Brace yourself for a long post; I have a lot to share and process from last month!
I never knew how dark darkness could be until I spent a month in Cambodia. During my time there, I learned for the first time of a horrifying genocide that occurred a mere 40 years ago (in 1975-1979). 25% of Cambodia’s population (about 2 million people) was killed – a majority of which were also tortured.
This was all brought about by the Khmer Rouge, a communist party led by Pol Pot. His vision was to completely eradicate all Western influence and create an agrarian utopia. (This was, tragically, provoked somewhat by the United States’ support of the previous ruler, Lon Nol, and our involvement in the Vietnam war to fight communism). What actually happened was that every major city was evacuated, all people who looked remotely like intellectuals (i.e. people who were doctors and lawyers, people who simply wore glasses, or anyone they suspected opposed the new regime) were murdered, those who lived in remote villages were favored because they were “untainted” by Western influence, and everyone who was not brutally murdered was forced to labor on farms, often subsisting on a handful or two of rice each day. Thousands died from disease, starvation, and being overworked. Families were completely ripped apart. The Khmer Rouge forced people in their new society to marry, even if they were complete strangers, so that a new generation would be born to create a labor force. If women refused to have sexual relations with their husbands, they were “re-educated” (e.g. raped by Khmer soldiers or even their own husbands to teach them a lesson).
It gets worse. Thousands were also killed in massive executions. I had the opportunity to visit two sites where such executions took place. One is called the “Killing Cave” and is located in Battambang; the other is called the “Killing Fields” and is located in Phnom Penh. I could not believe how tangibly heavy the atmosphere felt. I could feel the darkness just by being in that place. These were both locations where thousands of people were slaughtered. Both locations served as mass graves. The victims were usually blindfolded, and then brutally assaulted with a harrowing weapon to the back of the head. They would fall into the grave, and then it was the next victims turn. One grave that was excavated had over a hundred bodies with no heads. There was a tree called the “Killing Tree,” where babies were grabbed by their legs and smashed against the tree.
Victims were transported to the Killing Field in Phnom Penh from S21, a highly secretive prison that was formerly a high school. Here, people were tortured until they wrote confessions. Once they confessed, they were killed. They never knew what they were being imprisoned for, or what they were supposed to confess. I saw the rooms with my own eyes: they often had a single iron bed, with shackles at the end, and each room had a photograph of a previous occupant. It was gruesome. There were torture devices on-site. In other rooms, there were long iron bars with shackles attached to them; victims would be lay in rows on the ground, side-by-side. It was horrifying.
This is the recent history of the country I found myself in last month. Not surprisingly, the spiritual darkness and heaviness that blankets this country had an effect on the majority of our squad (mainly through a lot of physical illness). I felt the urgency to pray against spiritual attack so strongly.
(If you want to understand more about this period of Cambodia’s history and connect more with my journey, I highly recommend this book as a resource: First They Killed My Father. It provides an account of a woman who was a mere 5 years old when the Khmer Rouge took over, and although it is very sad, it gives incredible insight into someone’s actual experience).
Fortunately, in every dark story, the light of Christ shines that much brighter! I definitely experienced this in Cambodia. Cambodia has proven to be one of my favorite countries and months on the Race thus far.
With that background under your belt, I want to talk a bit about my experience in Cambodia. My time there was segmented into two parts. I would like to share with you the light that Jesus shone onto both parts of my month!
Part One: Hospital Chronicles
I mentioned in a previous blog that on day one of our time in Cambodia, my Squadmate got into a motorbike accident. Before I could even process it, she was transferred to a hospital in Battambang (the city I was in for the month), and I was in the Emergency Room trying to help her Team Leader hound insurance and playing Mama Bear.
The following 8 days were both chaotic and slow. I was either switching out people to take shifts at the hospital, tracking down doctors with relentless questions, bonding memorably with Jillian, updating her parents, sleeping on the floor beside her bed, sneaking away to get iced coffee in a bag, or just trying to pass the time. Oh yeah, and praying fervently that Jillian could get surgery sooner than later.
I was so encouraged by the ways that God showed up! He sure does have a knack for bringing beauty out of ashes, doesn’t he? Not only was Jillian’s attitude highly admirable, but the supernatural peace she had, and the ways that she recognized God through her circumstances, were so encouraging to me! God moved stand-still traffic the night that Jillian was being transported to the ER in Battambang; He provided a wonderful, English-speaking friend named Anne, who ministers at the hospital and cared wonderfully for Jillian; He brought her through surgery in a foreign hospital; He was so present.
Furthermore, He was at work in my heart, too! By placing me with a team in Battambang for the month, He worked it out that I would be the Squad Leader to handle this emergency situation. This was the part of Squad Leading that I felt inadequate to do, and quite frankly, terrified of. But He showed me that He equips those He calls, and that I can in fact do this in His strength! Wow!
He also revealed to me that I need to work on abiding in Him. I found it difficult for the first half of the month to sit down with my Bible or carve out time to pray. While that is valid, He showed me that I did not have to come off of those two weeks feeling as dry and exhausted as I did. I could have just abided in Him. So, now that is something I am working on growing in!
Part Two: Street Children
Our ministry last month, which I did not get to fully jump into until the last week and a half, was called Crossing Cambodia. This organization cares for street children! At 6:00 a.m., they drive into town and literally wake kids up off of the street, where they fell asleep sometime during the night while begging. They would bring them to the base, where they take a bath, are fed breakfast, and change into uniforms for school. We would walk them to the next block, hand-in-hand, and drop them off at school. They would return at 11:00 a.m. for lunch, take a second bath, and then work on homework until 2:00, when they went back to school for English. At 4:00, we would drive them back to their turf on the street. It was heartbreaking to see their expressions as they loaded into the truck, once again wearing their ratty and filthy clothing. I hated leaving them there.
As heart-breaking as this ministry was, I loved being a part of something that actually acts as Jesus’ hands and feet. We got to tangibly show the love of Christ to these children. My prayer is that they will come to know Him and serve Him! 
(My friend on the left did my hair almost every morning. I adored her! The girl on the right was also a sweetheart! They are some of the older children in the program.)
I praise God that even though this country still lives in the shadow of a lot of darkness, He is shining His light there!
“The light shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1:5
