Burning Child in Pulitzer Winning Vietnam Photograph
Shares How She Found Forgiveness through Christ
Teresa Neumann, Breaking Christian News BCN, July 6, 2008
"I spent my daytime in the library to read a lot of religious books to find a purpose for my life. One of the books that I read was the Holy Bible. In Christmas 1982, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. It was an amazing turning point in my life. God helped me to learn to forgive—the most difficult of all lessons."
Recalling that day, and how she had been covered with fire, Kim said: "I was 9 yearsold but I still remember my thoughts at that moment: I would be ugly and people would treat me in a different way... After a soldier gave me some drink and poured water over my body, I lost my consciousness."
Kim Phuc (Photo: Canadian Broadcasting Corp.)Most Baby Boomers have an historic, 1972 Pulitzer Prize winning photograph etched in their memory of a little Vietnamese girl running naked down a Saigon road with a group of other screaming and terrified children fleeing along with her. Behind them, the sky is filled with smoke from napalm bombs dropped on villages suspected of harboring Viet Cong.
Kim PhucFast forwarding to the 21st century, we find that same little girl, Kim Phuc, an adult woman sharing her testimony of Jesus Christ with National Public Radio (NPR).
After spending over a year in the hospital and enduring 17 operations to treat her wounds, Kim said, "The anger inside me was like a hatred as high as a mountain. I hated my life. I hated all people who were normal because I was not normal... I spent my daytime in the library to read a lot of religious books to find a purpose for my life. One of the books that I read was the Holy Bible. In Christmas 1982, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. It was an amazing turning point in my life. God helped me to learn to forgive—the most difficult of all lessons."
Kim told NPR that though she still has scars on her body and is in a constant state of pain, her heart is cleansed.
Listen to Kim tell her story in her own words by clicking on the link provided.
Source: Kim Phuc - National Public Radio
