Reprinted with permission from

HIGHLAND RANCH HERALD

August 10, 2000

Ranch residents asked to help Cambodian children

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.