For years, Laurie Sim prayed that her husband's miraculous story of survival and faith would be told in a book. Unbeknownst to her, God was preparing the answer decades before the two ever met.
Her story began in 1982. “I was just graduating as a nurse and wanted to use my training,” she recalled. “I wrote to the General Conference asking where I could go as a volunteer… They needed nurses in the refugee camps in Thailand.”
Cambodian survivors of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime were flooding into refugee camps on the border of Thailand. SAWS, a predecessor to ADRA, arranged for Laurie and a friend to work with malnourished women and children at a nutrition center in one of the camps. The Cambodian people won Laurie’s heart with their friendly smiles.
“They were so happy when I tried to speak a little Khmer!” Although there was no English-to-Khmer dictionary, Laurie found a way to learn. “I just asked my interpreter what different words were… Then I would write them down.” Laurie had no idea that God was preparing her to help preserve her future husband’s story.
Some years later, while visiting a friend from the refugee camp in France, Laurie was introduced to Sovath Sim, himself a Khmer Rouge survivor. They wrote letters, fell in love and, in 1991, they married.
“During our wedding weekend… Sovath’s father told me the story of being turned away from the road to Kampong Thom by a single soldier,” Laurie said, recalling the event that saved the Sim family from being completely wiped out. But that wasn’t the only miracle.
Sovath and Laurie Sim when they were engaged
After four of his brothers were killed by the Khmer Rouge, Sovath was taken from his parents and relocated to a child labor camp. Forced to work all day, every day with little food, Sovath was on the brink of starvation. He and a friend escaped but had to take different paths to look for their families. Alone, sick and lost, Sovath looked up into the hot Cambodian sky and prayed.
“Highest God, if you are there and can hear me, please help me find my family before I die!” God answered the young Buddhist’s prayer in an incredible, unmistakable way. Later, he met the God who saved him in a refugee camp near the one where Laurie and her friend had served. He gave his heart to Jesus and was baptized by Jerry Aitken, pastor.
Sovath Sim in a refugee camp
“I would read other Khmer Rouge survivor books and wish Sovath's story could be made into a book, too,” Laurie remembers. “But I thought it was impossible.” However, when Sovath’s parents and one of his sisters passed away, Laurie feared the family’s story might be lost forever if she didn’t do something. She began to pray in earnest and record and translate interviews with Sovath’s surviving siblings. Eventually, Dale Goodson of Adventist Frontier Missions wrote a short children’s version of the story. But he, too, felt the full story should be told.
“That's when Dale suggested we contact writer Abigail Follows.” Unbeknownst to Laurie and Sovath, Follows had heard part of Sovath’s story from his and Laurie’s daughter and had been praying for the chance to write it.
Khao I Dang Camp
Over the course of four years, Laurie translated, dug up old photos and hunted down the answers to Abigail’s questions. In September 2025, Beyond a Thousand Shadows was finally published, and is available via Amazon and select Adventist Book Centers.
Laurie and Sovath, Enumclaw Church members in Washington state, hope the book will change skeptics to believers and lead souls to Christ.
“What an amazing God we have,” Laurie said. "He cares about a starving child and answers his prayer!”
EDITORIAL NOTE: Abigail Follows, who writes under a pen name to protect her family’s missionary activities in a creative access country, is the author of Hidden Song of the Himalayas and Beyond a Thousand Shadows.
Sovath and Laurie Sim today
