Grace Will Lead Me Home, Albert Cheng's Story by author Del Hayes is riveting testimony of the transforming love of God. Order through Amazon.com or mail your check payable to Del Hayes Press
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From"Killing Fields" to "Living Fields"
My Testimony by Albert Cheng
This record of Albert’s testimony was written in 1999. Since that time he has held various positions of leadership with Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church (CCPC). He has been a Sunday School teacher of children and adults and served as a deacon. Albert initiated and presently leads the CCPC Multicultural Presbyterian Fellowship. He is a graduate of the Southeast Asian Lay Academy of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and serves as secretary for the National Cambodian Presbyterian Council of the PC(USA). In January 2003, he and five other members of CCPC went to Cambodia to explore opportunities for ministry. He subsequently has led several medical mission trips to help the poor of Cambodia and is currently serving as vice president of the nonprofit organization HANDS for Cambodia to bring health and neighborhood development services to one of the poorest areas of his home country. HANDS is a 501(c)(3) organization and is endorsed by the National Cambodian Presbyterian Council. All donations are tax deductible and are helping transform “killing fields” into “living fields!”
In 1972, when I was about sixteen or seventeen years old, my parents sent me to Phnom Penh to continue my education. Rocket attacks occurred every morning and evening. People were killed every day. Often rockets would explode in front of me. The smell of blood and human carnage was horrible. There was much bloodshed. I cried for God: "Where is God?” "Is there a God?” I thought Buddha was God.
I could not trust anyone. It took months to develop trust with others in camp. Finally, fifteen young men began to trust one another and escaped. We traveled at night and went west to Thailand. To survive we ate cobras, wild rats and bugs and drank sap from vines. We traveled through the jungle for three months. I heard voices of people hurt, crying for me to help them. But you can't help. I cried all the time. Every step I cried out for God. Finally we came near the Thai border. A field of land mines lay in front of us. Bamboo sticks with poison were also buried in the ground. North Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge were shooting from behind us; Green Beret and Thai were shooting at us from the front. I could smell freedom and thought, "If I can cross I will be free. If I die, at least I will have died free.” Thousands of bullets were flying all around. Only two of us made it. I don't know why I made it. I knelt down, looked at the moon and thanked God. But I didn't know Who God was.
In the refugee camp in Thailand, Christian missionaries showed an old film. It was in English and I couldn't understand the words. The man in the film was a good man; kind and helpful. I couldn't understand why He was put on a cross and killed.
A Christian organization sponsor brought me to the United States, first to California and then to Houston, Texas. A YMCA offered an English as a Second Language (ESL) class and I learned English. I kept asking, "Where is God?” I was homesick and missed my family. I felt like God was with me, but I didn't recognize Him.
A Buddhist monk I had known since 1970 learned I was in Houston and invited me to Dallas. The monk's wife had a cousin named Sineth. Sineth and I married and had two children, Connie and Johnny.
God seemed to always put me in a church. I worked at Good Shepherd Church and Epiphany Church of the Transfiguration before coming to Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church at the invitation of Marna Brown, Director of The Discovery School. When I came to Canyon Creek, I continued to ask, "What is God?” "Is Buddha God?” I started to watch Christians. "Do they have a way to God?” "What do they do on Sunday?”
There was heavy darkness in me. I am amazed that God didn't force me to come to Him, but allowed me to "go shopping" from temple to temple. With freedom, a wife, and family, I thought everything was OK.
It wasn't. “Where is God?”
I started to become like a Buddhist monk: fasting, meditating 24 hours a day.
I went in the Canyon Creek sanctuary to meditate and turned my back on the cross. It amazes me that God would allow me to do these things in front of Him and He still loved me and reached out to me though I was rejecting Him! I sought God very hard. I went to temple, fasted. But there was no hope. I spoke with the High Monk and he said I had to do the things of the Buddha — be self-reliant. I was hopeless. I went to the Chinese temple. "Is there a real God?” I continued to ask. I joined with them, wore their black robe and chanted with them. I began reading their books.
Yet, I felt that the more I sacrificed, the more I saw people at Canyon Creek
smiling. They didn't do what I did. They looked happy and had love for one
another. I had no peace, just pain and suffering. I remembered the horrible events of 1972. I went back to Cambodia in 1996. My dear sister and brother were brutally killed by the Communists. I wanted to join a guerrilla group, take a bazooka or AK-47 and get revenge. Who has power to change a man who has revenge like that? I came back to Canyon Creek with a spiritual war going on inside of me. "Is there a real God?" I asked.
God sent Mary Hodge as His messenger. She offered to read the Bible with me and we began to meet regularly. The Word of God came alive for me, but still I had a hard head and continued my Buddhist ways.
One night I knelt as a monk then went to sleep. In a dream I saw a huge cross. I didn't pay much attention. Then I looked at the cross and lightning struck me in the forehead. The sound of beautiful music came from inside of me. I passed out. Then a shining form like a human being sat next to me. I couldn't look - it was too bright. The figure disappeared and the most wonderful peace came over me. I felt like I was floating off the bed. The sound of music grew louder and stronger. I woke up, smiling. "What's going on?” "Was that real?” I asked myself. The dream was real. It was 1:00 in the morning. I couldn't go back to sleep.
The next morning I hurried to find Pam Miller, The Discovery School music teacher. I hummed the music I had heard in my dream and asked her if she knew what it was. "Albert, are you crazy?” she asked. "That's Amazing Grace.” I ran to the sanctuary, opened a hymnal and found it there.
Mary and I continued to read more of the Bible and, after reading about baptism, I asked if I could be baptized. We went to see Don Lewis and on February 22, 1998, I was baptized and professed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior! I finally found the real God!
God led me to a group of Cambodian Christians and a man named Chheng Nuon who discipled me in the faith. He encouraged me in the Word of God and taught me how to feed myself on the Word. Chheng returned to Cambodia this past summer (1999) to erect a church building for the Church of Mercy of Prak Ambel. Canyon Creek has supported his ministry and purchased Bibles in the Cambodian language. You may have seen pictures of Chheng in a recent edition of the Clarion.
