wfn.org | Church Helps Fill Void For Cambodian Refugees

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

19-December-1997 
97482 
 
    Sowing a New Life: 
    Church Helps Fill Void For Cambodian Refugees 
 
    by Bob Christie 
    "The Bakersfield Californian" 
    Used with permission 
 
BAKERSFIELD, Calif.--Heal Keal and his sister, Chap Keal, fled war-torn 
Cambodia for refugee camps in Thailand in 1979. 
 
    Nearly 20 years later, they live in a small apartment in central 
Bakersfield, near many other immigrants from the war-torn Southeast Asian 
country.  Heal Keal, 58, was a farmer in his native land, and like many of 
his fellow refugees who eventually made the United States their home, he 
continues to farm, although in a smaller way. 
 
    The tiny yard behind his apartment building is a virtual jungle of 
plants, from bamboo to mint to lemon grass to eggplant. 
 
    But he has another garden, this one recently planted.  It is sown with 
Chinese broccoli, Brussels sprouts, tendergreen and sugar cane.  He spends 
part of each day here lovingly tending the crops and his soul. 
 
    Keal's second garden is inside the fenced yard of a home recently 
rented by the Cambodian Presbyterian Church.  As a church elder, he has 
taken the land under his wing and the church into his heart. 
 
    It's just a large, old white house on a street filled with similar 
near-century-old homes, but it serves as the heart of a small but growing 
community of poor Cambodian refugees who call central Bakersfield home. 
 
    Nestled in an aging neighborhood surrounded by a mix of homes and 
apartment buildings, the house serves as the chapel, meeting hall and 
community center for members of the church. 
 
    In addition to serving as a place of worship, prayer meetings and 
Sunday school sessions, the church houses a teen outreach program aimed at 
Asian boys at risk of being recruited into area gangs. 
 
    In essence, this is a place Cambodians can call home. 
 
    The Rev. Sahara Chea chose this area to open an outreach center about 
two years ago because many of Bakersfield's estimated 2,000 Cambodians live 
within a mile of it.  Most are older, with little prospect of landing jobs, 
and must subsist on aid. 
 
    The congregation of the church is mostly poor and relatively small, 
with only about 80 members, including children, he said.  But it is growing 
and recently moved from one-half of a dilapidated duplex two blocks away to 
the modest house it now occupies. 
 
    Chea hopes to run expanded youth programs from the church's new base 
and continue to offer new programs to older Cambodians who need help 
finding work, dealing with gambling or alcohol problems or improving their 
language skills so they can become U.S. citizens. 
 
    On Wednesdays, English classes are held to help adults prepare for 
citizenship tests.  On Fridays and Saturdays, the youth group gathers for 
basketball practice.  And on Sundays, services and Sunday school are held 
for the parishioners, and there are Cambodian language classes for 
children. 
 
    That program in particular is one that parishioners believe is 
critical.  "It is very important for my people," said Nihm Main, who came 
to the United States in 1988 and was a teacher in refugee camps in 
Thailand.  "Every person needs to learn all their language, their culture." 
 
    For Chea, the choice to minister to a poor congregation meant giving up 
much in the way of material wealth.  "I could be someplace else," said 
Chea, a California State University-Bakersfield graduate and an ordained 
Presbyterian minister.  "I have my teaching credentials.  I could be making 
a lot more money. 
 
    "But these are my people.  I realize there is a crying need in the 
community." 
 
    Among the six adult Cambodians at a recent impromptu gathering, all 
were imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge, although only one bears visible 
physical effects.  Heal Keal's body was paralyzed during torture sessions 
inflicted by the Khmer Rouge before he fled the country.  For the most part 
he has recovered, but he still is left with lingering pain and weakness in 
his right side. 
 
    He is happy here, although he knows he will never see his country 
again.  But that is not all bad.  Through an interpreter, he says of 
Cambodia: "Always war and destruction.  Always war and destruction." 
 
    Neither he nor his sister knows more than a few words of English, so 
they tend to live near other immigrants.  Having the church nearby is a 
blessing his smile, if not his limited English vocabulary, reveals.  As 
does the garden at the church, lovingly tended and thriving in the late 
autumn sunshine. 

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