the fields cared for the young children.
This was the reality my parents observed and experienced for nearly four years. I was born the year after all this ended, in 1980.
May I ask you how much of an impact on present day Cambodia the atrocities of the Pol Pot regime still have?
People are still afraid it can happen again. This affects people a lot. They are interested in the Principle because it focuses on true love and the four-position foundation of the family. The regime tinder Pol Pot taught that there was no loyalty or filial piety -- everyone was on one level. They killed the educated people and used the uneducated ones who were easier to dominate. It was very sad. There was no parent-child relationship. Everyone was reduced to one level.
Do you feel our movement can play a role in healing all this pain?
Yes, for those who saw all this happen, now mainly the older citizens. We can teach them about true love. and this can help them a lot.
How did you come into contact with the Unification movement in Cambodia?
In 2003 I attended Service For Peace, which came to Cambodia from Japan. I took part in the project, and also the brotherhood and sisterhood ceremony that was held together with it. This brought together Cambodian and Japanese students. We crossed a bridge of peace. On that occasion I came to know Mrs. Masumi Schmittat, a national messiah to Cambodia, and we kept in contact. Later in the year, Pasit Sirimilai, the Family Department leader in Thailand, brought twenty Thai students to Cambodia for a service project. I also took part. We went to the countryside and painted a school, cleaned the school grounds, and also played with the local children. I was then invited to attend a one-day seminar. I took part in longer workshops, many of which Mr. Sirimilai taught. He ended up staying in Cambodia for more than two years.
What language were these workshops given in?
Everything was in English! The Thai language and the Khmer language of Cambodia are related, but not so closely...
What did you do after that?
Pasit Sirimilai was very diligent in his pioneering work in Cambodia. Around twenty students participated in the first seven-day workshop, and we joined our movement after that. This was all before we finished our university studies. In August 2004, one month after finishing our seven-day workshop, Mr. Sirimilai sent three of us to Thailand to join the global peace camp there. The participants included some of the True Grandchildren, including Shin-bok nim. They had come from six nations. We then spent a month fundraising in Thailand before returning to Cambodia. I continued my teaching studies for another year while staying in the center as a full time member. There were five such pioneer member students at that time.
Is this how the movement in Cambodia has found new members?
We have had many seven-day workshops and many joined. But they have tended to stay in their homes as core home members.
After Pasit became the national leader in Thailand, Missionary Kim Yang-su came to Cambodia from Korea. He worked there with Mr. Saito Hajime from Japan. Things have improved a lot. When he first went there we had only one church center, but a few months after he went, we acquired one more center, a beautiful center. So now we have separate centers, and about thirty core center members....
What is the main focus of the movement there?
The main focus is on witnessing and workshops, with daily lectures and a one-day workshop every Saturday, keeping Sunday for Sunday Service. Those who do not have time on Saturday can come any day they have free time, and core members can teach them at the center. We also hold a seven-day workshop each month.
What kind of people come?
We focus mostly on students; we do not have an outreach program for older people in general yet. The students are very interested in our movement but are not very familiar with the concept of God, because most of them have a Buddhist background. However, they believe in the spirit world, so they come. When we introduce the Principle, they are so interested in the original ideal and especially in the three great blessings, and in why people could not accomplish these due to the Fall. Previously in Cambodia there was a lot of conflict, and now we have found more freedom and peace. People really like the words "peace" and "true love."
Do you feel the Buddhist faith is good preparation for the Cambodians?
Buddhists do not believe in God as such, but one good thing is that they tend to believe very strongly in life after death. Once a year they come to the pagodas and offer food to their ancestors. It is a bit like Chung Pyung: they liberate their ancestors through a special ceremony held during a particular month of the year. This is very good for them, as they can be involved with something connected with the Principle. They believe in the afterlife but they believe they will be reborn on earth. However, when we explain this from the Principle viewpoint to them, they are very moved.
