About the Hims
Heap is a Cambodian American who was born and raised in Cambodia. Heap survived genocide and slave labor as a child during the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge communist regime. After losing half of his family to torture and starvation, he escaped to a UN refugee camp in Thailand. It was there that Heap heard the Gospel for the first time and came to know Jesus as his Creator and Savior. Later Heap came to the United States as refugee, grew in his new faith in Jesus and eventually met and married Jennifer.
HEAP says, “Jesus rescued me from the killing fields. Then Jesus rescued me from sin and death. Now Jesus is using me to rescue abused and abandoned children in Cambodia.”
Jennifer is from Maine. She came to know Jesus at the young age of 5 years old. By 10 years old, she knew that God was calling her to be a missionary
and she excitedly focused her education on answering that call.
JENNIFER says, “Jesus has called me to get a message out everywhere I go:
Jesus made you.
You are precious and priceless because Jesus made you.
Your purpose is to know, follow and glorify Jesus.
Jesus has great plans for you to do together with Him.
Jesus knows you better than you know yourself.
Jesus loves you more than anyone else does.
So…say yes to Jesus.
But usually we don’t. That is why Jesus came and died for us in our place to rescue us from sin and death and make us close to Him. So that He can accomplish those great plans that He has for us to do together with Him during our time here on earth and so that we can then live with Him forever after our time on earth is done.”
Heap and Jennifer met at Pennsylvania Biblical University and married in 1995. After years of serving Jesus in local church and inner-city ministry to Cambodian refugees in Philadelphia and California, Heap and Jennifer and their 4 children moved to Phnom Penh Cambodia to serve as missionaries with NOVO/InnerCHANGE in 2002.
Their ministry in Cambodia included:
- Discipling children to know and follow Jesus through a local CEF Bible club ministry
- Starting a ministry for men, women and children affected by AIDS called Treasures from the Heart, which they then passed on to Cambodian followers of Jesus who now lead that ministry
During their early years of ministry in Cambodia, Heap and Jennifer adopted 2 Cambodian children with disabilities, Sambo and Sara. Jennifer began to learn therapy for special needs children so that she could help her own children in a country where there were no physical therapy services at the time.
Later, Heap and Jennifer moved to the countryside of Kampot where they were shocked by the number of families with disabled children who came to them for help. As they began to help one family after another, Therapy Training Loving Care was born as a school and therapy center for disabled children and adults. The name was later changed to Lina’s Hope in memory of Lina, a beautiful disabled little girl in Cambodia who was adopted by friends of the Hims and who first started the Hims on the adventure of adopting and working with disabled children.
Shortly after Lina’s Hope was born, a tiny girl was brought to Lina’s Hope by her grandmother who was looking for an orphanage to leave her in. This tiny girl had experienced brain injury at an early age and could not walk or talk or sit up or use her hands. Now she was 4 years old but weighed only 9 pounds because her family had put her on the starvation diet to let her die. Little Sophanna was very sick, her body was covered in sores, she had no hair, and she was severely malnourished and slowly starving. Lina’s Hope attempted to train the grandmother in nutrition and therapy for her granddaughter, but the grandmother refused and abandoned the child. Lina’s Hope took care of Sophanna and after several years, Heap and Jennifer were able to adopt her as their own child. Now Sophanna is 19 years old, walking, reading and learning to talk. She knows Jesus as her Creator and Savior and she loves to reach out with love to other children who are disabled or abused.