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A Most Remarkable Woman By Betsy Guinn Leng San comes from a comfortable and loving large Cambodian family. She had a husband, 4 children and a responsible job in the police force. All this ended when Pol; Pot’s Khymer Rouge took over the country. Her husband was killed and her baby died. She had to flee from her home in Phnom Penn. She walked across the country and could not find any of her extended family. Forced to keep moving so the authorities would not discover who she was, she became a farmer. A decree went out and she had to marry her widowed older neighbor with six surviving children. While the three youngest girls were visiting another village, Leng got word that soldiers were looking for her. She immediately got her second husband, new baby and her three older children and walked to Thailand. After settling the family in a refugee camp, she returned to Cambodia to get her three stepdaughters and to let her new husband’s extended family know they could also escape and that she would help them.
She made the decision to help more people. Her commitment resulted in many other people helping to make her plans a reality. She made the decision to help more people. Her commitment resulted in many other people helping to make her plans a reality. Temples have been rebuilt, Schools repaired and a wonderful social service center built housing 25 orphans, teaching English to 150 students, 16 elderly people fed, and many plans in the works for a library, computers, sewing machines and a clinic—and that’s just in the first village! Work had begun in a second village and a third has been identified. Would you like to join my family in a very exciting opportunity to make a real difference?
At the core of United Methodist Women is spiritual and theological development. We seek to grow in faith and to understand our involvement in God’s mission through prayer, Bible study, worship, reflection, and interaction with others. We grow through: · Education about God’s mission (information) · Education for God’s mission (preparation) · Education through involvement in God’s mission (action/reflection) · Education by interaction with others in God’s mission (mutual learning) Every year we have the opportunity to attend a School of Christian Mission, a two- or four-day residential experience in mission education. Three courses are offered each year: a spiritual growth study, a geographical study, and a topical study. This year the spiritual growth study is “I Believe in Jesus,” faith in Jesus in a post-modern world. The geographic study is again on Israel / Palestine. The topical study is “Giving our Hearts Away: Native American Survival,” cultural, economic, spiritual lessons by and about indigenous peoples. The overall theme for the 2008 school is “Living the Sacred,” to live in sacred harmony and walk together in ways that lead to peace and reconciliation. This year, Oregon-Idaho women can attend July 31 - August 3 at George Fox College in Newberg. Our Unit has budgeted partial scholarships for any woman from our church who wants to attend. Would you like to get away for a couple of days to pray, study, worship, reflect, and interact with other United Methodist Women from around Oregon and Idaho? Please contact any Executive Board member for more information, or go to http://www.umoi.net/artman/uploads/leadership/umw/socm_registration_form_2008.pdf (or umoi.net and then UMW and then School of Christian Mission) to get a registration form. Blessings, Karen
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Soon
after meeting Leng San in 1982 she became Betsy’s “elder sister.”
Back
in Thailand, after four years in the camp, many in-laws had arrived. Leng got
her family—all 10 of them, visas for the U.S. Immediately, she began the
paperwork to get the relatives to California. After 34 years, there were 100
people living in the Long Beach area all helped by Leng. Almost 10 more years
passed before Leng got word that some of her first family had survived. She took
in sewing to save money and was finally able to travel and help her family
financially. When Leng’s husband died of a heart attack she began working at her
Buddhist Temple in Long Beach. 
