Small Girl, Big Faith

16 Dec

Small Girl, Big Faith

A small girl with Solida Seng, founder and director of Precious Women, a ministry that reaches out to protect girls from the businesses that promote the sex industry in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and rescue others already enslaved

Dear Friends,

Her name means “Small Girl” in her native Khmer language, really? I thought as I looked down on the pint-size girl in front of me. Well, at least it was much easier to pronounce than her real name. I couldn’t help see the irony in the fact that she really was a small girl, even by Cambodian standards. But God, who sees the heart, already knew how big she was on the inside.

Small Girl came from a poor family in a poor village. In 2011, out of pressure to pay off her family’s debt, she and her older sister moved to Phnom Penh to find work at a beer garden, where uneducated girls find easy work selling drinks and sex. But Small Girl soon met someone from a ministry called Precious Women, a Heaven’s Family partner, who told her that she didn’t have to work in a beer garden. Small Girl heard the gospel, and also received a scholarship offer for 4 years if she would return home and finish high school, the very thing she wished to do.

Upon high school graduation she returned to Precious Women, and told them she wanted to go on to study at the university. There were no funds for that, but they did allow Small Girl to live in their shelter for rescued women and offered her part-time work assisting their accountant, gaining experience in her field of interest.

In November 2013 our team of five met several young women at Precious Women’s office, most of whom had been helped to escape work at beer gardens, and Small Girl was in the group. When we later asked who would like specific prayer, she quickly raised her hand. She asked us to pray that one day she could study finance at the university—a wild dream for someone from a family as poor as hers.

God quickly answered those prayers. Within a few months Small Girl was attending a local university, three year’s tuition paid for—praise God! Other prayers have been answered for Small Girl as well, prayers whispered by the staff of Precious Women years ago, that her precious life be spared from bondage to serve the One who loves her.

Recently we received an email from Solida, director of Precious Women, who gave us this report:

[Small Girl] is now in her second year of studying Finance and Banking, and we just received her grades for her first year. She finished 5th in her class! We are so proud of her, and so thankful to you for sponsoring her so that she has this opportunity to study. It is so exciting to see how she is thriving at school.

We learned that “small girl” has a big heart of faith, and we’re excited to see how the Lord will use her in big ways in the years to come.

At left, Solida, myself and Heaven’s Family team members prayed in 2013 for Small Girl to one day follow her dream to attend university; at right, she proudly displaying her grade report following her first year as a finance and banking major, finishing 5th in her class

Small Girl’s dream is being made possible by those who love Jesus and who, because of that love, care for other individuals like her. We’re excited about making a difference in 2015, and hope you continue with us along the way!

If you haven’t finished making your year-end gifts to worthy, life-changing ministries that bring Jesus’ love to those who need it most, please consider a gift to help end human trafficking and slavery by clicking the donate button below.