Jonathan Vern | Asian Hope

Age: 16
Birthday: July 8
9th Grade
School: Logos International School

My earliest memories are of living out in the province with my parents. My Dad wasn’t around much so I remember my mother better. I think she was a Christian. We lived in a normal Khmer wooden house on stilts. It had stairs leading up, wood walls, two doors, a couple of windows without glass and a thatched straw roof. We slept on bamboo mats. Our drinking and cleaning water came from a well. We bathed by pouring water over ourselves from a bowl. I wore flip-flops everywhere. I ate three meals a day. I knew I had a twin brother but I had never met him.

My mom took me to an orphanage called CCO when I was about four or five. She went back to the province. I think that it was run by my uncle on my mom’s side. I first heard about God there. I also met my twin brother David for the first time. One of my older brothers Vanny was there to. My parents got divorced and my dad remarried. Later everyone at CCO moved to Asian Hope.

Asian Hope was different. The biggest difference was that it had white kids. I began to go to school and learn more about God. We (Jonathan and David) ate upstairs with the Fisks and the others always ate downstairs. We were not allowed (forbidden) to speak Khmer. I believe in God and Jesus but I’m not sure if I’m a Christian. The way you know if you are a Christian is by the way you talk and act, it tells others you know God.

Most of the time I live like God wants me to but when I have a bad day I just decide to live my own way. When I was young I asked God to forgive me and made a decision to become a Christian. I was baptized on Christmas day with a bunch of the other guys from the house. Now I have a good education. I like sports like soccer, volley ball and basketball. I would like to go to college and get an English degree. I would like to teach English. Maybe I could teach in Japan or Korea.

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