Seward County Independent

    Sun Samoeun has yet to experience his first snowfall.
     In fact, Nebraska autumn temperatures already come as a shock to him, as temperatures of 70 degrees are considered chilly in his native land of Cambodia.
     "He's going to find out what Nebraska weather is like," Peggy Wolfram, a volunteer missionary to southeast Asia, laughed.
     The cold is a small price to pay, however, as Samoeun, a graduate student at Concordia University-Seward, moves a step closer to achieving his vision and that of his Cambodian church.
     "We want to see a Christian school in Cambodia," he said. "We have a very big dream, but we know exactly that God wants us to do it. We don't know what's going to happen, but we are willing to do it."
     For Samoeun, this means completing a one-year master's program for an advanced degree in English.
     Samoeun earned bachelor's degrees in teaching English as a second language and English communication from Norton University in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and held a faculty position at Norton University.
     His passion, however, is for Christian education, and he was active in English and music ministries at Open Gate Christian Fellowship (OGCF) in Phnom Penh prior to his arrival in Seward County.
     Samoeun worked with Wolfram as an interpreter since her arrival in Cambodia and shared his desire for a school with her.
     Dr. Robert Fiala, Seward, later met Samoeun in Phnom Penh and worked to arrange for Samoeun's study opportunity at Concordia.
     "Professor Fiala was very instrumental in his confidence and faith that (Samoeun) would be a good student," Wolfram said, "and be able to blend into a new culture and the academic world here."
     While Cambodians are now allowed modest religious freedoms, in the largely Buddhist nation the concept of a church is a distant cry from the grandiose buildings many American Christians are accustomed to.
     "Their definition of a church (in Cambodia) is a field or under a tree," Wolfram said.
     While Samoeun's church in Phnom Penh is fortunate enough to rent a house to worship in, the 30 "finger" churches OGCF has planted in the rural provinces of Cambodia - where poverty is far more pronounced - many churches are simply agreed upon meeting places.
     "Sometimes we have worship under the shade of a tree," Samoeun said. Or sometimes inside someone's house and they just open their house and you just sit on the floor."
     One of the culture shocks Samoeun experienced upon his arrival in the U.S. was the American concept of privacy and personal space. When he first came to Seward County his host family prepared a trailer for him so he could have his own separate living space.
     "I was born in an extended family and we lived together," Samoeun said, recounting how he shares an apartment with his father, sister, brother-in-law, cousin and three of his sister's children. "I asked (my host family) to sleep in the house. That is the way I like."
     Cultural differences aside, Samoeun said that the warmth and kindness of the people he has met in Seward County and at Concordia has been very welcoming and eased the transition.
     "Seward, Nebraska is a very, very peaceful and calm place," he said.
     Wolfram echoed these sentiments, sharing a statement from Samoeun.
     "He told me the other night, 'You don't have to lock the car - you're in Seward now,'" she said.
     Such security is harder to find in Cambodia, Wolfram said, which still bears the scars of its tumultuous past.
     The importance of education to OGCF is rooted in the bloody Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the 1970s under the rule of Pol Pot.
     "During the Pol Pot regime generations were wiped out," Wolfram said. "They killed and they got rid of all the educated people - people who wore glasses, people who spoke another language - all of the educated people. So you had these generations of people who were not educated."
     The Open Gate Christian Fellowship uses education as a powerful evangelizing tool, offering English and computer classes in Phnom Penh and health and nutrition education to rural Cambodians via outreach programs at its many finger churches.
     "I think the one thing I like to emphasize is that because of this (Khmer Rouge regime), because of the horrendous acts that were committed, God has brought them through it and will use their experience to help further his word in Cambodia," Wolfram said.
     Despite the limited resources of his church, Samoeun remains hopeful that their vision for a Christian school will be realized.
     "We've been praying to God...we don't know his plan," Samoeun said, "But we know that God is good...this is our need, we need to have our own church."