Reprinted with permission from
August 10, 2000
by Cathy Randel
“I’d
gladly walk across the desert
with no shoes upon my feet
To share with you the last bite
Of bread I had to eat.
I
would swim out to save you
In your sea of broken dreams.
When all of your hopes are sinking,
Let me show you what love means.
Love
can build a bridge
Between your heart and mine.
Love can build a bridge.
Don’t you think it’s time?
Don’t you think it’s time?”
I didn’t ask permission of Naomi Judd to print her song. Surely she’d
agree that this is the right time and place to shout her words. I can’t get
“Love can build a bridge” out of my thoughts, since spending an hour
yesterday with Dalay Dy.
Dalay Dy, (pronounced Dal eye dee). made her first trip to America this
week. She’s traveled from her Siem Reap, Cambodian homeland in search of help
from the people of Highlands Ranch. She has come to share her dream, to give a
future of hope to the children in her community. This global effort has been
dubbed “Mission Possible: Cambodia.” The $15,000 this 20-year-old hopes to
raise, in cooperation with St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, will buy land
that will be used to build a community educational center in her rural village.
The children are Dalay’s cause. She told me about the government that
reigned just before she was born. You’ve most likely heard about that man
named Pol Pot who ruled between 1975 and 1979. He ordered the Cambodian children
to work in the rice fields, separating them permanently from their parents. His
philosophy was to teach the children that they didn’t need a mother or father;
the state would be enough family. h the process, Dalay said that 3 million of
her people were killed.
“It may be more,” she said quietly. “Maybe 6 million. We just
don’t know.” I asked the tiny, soft-spoken woman how she knows this tragic
story.
“My mother won’t stop talking about it,” she replied. “Her whole
family was wiped out.”
Jan. 7, 1979, the Cambodians started over. They call that date “Year
Zero.” Viet Nam troops conquered Pol Pot and led the poor country until 1993,
when the United Nations organized and introduced democracy.
And now, Dalay and a devoted missionary couple, Joseph and Marilyn Chan,
have their own ideas. They have decided not to wait for the red tape of their
church hierarchy. This small team is launching its own fight to aid crying and
starving neighbors.
I especially like that they are not going in to mass baptize and preach
the “Repent! God will save you!” sermons like the father in the book,
‘Poisonwood Bible.’ St. Luke’s assistant minister, Esther Miyahara-Cho,
associate pastor, said, while she sat with Dalay and me in her office, “We
believe that meeting people is meeting them where they are, especially basic
needs — like water.”
How can the sole emphasis be on converting people to Christianity?
So this “Mission Possible” dream: to establish a center for
humanitarian outreach, started with the Chans, who are hoping Dalay and one
small church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, will continue the domino effect. They
already have some plots purchased, but need the center land to connect the
puzzle pieces.
Of course, they haye faith that somehow it will all come together.
Miyahara-Cho explained that they’ve contacted Asian companies who are
willing to help. Donated building supplies are waiting in the wings, but the
problem there, is “How do we get them to Cambodia, whose roads are almost
non-existent?” That’s only one of the glitches she’s encountered since she
and a study group of American Methodists visited Dalay and the Chans in Siem
Reap last year.
If they could get some monetary support from us Ranchers, that would be
one hurdle knocked down. Just think. Once they buy the necessary land and gather
the massive building materials, the Cambodian indigents will be shocked to find
a medical clinic, an agricultural training center for adults and a housing
facility. Children, and grown ups from remote areas will be able to attend
school at the center, even though they must walk in from great distances.
That’s why the sleeping, cooking and bathing facilities are a high priority. I
also like another priority: planting fruit trees around the perimeter of the
land so that the students will have a way to work and earn money in-between
studying.
This meeting awakened my senses and put me in awe of Dalay. To me she is
a hero.
As I was about to leave I complimented her on her English and the work
she has accomplished in her mere 20 years. She looked down, grinning, both
dimples deepening. I then asked for a copy of the architectural
plan she had typed in her own hand. (As an English major, she has developed
into a one-woman translating and printing operation.) It says that the Community
Education Center will include a vocational school, basic school, dormitory,
Theological education area, rural clinic, retreat center and church. The
“Model for Farming” suggests growing vegetables, fish, chickens, pigs,
ducks, fruit trees and cows.
It’s a tall order, but watching this young college graduate (turned
humanitarian leader) explain her passion, I know she will persevere. She has
courageously traveled to a foreign land to testify that “Love can build a
bridge.” The passion jumps out like a giant purple Dinger on homeplate.
“They just need to learn everyday life-skills to rebuild their
lives,” Miyahara-Cho said. “You should see Joseph Chan. He’s so passionate
about this! Even at midnight he is still talking (about the dream).” Then she
added, “We hope this would be long-term — Where
would we be without you?
“Where would you be without us? We have so much in Highlands Ranch.
They have so much spirit and hope, and if we partner, we can do some incredible
things.”
To help the “Mission Possible” dream become a reality, to help
“plant the seeds of hope — to build communities of hope,” St. Luke’s
invites the public to attend a Taste of Cambodia and Silent Auction.
Saturday, Aug. 12 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the church. It’s on Broadway across
from Northridge Rec Center.
Dalay will be there cheering and be glad to visit with you. Maybe some of
you teachers/moms or dads on the loose have ideas of how you and your children
can help Dalay’s children. You don’t have to walk across a desert or swim an
ocean. Just bring along a jingling piggy bank.
“Love can build a bridge Between your heart and mine. Love can build a
bridge. Don’t YOU think it’s time?” For more information please call
Esther Miyahara-Cho at 303-791-0659, or visit St. Luke’s Web site at
www.stlukeshr.com.