When our race route brought us to Cambodia in April we didn’t know that it would bring us here during the Cambodian New Year. It’s a pretty big deal here and just about everything closes down for almost a week when the New Year comes along. This meant that there would be nothing to do for ministry for a few days and so our contact set up a trip to Siem Riep to see Angkor Watt temple. It’s 60 miles of temples that were built when Cambodia was in it’s height. They were built in the 12th century and much of them still remain today. They are obviously not in prime condition, but you can still see the amazing arcitechture and ability of the craftsmen who built these temples. The fact that they were able to be built that long ago with the tools that they had then and the fact that they have been able to withstand the years is nothing short of amazing. It is amazing to see that God gave the men who built this such skill to make these temples. The thought that went into creating this is interesting too. We walked through one area with four large empty pools. We were told that these were created for the rainy season. The rain would flow from the surrounding rooftops and fall like waterfalls into the pools. That is some cool stuff and the fact that someone thought ahead of that is cool.
Still, even though these are amazing structures and the fact that they are still standing is astonishing there is no escaping the fact that these were built to worship Hindu gods and that now it’s used to worship Buddah. Since it was New Years while we were here all the Cambodian people got in free and many were there burning incense and offering sacrifices of food and money to their false gods. While this was going on it was still open to tourists so the two groups intermingled. While exploring some of the temples we would walk by people burning incense who would offer it to us. When one forgiener asked what it was for they were told “For luck.” Not so much, more like to worship an untrue god.
It was very sad to walk around the place and see the idols being worshiped. The stronghold that it has on this nation is crazy and sad. How lucky are we that we were born in a nation that is saturated with the one true God? How blessed are we that we have every opportunity to know and experience Christ in our lifetime because He is so easy to access in our nation? Why did we get picked to be part of a nation that even though it isn’t perfect has a large exposure to Christ.
