WEDDED BLISS: Chomno and Kim at their second 'wedding'.Thursday, 22nd May, 2008
By Steve McElroy
Helensburgh Advertiser (Scotland, UK)
A REFUGEE couple whose wedding day was dramatically ruined after they fled a ruthless regime, staged a rerun in a peaceful Garelochside setting at the weekend.
Cambodians Chomno In and Kim Sorn renewed their vows at Garelochhead Parish Church, 23 years after escaping the Khmar Rouge during the Vietnam war and finding love in a refugee camp.
Parishioners raised enough money to bring the couple to Scotland and, as part of their trip, decided to organise what they had never really had — a proper wedding, after their original attempt was disrupted by bombing.
Everyone in the congregation offered what they could — some provided catering, others organised the wedding reception and a professional photographer in the congregation offered his services free of charge.
Even the Minister, the Reverend Alastair Duncan, loaned his kilt for groom, Chomno, while bride-to-be Kim borrowed a wedding dress from a parishioner, both of which turned out to be a perfect fit.
The wedding was completed with a piper and a ceilidh afterwards, witnessed by more than 100 guests.
Mr Duncan — who first met the couple in 2005 — said: “This was no ‘ordinary’ Scottish wedding, if such a thing exists, but truly was a wedding with a difference.
“Most brides dream of a happy-ever-after ending to their wedding day, but for Chomno In and Kim Sorn that original day was cut short by fear and tragedy.”
The couple met in a Thai refugee camp after escaping from their native Cambodia which had been ruled by the brutal Khmer Rouge, under the control of its notorious leader Pol Pot.
By 1985, when they married, Cambodia was at war as the Khmer Rouge sought to resist the Vietnamese forces which had come to liberate the country.
Chomno had been in the camp for several years and trained to work as a medical orderly. He met Kim, who was helping to care for her mother in the hospital where he worked. Love blossomed and the two decided to marry.
Mr Duncan said Chomno described the wedding as a small event and added: “In Chomno’s words, ‘They bombed the camp on our wedding day and people had to run away’.”
The Minister met the couple on a Tearfund relief agency visit to Poipet, a town on the border with Thailand, where they now live.
He is Director of the Cambodian Hope Organisation which provides relief, skills, training and education, as well as raising awareness of the risks and menace of human trafficking which is rife in the region.
Mr Duncan also organised a return mercy visit to the area, for members of the Garelochhead Church, last year.
He added: “We were able to raise enough money to bring the couple over and to tell more people about the work they do.
“Everything came together beautifully. There were over a hundred guests at the renewal of vows ceremony, with as many Scottish wedding traditions as we could muster, including a piper.
“The ceremony was interpreted into Khmer, the Cambodian language, by a former Cambodian missionary who had travelled from Lewis specially for the occasion.
“Fortunately the weather, though a little cold, behaved impeccably and the rain kept away.
“The only down side was that, whilst the couple are used to living amongst mosquitoes, they were not quite prepared for the midge season when they went to have their photographs taken.”
Parishioners staged a reception for the couple in the village hall, where they cut their cake and — after a typically Scottish meal — experienced an evening of ceilidh dancing.
Members of the Route 81 youth project also presented the couple with over £900, they had raised through a sponsored famine event.
Cambodians Chomno In and Kim Sorn renewed their vows at Garelochhead Parish Church, 23 years after escaping the Khmar Rouge during the Vietnam war and finding love in a refugee camp.
Parishioners raised enough money to bring the couple to Scotland and, as part of their trip, decided to organise what they had never really had — a proper wedding, after their original attempt was disrupted by bombing.
Everyone in the congregation offered what they could — some provided catering, others organised the wedding reception and a professional photographer in the congregation offered his services free of charge.
Even the Minister, the Reverend Alastair Duncan, loaned his kilt for groom, Chomno, while bride-to-be Kim borrowed a wedding dress from a parishioner, both of which turned out to be a perfect fit.
The wedding was completed with a piper and a ceilidh afterwards, witnessed by more than 100 guests.
Mr Duncan — who first met the couple in 2005 — said: “This was no ‘ordinary’ Scottish wedding, if such a thing exists, but truly was a wedding with a difference.
“Most brides dream of a happy-ever-after ending to their wedding day, but for Chomno In and Kim Sorn that original day was cut short by fear and tragedy.”
The couple met in a Thai refugee camp after escaping from their native Cambodia which had been ruled by the brutal Khmer Rouge, under the control of its notorious leader Pol Pot.
By 1985, when they married, Cambodia was at war as the Khmer Rouge sought to resist the Vietnamese forces which had come to liberate the country.
Chomno had been in the camp for several years and trained to work as a medical orderly. He met Kim, who was helping to care for her mother in the hospital where he worked. Love blossomed and the two decided to marry.
Mr Duncan said Chomno described the wedding as a small event and added: “In Chomno’s words, ‘They bombed the camp on our wedding day and people had to run away’.”
The Minister met the couple on a Tearfund relief agency visit to Poipet, a town on the border with Thailand, where they now live.
He is Director of the Cambodian Hope Organisation which provides relief, skills, training and education, as well as raising awareness of the risks and menace of human trafficking which is rife in the region.
Mr Duncan also organised a return mercy visit to the area, for members of the Garelochhead Church, last year.
He added: “We were able to raise enough money to bring the couple over and to tell more people about the work they do.
“Everything came together beautifully. There were over a hundred guests at the renewal of vows ceremony, with as many Scottish wedding traditions as we could muster, including a piper.
“The ceremony was interpreted into Khmer, the Cambodian language, by a former Cambodian missionary who had travelled from Lewis specially for the occasion.
“Fortunately the weather, though a little cold, behaved impeccably and the rain kept away.
“The only down side was that, whilst the couple are used to living amongst mosquitoes, they were not quite prepared for the midge season when they went to have their photographs taken.”
Parishioners staged a reception for the couple in the village hall, where they cut their cake and — after a typically Scottish meal — experienced an evening of ceilidh dancing.
Members of the Route 81 youth project also presented the couple with over £900, they had raised through a sponsored famine event.
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I wisg you good health, happiness, and prosperity in your lives.
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