I didn't care for Asia. I never wanted to come. I came in obedience. I prayed to survive my experience here. BUT, the Lord demanded that I survive with compassion and sought to open my eyes. Time for silence, Kristen.
We went on a tour of Phnom Penh today. A tour of a city whose most crucial and brutal history has occurred within the last 30 years. A city where very few people walk the streets over the age of 30 because those older generations were tortured, murdered, and scared from living within Cambodian borders.
While the children of baby boomers began their own families, an entire generation was being wiped out of a small country in East Asia on the other side of the world.
Khmer Rouge: a twisted communist group of evil men who were not disbanded until 1998. They brainwashed children and took advantage of uneducated ignorance. They promised power to the poor farmers if they would join forces with the Khmer Rouge. They promised the poor power over the rich. They promised revenge. They promised everything that contrasts with how Christ tells us to live. They tried to abolish religion. Communist leaders became your gods. Muslims were forced to eat pork. Christians were slaughtered. Buddhist temples were burned. Mercy was non-existent.
The Khmer Rouge marched through villages and demanded that everyone abandon their homes, claiming that the United States was coming to bomb their cities. They were then guided to villages where families were separated, children from parents, husbands from wives, and from there
they were all placed in work fields. The only occupation available was to farm. No doctors. No teachers. Only farmers. You farmed without complaint or you were killed. Those were your choices. Modern day concentration camps at their finest.
You farmed all day, surviving off of very little to no food with two black outfits that you rotated daily. You ate rice porridge that consisted of a little rice, a lot of water, and no protein. If you were sick, if you were dying, if you were disabled, you received nothing. You were considered an "unproductive parasite" and you were unworthy to have food wasted on you. So, basically? When you had the flu you sucked it up and worked so you were offered your water-rice porridge.
Marriage: For the first 3 years of the communist regime, there was no marriage. Men and women were forbidden from speaking to one another privately. If you were caught, you received the death penalty; no questions asked. The 4th year, the communists finally decided that marriage would be permitted. When you had your wedding ceremony, you shared it with various other couples. Vows were not exchanged between a husband and a wife, but your "vows" consisted of a repetitious pledge of allegiance to the communist party.
"I will go where the communist party tells me. I will do what the communist party tells me to do." Congratulations, you're married.
Soon after your marriage, your "vows" would be tested, as men were shipped off to villages days away from their new brides. Brides never knew where their new husbands went. Husbands never knew if their wives were safe. You kept your mouth closed, ignored asking those burning questions, and swallowed your pride.
"I learned about endurance. I learned the true meaning of humility. There was no room for pride in my life. You just wanted to survive. I thank God for the opportunity to live through that experience. It taught me to endure. I now know what it is to work hard. I am the man I am because of what the Lord taught me through that experience. I will endure with the Lord because I know how."
Most of the information shared here, and the above quote, was from the pastor of the ministry where I am serving this month. His name is Pastor Keet. He and his wife Sally both survived the ruling of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. When the Vietnamese communists finally invaded Cambodia, Pastor Keet carried his family across the border one by one. He would place them in a bicycle basket and ride them to safety. They were placed in a Thai refugee camp. He said it was better because they didn't live in fear and received dry fish and rice. "So happy time," he says. Within two weeks of crossing the border into Thailand, Pastor Keet and Sally heard the gospel. They both accepted Christ within one week of each other and have returned to Cambodia to complete the task of ministry that God has set before them. It's difficult and sometimes overwhelming, but he knows about endurance and humility. He's a phenomenal man with an attitude that makes me tear up at my own pride.
I hear these stories and it makes me angry at sin. It makes me hate the devil with a righteous rage. How could people be so cruel to one another? So many people were tortured and killed. Watch the movie "The killing fields." I stood in those fields. I saw the craters where bodies were piled. I saw the skulls stacked high to the ceiling as proof that thousands of men, women, and children were butchered. I stood in the old high-school where 20,000 Cambodians cycled through daily torture and starvation, and where 7 people walked out. I saw the playground turned torture chamber where monkey bars became a mans worst nightmare. I see all of these things and look at the dates when they happened. All those tortured share my parents' birthdays...
Wow. I dare myself to complain about my life. I dare myself to complain about the heat. I dare myself to complain about my selection of clothing on the race. Lord, forgive me...When it is hot here, I won't say "Oh, I wish I had air-conditioning..." I will say I'm glad there are fans. When I'm tired of wearing the same clothes over and over again, I will thank the Lord that I have more than one shirt to cover my back. When I cry because I miss my family and friends. I will thank God that I know there are people back home who love me and miss me. I will thank God that he only asked for 11 months away so that I could learn more about Him and His children around the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment