In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I testify. I was born in Cambodia, and I came to the United States in 1981, when I was nine years old. From 1975 to 1979 there was a genocide in Cambodia: out of 6 million people, 3.5 million died during those years. Every day, people died from starvation or execution—even my relatives and my loved ones.

I always asked myself, what kind of God created people, and then allowed them to die like that? How can this God be a good God? Can’t He see that all these people are dying?

After I came to this country, I started having nightmares. It was the same nightmare every night. Five evil spirits would grab me: two of them would tie my hands, two of them would tie my feet, and one would choke me. I was so afraid of going to sleep. Growing up, I worked two or three jobs because I didn’t want to sleep. All this time, I was so fearful and lonely. When I read the Buddhist sayings that the world is full of suffering, I really believed it.

Turbulent Years

I had been seeking the truth and looking for God all my life, but I still felt so lonely in my heart. I said to myself, life must be better than this. In college, I went to parties where I saw people dancing, drinking, and having so much fun. I said, wow, this is what happiness is, huh? So during my first and second year in college, I went out and I drank and I danced. When I went to parties, I would get up on the stage and dance like crazy. People would yell my name, “Vuthy! Vuthy!” But I couldn’t find happiness. Finally, I said to myself, this isn’t the way.

I almost flunked out of school my sophomore year. When I realized what was happening to me, I settled down a little bit during my junior year, but I still felt so lonely. I thought that maybe, when I get out of college, I’ll get a job and make some money, and that will make me happy. But after I graduated and got a good job, my heart still felt empty.

Searching for the Truth

I was still constantly searching for the truth all this time, but without any success. For a while I went to a Christian church, where I was baptized for the first time. But God didn’t move me and I didn’t see God in that church, so I left. After that, my mother took me to a Greek Orthodox church where I was baptized the second time. But I fell asleep every time I went there, because they spoke in Greek and I couldn’t understand what they were saying.

After I left this second church I said to myself, forget it, God doesn’t exist. I just focused on working at my agency. One of the women who worked there belongs to the True Jesus Church. One day she saw my Bible on my desk and asked me to attend a Bible study. I thought, why not, I have nothing to lose, and went to the Bible study. At the end, when they knelt down and prayed in tongues, I was really scared.

One of the sisters must have been praying for me, because the next week I couldn’t wait to go to Bible study. At that meeting, I felt God move me. I started going to Bible study, and then I started to attend church services regularly. I felt that God was there, even though we gathered in only a prayer house. I started to pray sincerely every night because I felt the movement of God. Every biblical teaching that I learned and followed came true.

God Touched Me

One night when I was sleeping, God’s power came over me and said, “Vuthy, get up and pray.” So I said, “okay,” and I started to pray.

I said, “Hallelujah,” and this power came into me, and I started to speak in tongues. I started to weep from joy because I felt so much love and mercy from God. This was the first time I felt joy in my heart, and I knew it was from God. During that prayer God made me realize what kind of a person I was, and all the sinful things I had done in my high school and college years.

While I was praying, God moved me to say, “Turn to 1 Peter.” I didn’t even know where 1 Peter was in the Bible. So I got up, switched on the lights, and turned to 1 Peter, chapter 1. As I was reading, the words of God came alive, almost like they were three-dimensional. Every word came to me like it was living, and it really touched me.

Spiritual Warfare

A few days later, my nightmares came back again. I hadn’t had those nightmares in a couple of years. They were the same five spirits, and this time they were choking me especially hard. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t yell, I couldn’t scream. But I said, “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” and they left.

I asked the brothers and sisters in church why I still had nightmares despite having received the Holy Spirit. They asked me if I had any idols in my house. I did have a little gold Buddha head, and they told me that I had to throw it away. So in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I flushed it down the toilet.

The next night I had another nightmare, but this time there was only one spirit. This big, black spirit was choking me, and I couldn’t see its face. It really scared me because this was something new. I said, “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” and I started choking the spirit back. I turned the spirit over on my bed, and I saw that its face was corroded and full of worms. Then suddenly, it disappeared.

Again I asked the sister at church why I still had these nightmares. I didn’t know what was causing them; I didn’t think I had anything else in my house. She said that I should check again. So I searched and searched, and finally I found another Buddha head that my mom had given me a long time ago. I had forgotten that it was in my jewelry box. So again in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I flushed it down the toilet.

My Father's "Practice"

After I was baptized in the True Jesus Church, I started to tell my father about God. My father is seventy-three years old. Ever since he was a young man in Cambodia, he has always practiced witchcraft. It was known all over his town that no one could kill him by shooting or stabbing. When I was a child I felt proud of this, but I didn’t really believe it.

When my family came to the U.S. in 1981, we were terribly mistreated. Our house was burned down twice. The second time, my father went outside and started fighting with the arsonists. One of them tried to hit my father with a baseball bat, but my father put his hand up and broke it in half. After that, I started to believe that my father really did use witchcraft.

The first time my father went to a Christian church after he came to America, he became so sick that he almost died. His “spirit master” of witchcraft warned him that he would kill him if he continued to go to church. So from 1981 until 1999, my father never went to church.

In June 1999, I went fishing with my father. By then, I’d been regularly attending services in the True Jesus Church. I really believed that God exists and I felt His love. So I said to myself, this is a great opportunity for me to talk to my father about God. I told him, “I’ve never asked you to do anything in my entire life. But I’ve found God, and I want you to come to church only five times. If after five times you don’t feel anything, you don’t ever have to come back.” He agreed, “Okay son, I’ll do it for you.”

That same night, my niece was in my father’s room. Suddenly, she started screaming, “Grandma, grandpa, someone’s trying to kill me!” My father looked around and there was no one there. Then he realized that it was his spirit master again. He told me about it the next day, but I told him not to worry because God is all-powerful, and only He can take away life.

Getting Rid of the Old

The next Friday at Bible study, I asked the brothers and sisters what I should do about all the Buddhism paraphernalia in my father’s room. They advised me to pray and to remove it, but who would dare go into his room and remove all of it? My father wouldn’t do it, and I didn’t have enough faith to do it myself. So the only thing we could do was pray.

Thank God, my father came to church that Saturday. After the prayer, I asked him how he felt. He said, “I felt cold and full of chills.” I thought, that doesn’t sound right. Sure enough, I found out that he was wearing a big Buddha head around his neck. So I told him, “That’s the problem, you need to get rid of that. You need to get rid of all the other things in your room, too, if you really want to pray to God.”

So with God’s help, my father removed all his Buddhism paraphernalia (including his necklace), and he began to pray every night.

A New Life

The next Sabbath, my father came to church and knelt down to pray again. I had never described to him what the Holy Spirit felt like. After the prayer, he said that he felt this tingling all through his body, and it felt really good. I really thanked God.

During that same week, my father’s left leg began to hurt so badly that he couldn’t even walk. He didn’t understand why this was happening to him. On the way to church he said to me, “If your God is the true God, let Him heal my leg.” So I thought, “We have him, Lord.” My father is a man of his word. I knew that all we would have to do was to have faith and pray, and God would heal him.

His leg hurt for a week, and then one night he woke up crying from the pain. The minute he got up, he felt this power from his foot all the way to his knee, and he was able to walk. He called and told me about it, and I was so joyful. The brothers and sisters at church had prayed really hard for him.

On our way to the next Sabbath service, he told me, “Son, I will follow your faith; I have already told your mother that I will follow your faith and follow your God.” I really thank God. My father has practiced Buddhism all his life, just like his grandparents and great-grandparents before him. For him to believe in God and come to church is a miracle.