Back in 2013, my wife Wendy and myself were already in full-time ministry.

But prior to that, because we were looking at different countries in which we could do missions, we came to Cambodia and decided that this was one of the places where the Lord was leading us, mainly to equip pastors and church workers.

One day, we visited one of the pastors we were supporting there when she said, “There’s a piece of land behind us. Would you like to take a look?”

So we went there, and the Lord spoke to the three of us who were there that we should start a school. Not having any experience, we faced some opposition. But we decided to go ahead and obey the Lord.

We found a principal, a single lady, to come to look after the school, but we decided that it was too difficult for her to come alone – so my wife volunteered to accompany her and she stayed in the school for about a year with this principal.

Although the incident happened during the night, nobody knew about it until the next morning as early in the morning was when my wife would usually go with one of the staff members to the school.

That morning, the staff member waited and wondered what had happened as Wendy was not coming out. So she went in to look for her and discovered my wife on the floor in a pool of blood.

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As far as the incident is concerned, I think it is conjecture because nobody actually saw what happened.

But we discovered that the people who broke into the dormitory where my wife was staying were actually the people who fixed the locks on the dormitory.

We assume that they were robbers, because at that time, my wife had a sum of money to use for the payroll for the school staff. She was supposed to distribute it the next day, but it happened that that night four of them broke into the place.

I suppose my wife must have put up some resistance… and that’s why she got killed.

I was expecting something to happen to me. But instead of it happening to me, it happened to her.

I was in Laos when I heard it. So immediately after hearing it, I flew from Laos directly to Cambodia.

I was in a state of shock. For the next few months, I stopped all ministry to go and seek the Lord to see what I should do. During this time, I conversed with the Lord – to ask why the Lord allowed this thing to take place.

But finally, I came to the conclusion that what the Lord had intended for my wife… that season was over. That’s why the Lord allowed her to be taken back.

I was not angry with God. In fact, I was out for missions quite often and many times I would run into difficulties with authorities in these countries. At one time, I was even arrested in Vietnam for preaching the Gospel.

I recalled having told my wife then: “If one day I go on one of these mission trips and you never hear from me again, you know something has happened.”

So, I was expecting something to happen to me. But instead of it happening to me, it happened to her. That was something that I came to accept because I already informed my wife that such things were possible. 

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In terms of forgiving those people who did this thing to my wife… you know, I’ve been preaching about this all the time. I’m telling people that if somebody did something bad to you, this is what God requires of you – that you forgive them.

So when it happens to me… I cannot say something different, right? If I say something different, then what I have said before becomes meaningless.

How do I preach the Gospel if the Gospel means something to me in one situation and it means something else in a different situation?

So although it was difficult, I understood that it is necessary to forgive all these people – and so I did.

After the incident, a few members of my congregation and also some people in Cambodia came to see me.

They came to tell me: “We should stop the work because these people are so ungrateful. Why is it that after we went and helped them, such a thing still happened?” I told them, “No, we must still go on because this is what the Lord has called us to do.”

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So because of this incident, I think I became more aware that I need God more than anything else in order to stand against the the wiles of the enemy because if I’m not careful, I can be easily swayed by the fact that the enemy will put things in my way to discourage me and to cause me to fall.

The Lord never promised that we will be free of worries, the Lord never promised that we will be free of difficult times, the only thing that God promised us is that He will be with us and He will carry us through these difficult times.

So as I look back on my own experience, I imagine that without His hand upon my life during that period, it would have been difficult. 

I have seen people who have turned away from the Lord because such things happened to them. For me, because the Lord’s hand was upon me, I continue to seek after Him. I felt that He has guided me through this period.

I would like everybody to remember Wendy as someone who was prepared to give her life for the Lord.

For Wendy… I would like everybody to remember her as someone who was prepared to give her life for the Lord.

In fact, even before this thing happened, she once told me that she would like to go to countries like Afghanistan, areas where it is dangerous because nobody would have wanted to go. She believed that this was where the need was and this was where God would want her to go. 

So for the people who may not have known her personally, I think the best way they can remember her is that she was someone who was prepared to give her all for the Lord, even to the point of giving of her life.