VISTA -- Terror at a young age is a familiar feeling for Peter-Vu Lam, Tri-City Medical Center's newest chaplain, who draws from his past experiences to help comfort people in pain and fear, as they face their mortality.

When he was just 11 years old, Lam escaped the oppressive Communist government in Vietnam aboard a boat with his older brother. Bound for Malaysia, the refugees did not have smooth sailing; a fierce storm on the sea terrorized the group, Lam said.

"We all thought we were going to die," he said. "I prayed to God, 'Let me live through this and I will do something good with my life.' "

Later, safely in a refugee camp in Malaysia, Lam said he knew that "something good" would be -- he would become a Catholic priest.

"The missionaries in the refugee camp had left comfort and great opportunities in America to go there," Lam said. "I thought, 'I want to do that.' "

Lam now serves the San Diego Diocese as a priest at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Vista, as well as a hospital chaplain at Tri-City.

"I think God brought me out of Vietnam and put me exactly where I need to be," he said.

"I think it's a great thing, like my dream come true," he added.

Because of his experiences as a youngster, Lam said he is better able to communicate with people who are going through difficult times today.

"They come to me in a time of darkness and say there is no way out," he said. "I share with them my experiences -- and I thank God for every minute of it."

Lam's efforts to escape his homeland began before he was 8 years old.

"We tried more than 20 times, but the Communists stopped us," Lam said. He said his father, who worked with the American Army during the war, was badly wounded in 1972 so his older brother took responsibility for the family.

"My brother saw there was no future in Vietnam. In 1975, when Saigon fell, he wanted to leave, but my father wanted the family to stay together," Lam said. Still, his brother began trying to escape and was once caught and imprisoned for two years until his parents bribed guards to let him out.

Lam was born in 1977 and as a young boy began joining his brother's escape forays.

"One time we were chased by police with dogs. I remember my brother holding my hand and running," Lam said. He said they ran through a rice field where the grain was taller than him. He had to shield his eyes with his free hand.

"We said good-bye to my parents so many times," he added. "There would be hugging and kissing and crying. And the next morning, we (were) back."

The brothers finally made their getaway Oct. 24, 1988.

Lam said the treacherous boat ride to freedom was "the most horrible experience of my life."

Once in Malaysia, Lam said, the most difficult thing -- aside from missing his family, friends and the food of his homeland -- was not knowing where he and his brother would end up.

They were applying to come to the United States and had a couple of factors in their favor: Their father had worked for the U.S. Army, for which he was sent to a concentration camp after the war, and they were Catholic, a religion that was being persecuted by the Communists, Lam said.

After a year and a half in the Malaysian camp the brothers were sent to a refugee camp in the Philippines to learn English and American history and culture, Lam said.

Six months later, they came to San Diego, and joined two older brothers who had fled Vietnam in 1976.

"I was surprised, the culture and language and adapting to a new style of life was not as easy as I thought it would be," Lam said.

When he left home, Lam had just begun fifth grade. Here, he enrolled in seventh grade and credits "great" teachers with helping him catch up after two years lost to refugee camps.

After high school, Lam entered St. Francis Seminary at the University of San Diego and was ordained in 2004. He wanted his parents to come to his ordination, but the U.S. government wouldn't grant them visas, Lam said.

He returned to Vietnam briefly to say his celebratory first Mass in his village of Bai Gia.

"We had to ask permission from the local government to say Mass," he said. "For the reception afterward we were told we could only have 200 to 300 people. The authorities don't like any gathering."

Instead, 1,000 people came to the feast. Afterward, government officials confronted Lam's parents and demanded they pay a fine for the transgression, Lam said.