Today we went into the village to speak with our contact’s Buddhist
grandparents- Phee and Som. It was sort of surreal and amazing at the same
time. In Asian culture they are very hospitable- they got us tea, and special
chairs for us to sit in, and offered us food- and are also very relationship centered.
We asked lots of questions about their family- we discovered
they had 8 children, but had lost one during the rule of the khmer rouge. (Khmer Rouge- from what I’ve heard- was a
communist power that between 1975 and 1979 killed over 2 million people.) They
said that their daughter had disappeared when she was 19, that was around 30
years ago, and that they could only assume she was dead. Phee went on to tell us that the farming communities,
including his family, were forced to work or fight for the Khmer Rouge. As he
talked about those years, and the years after their “independence” when the Vietnamese
were in control, how times were so hard, how there wasn’t enough food, how they
weren’t allowed to get their belongings, or buy mats to sleep on- his eyes
began to well up. Our translator explained that the older people get sad when
they talk about those days, but seem to want to share.
I had heard some about the reign of the Khmer Rouge (there’s
a movie about it called The Killing Fields) but hearing first hand how this
family was affected by it was different. It hurt my heart to see how much hurt
and pain he still had from so long ago, and only the dirt covered spirit house
in his yard to turn to…
Before we left we asked if we could pray for them, and the Grandmother
began telling us about her illnesses- our translator said that “her blood is
broken.” I thought to myself- yep, and the only thing that can help this broken
woman is Jesus. She held my hand as I prayed healing over her body, and for
peace and joy to come over her. Im not really sure what came of it, but I do
know that when it came time for us to leave she didn’t want to let go of our
hands.
Our contact shared that it’s harder to convert the older
generation, because they see their religion as part of who they are, and see it
as pointless to change so late in their lives. My prayer for Phee and Som, and
the rest of the elderly people in Cambodia, is that their eyes would be opened,
that they would see the fire and joy and peace that Jesus brings, and be able
to leave this world knowing they are headed to Heaven.
