A FIVE-MONTH FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!
Arn Saven, in this picture, is 30 years old. I met him in the Cambodian village where he was born. He grew up in great poverty; his family were not even able to eat rice every day. Arn was passionate about religion. A neighbor recommended the monastic life to him when he was only fourteen years old. Arn did not know much about what this entailed, but he decided to follow his neighbor’s advice anyway. Before he could be ordained as a monk, he had to move to a Pagoda (Buddhist temple) and live there for a while. During this period, candidates must pay for their own accommodation, which his neighbor helped him with.
After almost a year of studying the Buddhist scriptures, he was ordained as a monk – initially with a probationary period of five years. Before reaching the age of seventeen, one bears the title of “little monk.” Arn was a little monk for two years. After a short break, he continued, now with the more generous title of “Pikho”, which means “to be led”. After another three years as a monk, depending on your skill, you can become a priest or abbot.
Arn tells us here what the life of a Pikho consists of: “You get up early in the morning and recite Sanskrit (the liturgical language of Hinduism and Buddhism) for an hour. This also serves as prayer. Then you go out to beg for food, and then you return to the Pagoda to clean and take care of other janitorial duties. Sometimes you have assignments in connection with weddings, the consecration of buildings and the like, where the monk quotes from the holy scriptures.”
To advance from the Pikho stage to becoming a priest, you have to go to a larger Pagoda. However, Arn did not have the money for this, so he quit. Two years later he married a widow, and they had a daughter together. When this girl was six months old, Arn’s wife wanted to divorce him – which caused him great psychological problems. She left for Malaysia, and he stayed behind in Cambodia to take care of the child. Life was so full of worries that he lost sleep at night, became very depressed and eventually went into psychosis. In this state, he lost all inhibitions, took off his clothes and ran around the village naked. The people there treated him very badly; sometimes they tied his hands, spat on him and scolded him. Although Arn only remembers fragments of this, he remembers that it was very humiliating. This situation continued for several months.
While this was going on, he met the mother-in-law of Sim, a Cambodian pastor. She told Arn about God, which was something completely new and unknown to him. The believers there wanted to help the poor man, but they had to tie him up with rope because he was so violent. They prayed for him and also took him to the hospital for treatment, but it didn't help. On the contrary, his symptoms only got worse. His family now completely gave up and sent him off to the orphanage where Pastor Sim leads his congregation. The pastor and the believers began to pray for him both late and early, not least the children were active in intercession. Arn was at that time about 28 years old but was in such bad condition that he was more or less unconscious for the entire first week. For five months Pastor Sim and the congregation kept praying for him until he was completely well. During this period he also accepted the Lord and was saved.
Today Arn is a happy and contented man. Strong, full of hope and wisdom. All the serious mental problems are gone, and he doesn't take any medication. His daughter now lives at the orphanage where Pastor Sim works, and she has a close and good relationship with her father. While we sit and talk with him about his special and desperate life story, children keep coming over, wanting to sit on his lap. It is clear that Arn loves children and they love him. Jesus has turned the deranged Buddhist monk into a happy and smiling friend of children.
