Khem’s Story: Finding His Way Back To God

“I’m Khem, and I am a first-year student in the ZOE Leadership Training (ZLT) program.

I was born into a Christian family and regularly attended church. When I was around 17 years old, I started drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes. I struggled in school, but thankfully I was still able to graduate from high school. However, after graduating, I had no goals or direction in life, so I decided to look for work in the city. I could never keep a job for long. During that time, I became addicted to drinking alcohol, drugs, and marijuana. This led to mental health problems and depression. I went to see a doctor, which helped a little, but the symptoms still came back.

One day, ZOE came to my house for a house visitation outreach. On that day, I felt reminded of my upbringing, and I asked myself, “Should I return to God’s way?” So I searched for ZOE on Google and found the ZOE Facebook page. I saw that ZOE was accepting student applications, and I became even more interested when I learned that there were English classes as well. Around that time, I started going back to church and became an assistant youth leader there.

One day, I listened to a sermon on YouTube, and there was one statement that deeply touched me: “The Bible is the manual for humanity.”  This year I applied and truly decided to come and study here because I wanted to change myself for the better and grow more in God’s way because I believe that God can do all things.

After coming to study at ZOE, I experienced freedom from all the addictions in my life—even cigarettes, which had been the starting point that led me into other addictions. God helped me overcome and gave me strength to stop, transforming my life at ZOE.

My goal for the future is to serve in the church in my village because I want to share the Gospel with people in the village who do not yet believe and lead them to God.

God bless you.”