A Hmong Iraqi Veteran Tells His Survival Story of Refugee Camp to World Changer
By Linda Larson Schlitz, MS, LISW, LPC
Yauo Yang was only 7 years old when he came to America from a refugee camp in Thailand. He moved just a few houses up the street from us and he went to my daughter’s school. It was not surprising when these little Hmong kids showed up at our door and Yauo was among them.
After grade school we didn’t hear about Yauo for years since he and my daughter went to different schools. He had grown up in a Christian Family and had met a young lady at church that resulted in a love at first sight wedding in the summer of 2000, right after he graduated from high school. At the age of 21 he joined the Army National Guard, a service he wanted to provide to the country that welcomed him.
Yauo did not anticipate such a rapid exit out of the country to the sand and heat of Iraq when he joined the military but there he was, just a 21 year old kid with a wife and family at home and he was heading off to war to serve our country and help facilitate Iraqi Freedom.
Being a veteran in combat is not an easy task. Besides the physical demands, the emotional and mental beating that every veteran must endure, they have to try to survive spiritually as well in the face of all the “Why Lord?” questions. For Yauo the experience led to an encounter with and a promise to his God.
As Specialist Yauo Yang watched his comrades fall prey to the flying bullets and exploding devices, he was fully aware that for many of them, their last breath included the faint word, “tell my family I love them.” It was then he looked to his Lord Jesus for comfort and help to go on.
In a way he had never experienced it, Yauo was overwhelmed with the grace of God as time and time again, he escaped injury and death. He plead with God to spare him and bring him back to his family, like he did for Daniel in the lion’s den, so he could serve him and lead others to this saving grace that God had so generously bestowed upon him. God heard his prayer and answered him.
Yauo returned home to this great land of freedom to fulfill his promise to his God. Now, with six children, he has earned his Master’s degree in Educational Administration and has served as a Teacher and Principal in our surrounding school districts, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, a Hmong Liaison for the DC Everest School District and is nearing his 2nd Masters Degree in Biblical Studies while he continues the development of a new church that is geared to integrate this frequently divided multicultural community that we live in.
My husband and I are proud and blessed to be a part of this developing ministry that has already brought recovering alcoholics and drug addicts to transformation and is proving that skin color and traditions don’t define the family of God. People and their commitment to love one another does. Yauo Yang and Mr Rocky, another one of the growing number of inspirational speakers in our Faucet of HOPE speakers bureau, have both modeled to us what one person called the “Jesus with skin on” example. For those that can’t see hope for the future or a God that at times seems unconcerned and far away, this “Family,” like the ones Yauo had in the front lines of Iraq, have given their lives to change the world, one person at a time.
I am very happy to have Yauo on my “team” of speakers that will be offering the GRACE and HOPE that God offers us in the upcoming events that the Faucet of HOPE will be offering in the years to come.
Please join us on October 22nd, both live in Wausau, Wisconsin and streaming live online to hear six speakers with stories of HOPE to encourage and support our listeners with a message that Dylan Rellinger, a brain cancer survivor and another one of our speakers, says “Life isn’t over until you give up trying.”
Go to www.faucetofhope.com to learn more and sign up for our next event and gain access to these inspiring stories of men and women across the globe who have dedicated their lives to help you be the best you can be and in the process join our team and our family in changing the world.
Linda Larson Schlitz is a Licensed Counselor and Social Worker in the State of Wisconsin and is also an author, singer/songwriter, artist and an internationally known featured speaker for the Public Speakers Association. She is also the Owner/CEO of Faucet of Hope Minsitries and Business Collaborative LLC
