Wow! Month 4 is already over and so is our time in Cambodia. God did some amazing things in Cambodia and to me and I cannot wait to share them with you all! We went to three different provinces/villages this month and I walked away from each one with something different to share! In order for you to understand some of Cambodia and our time there, you need to know a little of their history.
Cambodia had been at war for a long time and then went through a major genocide that just ended about 30 years ago. Pol Pot came to power in 1975ish and wanted to change Cambodia so that it was purely a farming nation. In order to do this fast, he decided to take drastic measures: all the city people were moved to the farms, families were separated with some of the children becoming child soldiers in the war against Vietnam. Educated people were seen as a threat so all doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors, religious people (monks, Christians, etc.), etc. were sent to “prisons” and were interrogated, tortured, and killed for names of families and background history in order to get friends and family who would be brought to these centers for the same process. Once done at these centers, they were brought to the killing fields, where they were hit over the head by a pipe or blunt instrument like a hoe, and then were put into huge mass graves. Then DDT was poured over the graves to keep it from smelling and to kill off anyone who had not died. Any age was killed- woman, men, young children, babies. Later on in Pol Pot’s reign, anyone who was thought to be a threat was eliminated- wheter to do with politics or the ideas that they held. At that time Cambodia had a population of about 7 million and during the 4 year period of the Khmer Rogue, about 3 million people died. Those in the farms were basically forced labor slaves and many died to starvation and illnesses.
