Seven Loaves and a Few Fish

Pastor Savon: Lay pastor for a small Cambodian church
Education: none
Theological Degree: none
Background: Buddhist monk, 8 years; government foot soldier, 2 years;
Location: Isolated rural community in the jungles of Southwest Cambodia
Population: 350 families; 1700 people
Demographics: 80% of men are ex-communist soldiers
70% of families have an amputee victim.
Religion: 96% Buddhism/Anamism; 4% Christian
Community Area: 2000 hectares
Climate: Humid Tropics; 90 to 110 Fahrenheit

This is Pastor Savon. This is where he works -Veil Thom. A community of outcasts; spent soldiers; handicapped; the poorest of the poor. Disabled spirits, crippled hopes, amputated dreams. Chained in Buddhism and Animism, living with the uncertainty of disease, hunger, and political unrest.

Matthew 15: 32-38

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”

His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”

“How many loaves do you have?”  Jesus asked?

“Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”

He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was found thousand, besides women and children.

Originally from Takeo province, Nop Savon moved to Veil Thom with his wife and 3 children. Lame from a gunshot wound in the knee he suffered during two years of service in the Cambodian military, Savon was accepted into this village of disabled people. Poor with no land, Veil Thom offered the hope of an agrarian livelihood and the possibilities that land ownership brings. But life was hard in Veil Thom where isolation, a long dry season, and disunity in the village wore away the hopes and dreams of the people. A former monk of eight years, Savon was steeped in Buddhism. This, combined with threads of animism wove together a potent belief system that relied heavily on appeasing the spirits and doing good deeds in the hopes of achieving a better existence in the next life. “I could even call up evil spirits and send them to do bad things to my neighbors if they made me angry”, says Savon. “But I also lived in fear of what they could do to me.”

Savon became a Christian through the work of Christian organization in the community. “I watched the Christian activities and I wonder about their God and their Bible b/c they seem very different from Buddhists”. Savon began to seek answers to his questions about God and the Bible and soon became a Christian, leading his family to Christ as well. Though his faith shaky, the power of Christ slowly began to tear down the strongholds in his life. “I make my wife cry many times before I became a Christian. I was not a good husband. I gambled a lot and did not take good care of my family. My family is much happier now. We treat one another with love. We don’t have much more money than before but now we have the hope that God brings us.”

The changes in Savon were noticeable to those around him as he demonstrated a growing humility and conscientiousness in helping those around him. Recognizing a pastoral gifting, Christian leaders working in the community began to mentor Savon in the Word of God, growing his faith and developing his maturity. In mid 2005 they appointed Savon as the lay pastor of the new Veil Thom church.

With 75 families, the Veil Thom church has grown considerably from its humble beginnings of just 2 families. Currently Savon works six days out of the week visiting Christian families in the community, exhorting and encouraging them in their faith. He teaches 4 of the 6 cell groups in the community and assists Pastor Samnang in the weekly church services held in the community center. When his motorcycle broke down completely, Savon continued to visit families daily, walking throughout Veil Thom’s 2000 hectares, often in 40 degree heat.

While a sister church in the capital city has provided him a salary of $50 a month, Savon still works to support his family by cultivating gardens at his home, raising pigs and goats, and acting as one of the motorcycle taxi drivers in the community. In the face of the difficulties of being a handicapped person in the unforgiving environment of rural Cambodia, Savon’s self-sacrifice and eagerness to serve the people of Veil Thom goes on unabated as he continues his own personal development attending pastor conferences, being discipled, and most recently, taking up guitar lessons for leading worship.

Pastor Savon is an incredible example of seven loaves and a few small fish. God does not call us to do great things, nor does he call us to tasks beyond our measure. God calls us to put our few talents in His hands and watch as He breaks us before the masses and multiplies us until all are fed. Again, I am reminded of the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). What matters is not how much you are given, but that you use it to the best of your ability. We give excuses about our inability to speak to people or limited knowledge of the Bible, shrugging off opportunities to reach out to neighbors or demonstrate love to poor we see around us either from fear or indifference. Yet possessing so little resources and limited knowledge of the Bible, this former Buddhist monk’s life speaks a challenge to us of what God can do with just a few loaves and fish.