Light in the darkness
“Teaching brightens my life. I look forward to my class each evening. At teacher training workshops I am surrounded by teachers from other Kavet villages. We all want to bring light and life to our communities.”
You can help Nang La bring the light of Jesus to the neglected Kavet ethnic minority.
“No more literacy teaching for you! If you teach, I will leave you!” I felt crushed and betrayed. As usual, my husband was drunk and violent. I was 16 years old. He was 21. I had been a literacy teacher for four years. When we married two years ago, my husband had agreed that I would continue to teach. However, he was not interested in reading or writing. When we moved from my parents’ house to his family’s compound, I was no longer protected by my parents. I realised that marrying someone I did not know well when I was so young was a big mistake.
Through him all things were created
In 2009, YWAM literacy project staff first visited our village and asked if anyone wanted to learn to read and write. To everyone’s surprise, my grandfather volunteered to start literacy classes in our village. He was 80 years old.
My grandfather wanted all his children and grandchildren to learn to read and write but he encouraged his grandchildren, mostly girls, to become teachers. My older cousins became teachers but one by one they all married and their husbands stopped them teaching. I took over my cousin Noy’s class when I was only 12. Teacher training was pure joy for me. I met teachers from other villages and learned about the God who created all things.
When I was 14, I also married. While we lived with my parents, I continued to teach. But when we set up our own home in his family’s compound, my husband stopped me teaching. For four long years there were no literacy classes in our village. However, the teacher trainers did not forget me. They continued to visit and pray with me.
He is light and life
Fed up with my husband’s drinking, abuse and violence, I took my baby daughter and moved back to my parents’ house. My husband decided to follow me and built a big wooden house for us next door. I told him I was going back to teaching, and was surprised when he agreed.
One night, my husband drank so much that he didn’t know what he was doing. His cousins found him unconscious in the Sekong River. They dragged him from the river and carried him home. When he regained consciousness, they confronted him. “You are still young and you are ruining your life!” He knew they were right. He decided to stop drinking alcohol and has not touched a drop since!
God has answered my prayers and turned my family around. My husband is a new person. After this miracle, I feel like a new person too. I am sure you can see it in my face. I asked my mother for permission to become a Christian. She said “No. You would be the only believer in the village and I need you to help me make offerings to the spirits.”
Recently, I was selected as the women’s representative for my village, largely thanks to the leadership skills I gained through teacher training and teaching.
Please pray that my family will let me take the step of publicly following Jesus.
Nang La lives in Lun Village, Siem Pang District, Stung Treng Province, northeastern Cambodia.