February 25, 2008Rosalind Jennings
Special To The Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel (Florida, USA)
LEESBURG - At the tender age of 3, Lakhina Brown was running for her life through tropical forests in Cambodia.
Brown, co-founder of Legacy of Hope International in Leesburg, is the daughter of a Cambodian military officer.
"Growing up as a child, I was mesmerized by Daddy's contagious presence," she wrote in her autobiography Through Fields of Grace, published in 2007. "He was nurturing and tender toward me. He loved to have fun, loved to sing and loved to play his flute and banjo. Daddy was full of life."
Her father's position in the military put them in danger, however. When the communist regime, the Khmer Rouge, took power, members began killing entire families of Cambodians who were educated and belonged to the former government.
In 1975, Brown's family was on the top of their hit list. They became fugitives, running from town to town, hiding from the communist killers.
"The Khmer Rouge, like heartless savages, would line up entire families and perform mass executions in broad daylight," she wrote.
Her father was finally captured, and Brown remembers when they took him away.
"One of the men asked Daddy to come down from the tree and verify his name," she wrote.
"When he reached the ground, I ran to him and grabbed on to one of his legs. I began to cry hysterically . . . I began to plead with them for mercy, 'Please don't take my Daddy away from me.' "
They took him away, and she never saw him again. She later was told he died of starvation trying to reach the border. He hoped to go into Thailand, where some refugee camps existed.
Brown's youngest brother also perished after her mother was forced into slave labor in the agricultural fields of the regime and was not allowed to feed her baby.
Once after Brown's father had been taken, the family was rounded up with other families. Brown's mother knew they would be executed. So they escaped, running through the tropical foliage in the night.
There was a lot of running and hiding throughout Brown's childhood.
She was never safe from death until a Christian missionary group sponsored her family's trip to the United States.
Unfortunately, after her mother went back to Cambodia, the border was closed with Thailand. She was stranded and couldn't get back to her children, who were at a Thailand refugee camp.
Brown was 8. She didn't see her mother for 25 years. They were reunited when Brown visited Cambodia in 2004.
"My mother was still running for her life up until 1997," Brown said.
Brown arrived in the United States at age 9 with grandparents and other relatives; she ended up being adopted by kindly Americans in her teen years.
Meeting her husband, now a pastor and music director at The Father's House Christian Center in Leesburg, was her next saving grace, and the two launched Legacy of Hope together. They serve as its directors.
"Writing was the only way I could express myself well," she said.
"I grew up holding so much inside. I never knew how to communicate with anybody."
Through Fields of Grace can be purchased through Legacy of Hope's Web site or by calling 1-866-902-LOHI. The cost is $13.99, with proceeds supporting the charity.
Brown, co-founder of Legacy of Hope International in Leesburg, is the daughter of a Cambodian military officer.
"Growing up as a child, I was mesmerized by Daddy's contagious presence," she wrote in her autobiography Through Fields of Grace, published in 2007. "He was nurturing and tender toward me. He loved to have fun, loved to sing and loved to play his flute and banjo. Daddy was full of life."
Her father's position in the military put them in danger, however. When the communist regime, the Khmer Rouge, took power, members began killing entire families of Cambodians who were educated and belonged to the former government.
In 1975, Brown's family was on the top of their hit list. They became fugitives, running from town to town, hiding from the communist killers.
"The Khmer Rouge, like heartless savages, would line up entire families and perform mass executions in broad daylight," she wrote.
Her father was finally captured, and Brown remembers when they took him away.
"One of the men asked Daddy to come down from the tree and verify his name," she wrote.
"When he reached the ground, I ran to him and grabbed on to one of his legs. I began to cry hysterically . . . I began to plead with them for mercy, 'Please don't take my Daddy away from me.' "
They took him away, and she never saw him again. She later was told he died of starvation trying to reach the border. He hoped to go into Thailand, where some refugee camps existed.
Brown's youngest brother also perished after her mother was forced into slave labor in the agricultural fields of the regime and was not allowed to feed her baby.
Once after Brown's father had been taken, the family was rounded up with other families. Brown's mother knew they would be executed. So they escaped, running through the tropical foliage in the night.
There was a lot of running and hiding throughout Brown's childhood.
She was never safe from death until a Christian missionary group sponsored her family's trip to the United States.
Unfortunately, after her mother went back to Cambodia, the border was closed with Thailand. She was stranded and couldn't get back to her children, who were at a Thailand refugee camp.
Brown was 8. She didn't see her mother for 25 years. They were reunited when Brown visited Cambodia in 2004.
"My mother was still running for her life up until 1997," Brown said.
Brown arrived in the United States at age 9 with grandparents and other relatives; she ended up being adopted by kindly Americans in her teen years.
Meeting her husband, now a pastor and music director at The Father's House Christian Center in Leesburg, was her next saving grace, and the two launched Legacy of Hope together. They serve as its directors.
"Writing was the only way I could express myself well," she said.
"I grew up holding so much inside. I never knew how to communicate with anybody."
Through Fields of Grace can be purchased through Legacy of Hope's Web site or by calling 1-866-902-LOHI. The cost is $13.99, with proceeds supporting the charity.
5 comments:
What is it mean the "grace of god" for Leakhina Brown that saved her life to live in US from KR brutality, when many Cambodian peoples were drown to death? How about many Cambodian Buddhists who also survived from this brutality and live in third country as well? How this book treat fairly to everybody, when it come with the word god?
No answer for this! Christian organization has tried whatever they can to manipulate the peoples, or persuade them to convert to Christianity. In Christian's eyes, only god of Jesus is the grace; others are outcast.
Lheakina, your missionary in Cambodia is to damn Buddhists as the outcast and to convert them into your ministry that so-called civilized graceful congregation.
Damned teaching of the Bible and Christianity (sic)
So long as a child can be saved in what ever name the lord might be, it is a life saved. Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist is all man made religions. Converting or not, saving a life and giving a promising future to those otherwise might not have is beneficial to Cambodia and her people.
My beloved friends!
I am literally amazing about Mrs. Brown's logical mesmerization of the tender age of 3 that she could unmistakably still recollect all every single detail of her horrible incidents. Ironically, I am honestly kinda little confusing about what were the exact times when she and her beloved family kept running from one place to anothers? Who was her beloved father? Anyway, I still always want to read any story from our beloved Khmer's author!
For some reasons, I can not convince myself to believe that Brown is truthful when it comes to the recollection of her childhood. She claimed her father was on the top of the Khmer Rouge’s hit list and they were able to run and hide from one building to another. I would have thought that if her father is such an importance figure to be placed in top hit list, he should have known before hand that the Lon Nol regime was at the brink of collapsing. Why did he wait until the country fall under Khmer Rouge regime to take his family running and hiding?
Finally caught up with her father when he’s on top of a tree? What is this “monkey sees, monkey do”? And she was crying hysterically and pleading with them for her father’s life?
Anyway, I think her autobiography is a scam. She may lie to the European but I doubt it that the Cambodian people would buy her story to be true. She is so full of it.
Interesting ... Thank for sharing your finding with us, mate (10:42).
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