S T O L E N
Last month, just outside of Phnom Penh Cambodia, I had something very precious stolen from me.
It was ripped away from me when I least expected it, and in tiny little pieces nonetheless. I’m not worried though, I know it will return to me just the way that it was taken: in tiny little pieces, throughout the rest of this trip.
And now, here they are, just a few of the children who *stole my heart* :
These are the faces of the children of the Diamond Island exiles.
Close to a decade ago, the government of Cambodia took the land of these precious children and their families. In the middle of the day, the government set fire to their homes, and made the families evacuate, sending them away to a community about 10 miles away. This new location was away from their jobs, away from their sources of food, and even water.
Dirt roads led way to our destination. My team and I have experienced poverty on the race, but I don’t think we had ever seen it quite like this before. Pieces of scrap wood thrown together with scraps of tin metal for a roof. The houses, which, I hesitate to call them so, had numbers spray painted on the side, distinguishing one from the next, and were built over a stream of green- GREEN SEWAGE.
Today Diamond Island (that place where the families used to live) is bustling with new businesses and fancy hotels. Those families now live here:
For three days and two nights, our team had the opportunity to stay inside this exiled community with one of the local households, which also happened to be a church *and* an orphanage.
In the time of our three days there, we did art projects, spoke to the church congregation, sang songs and played games with the kids.
Josh & Matt led some of the children in a game of soccer, and when the ball fell into that stream of green, the little boys didn’t hesitate to jump right in and retrieve it.
These children were by far the dirtiest, stinkiest, but most lovable little children I have ever met.
The image is forever in my mind of their eyes big and brown, staring up at me, often peaking through the bars of the windows on the church- fascinated with the strange foreigners staying with them.
One of my favorite memories of that weekend was coloring with two of the littlest girls. So in love with color and form, their creativity strewn across the page reflected that of their awesome Creator.
That was the moment I wished to take them home. I think two could have easily fit in my backpack. Maybe even three…
Most of them were orphans, more of them had families, but were abandon by them for a lack of resources and the inability of their families to care for them. The man that took them in: an ex- soldier, ex- fighter of the Khmer Rouge who once perhaps killed countless of innocent people, (in an attempt to save his own life) now a pastor, now following this man Jesus, our great God, who has called him to care for those tens of smelly, filthy, absolutely wonderful, absolutely lovable, abandon little children.
Alas, our time was over as quickly as the setting sun, and we said our goodbyes. The children lining the sides of the van, waving to us as we pulled away.
***We later found out that in our time there, the family had given us their choice foods. We knew that we were being well fed, though we didn’t really understand until later, just how well. Rice veggies, a few meat dishes, fruits of all sorts, we certainly never went hungry. A couple of people on the team had it on their heart to bless the family financially before we left.
In an e-mail from one of the older children who was our translator over those days, we found out just how much that gift was needed. In the e-mail, we discovered that the family had used all of their food money for the week on us, and they didn’t know how they would get by after we left, but were determined to pray in faith. Upon hearing this, the pieces that were left of my already stolen heart broke a little more…
That family was perhaps even more of a blessing to us than we could ever be to them.***
Please, join me in praying for this family, these children, and the entire community of
the diamond island exiles…
