Thida’s Story

My name is Thida Toucht and I live in Cambodia. I am the oldest child in my family so when my father lost his income I had to leave school and find a job to support our family. Our family was separated as I looked for work all over Cambodia. Eventually I found a job washing clothes in a small a town on the border of Thailand and Cambodia. It was a very dangerous place and the work was very hard. I was sad all the time because I loved school and wanted to go to university and I missed my family very much.

Eventually my cousin who lived in Phnom Penh was able to find me a job in the city. I moved to Phnom Penh to live with her and started working in the kitchen of a community organisation that provided food for the poor. I was 17 years old. I started work at 3am every morning. The organisation that I worked for was a Christian charity. In order to work there I told them that I believed in God but actually I was a Buddhist. The people that I worked with talked about God a lot but I didn’t really believe what they said. One of my co-workers would often ask me to attend church meetings with him but I wasn’t interested. He was very persistent however and eventually I agreed to go to a meeting.

The speaker at the church meeting talked a lot about Jesus and how much he loves us and wants to be in a relationship with us. What he said touched my heart but I still didn’t really believe. The next day I was riding my bicycle through an area in the city that is quite dangerous. In my handbag was a new mobile phone that I had just bought so that I could contact my parents in our village. When I stopped at the intersection a group of men surrounded me. I was terrified. They were all around me and had their hands all over me. I didn’t know what to do. I tried to scream but no sound came out. There were people around but nobody tried to help. I remembered what the pastor had said about Jesus the night before. In my heart I prayed ‘Jesus if you are real then I need you to help me.’ Immediately I was able to get my arms free. I threw my bag to the side of the road hoping they would go over to it. They all moved to the side of the road but after searching on the ground for a few seconds they ran away. My bag and new phone were lying on the grass untouched. I was safe. I gave my heart to Jesus in that moment. I called out to him to protect me and He did.

I was so transformed by Jesus’ love for me that I wanted to tell everyone I knew about him. I called my parents and brothers and sisters and told them I had become a Christian. Within a few weeks my parents and siblings had become Christians too. They had hope for the first time. I started attending church and every Sunday afternoon after church my friend and I would go to the riverside and talk to people about Jesus. One afternoon we had been chatting to people for a long time and there was only two young men that we hadn’t talked to sitting by the river. I said to my friend ‘I don’t feel comfortable talking to those two men, lets go home now’. My friend replied ‘Do you think that Jesus only came to save women? No, he came to bring freedom to men and women, lets talk to them.’ I approached the two men and asked them if they had heard of Jesus and would they like to know more about him. The first young man replied ‘I do know Jesus. I have just finished Bible College and now I am a pastor’. That young man is now my husband! We have now been married for seven years and have three children. Eventually I was able to go back to studying and I now work as a counsellor for a Christian organisation that supports victims of human trafficking.

I could never have imagined how much my life could change because of Jesus. He is so faithful.

Photo: Supplied