You're one of the senior members. Do you teach at workshops sometimes?
Yes I do... Missionary Kim and Mr. Saito actually lecture very well, and very clearly; but because of the language barrier some students struggled to catch the main points. So we are now regularly giving one-day workshops in the Khmer language. Those members who have returned from fundraising in Thailand attend a seven-day workshop again, but this time in our native language. It is of course much easier for them to understand.
In the movement in Cambodia, we have three departments: the education department, the service project department and the public relations department. I have been lecturing every day, and a one-day workshop on Saturday. I also trained other members in how to give lectures. Those who passed through this training can lecture new students when they come to visit us.
You have mentioned Mrs. Masumi Schmittat. Please could you say something about her many years of work in Cambodia?
Yes. She has lived in Cambodia with her children for many years. Her husband remains in Germany and supports from there, so they are a very sacrificial family. He comes twice a year or so, and helps with major events. Masumi educates and gives internal guidance to the core members. She holds our morning service and Hoon Dok Hae. She is also active in so many areas, including organizing workshops, and seminars at the universities -- she contacts the principals and arranges for students to attend. She also reaches out to prominent people in society.
Is there some support from prominent people in Cambodian society?
Yes, Prince Norobom Sereivulh from the royal family, a very good person, supports us. He willingly helps us.
What other work does the movement do in Cambodia?
We do not focus only on witnessing; we have other projects. For example, we have a Save the Nation Project, which students really like. They really want to save their country. This consists of presentations on character education, based on the content from the International Educational Foundation, and the introduction to the Divine Principle. We give two or three lectures on character development. The students invite their friends. We are also involving elderly people in the holy blessing. We contact community leaders and gather people from the local communities. Then we explain to them about the importance of marriage, and of the importance of "one husband and one wife" (in Cambodia, some people practice polygamy) living together and educating their children to keep their purity.
Older people have been attracted to these events. We give them holy wine and sprinkle holy water, following our church's traditional way. After that we ask them to make their vows, and our officiator offers a benediction for them. Usually Mrs. Schmittat officiates these holy blessing events.
Following the direction of Missionary Kim, our full time members now also go to their home towns in the provinces from time to time to give the blessing. Besides this, we have one more project which we call the Sun Moon Peace Cup, a soccer tournament we have launched in Cambodia that is open to all teams. The Cambodian people are very warn hearted. We teach them about the ideals of living for the sake of others. They are very moved by this. In my experience, after a one-day workshop, they become very interested. Then we invite them to participate in a service project.
We also do community service projects in the countryside. We invite many students to join with us. For example, we do cleaning work and help care for local children.
Our family has been living in Cambodia since September 1998. We have one daughter and three sons. This September will begin our tenth year in Cambodia. We determined to make the move to Cambodia after the Japanese national messiah, Mr. Fujii Kaoru, stayed for around eighteen months in Phnom Penh after the first Blessing Ceremony held in Cambodia, at the Intercontinental Hotel on November 29, 1997. [The Blessing of 40 Million Couples. the main ceremony or which was held in RFK Stadium in Washington DC]
Also at that time, our family and church situation led us to feel we should move from Germany. This was the second time in my life that I thought that I must offer everything to God. The first time was when I joined our movement in 1975.
My mission is to stay in Cambodia so that I can bring heavenly fortune to the nation and people.
It is only possible to do so because of my husband's financial and "heartistic" support. Luckily, I also have good support from the Eve and Abel national messiahs' wives and from the Japanese missionaries.
What I feel grateful for, being in our mission country, is that I can see and understand True Parents' vision more clearly from a macroscopic viewpoint, and I feel God's love closely.
The Cambodian providence began developing more quickly when our regional presidents (formerly known as continental directors), Dr. and Mrs. Kim, sent Pasit Sirimilai from Thailand as a missionary to Cambodia in August 2003. Since June 2006, Missionary Kim Yang-su has been our leader.