The day I rescued a child from slavery

David Allen

David and Esther Allen were Elim missionaries in Cambodia from 2011 to 2019. Recently, they joined our Missions Academy students to share some of their experiences of life on the mission field. This is one story David told.

I remember the night clearly when we received a telephone call from one of the girls in the Be Free programme that my wife Esther had started in Cambodia.

These girls had faced so many difficulties in their lives. They had been treated terribly and abused. This particular girl had a young child, a two-year-old son. She rang in sheer panic to say that her son had been taken from her house by a group of men. The child had been taken to an area that was widely known as a dark place.

I knew it was not safe to go there, but I also knew that this child would never see freedom again if we left him there. More than likely, he would be sold into slavery within 24 hours.

So, without a second thought, and remembering that I am not the bravest person in the world, I got into a tuk-tuk with my friend Dren, and we drove straight into the area. When we arrived, I could see a long, dark alleyway. At the very end there was a light, and a group of men standing outside drinking beer.

“Don’t come with me,” I told Dren, “because I’m not Cambodian, so there’s a chance they won’t attack me. They would definitely attack you.”

I walked down the street, very nervous and scared, but knowing there was no other choice but to help. Pushing through the men, I went up the stairs into the house, where I found four people, two women and two men.

I lifted the child into my arms and told them, in my very best Cambodian, that what they were doing was wrong and would not happen, and that I was taking the child. None of them tried to stop me, which alarmed me. I carried the child back down the stairs, everyone watching, and pushed back through the group of men. Still, they made no effort to stop me or cause me any problems.

When I got back to the top of the street, I was shaking. The adrenaline had kicked in and I was really, really shocked at what I had just done. But the beautiful thing was that we got the child safely back to his mother.

Three weeks later, in our Cambodian church, a man came in whose face I immediately recognised. He had one of those faces you don’t forget. He was one of the men who had been standing outside that night, in the group I had pushed through while carrying the child.

I went over to him and asked, “Why did nobody try to stop me?”

“Stop you?” he replied. “There was no chance of anyone coming near you with that crowd you’d brought with you!”

“Crowd?” I thought to myself. “I was on my own!” Yes, Dren was at the top of the street, but Dren is about 5ft 2in!

It was at that moment that I realised I had had a crowd of angels standing with me, protecting me and looking after me. They had made themselves visible to those men so that I could do God’s work.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.