We arrived
in Phnom Penh, Cambodia last night after 24 hours of travelling on trains,
buses, planes, and vans, and sitting in airports for many hours at a time. I
had been awake for more than 40 hours with only a few short moments of
unconsciousness on cold airport floors and uncomfortable plane rides. When we
arrived at our final destination, we made it through customs fairly quickly and
walked outside to find our ride. That’s when we met Chhay, a 19-year-old
Cambodian guy that works for New Life in Christ Church where we’ll be serving this month. He
immediately informed us that we wouldn’t be able to leave for awhile because
there was a huge factory 100 meters from the church that had caught on fire
just a few hours before we arrived.
This
clothing and shoe factory employs 10,000 workers–all women. When the fire
started around 4pm, 5000 of those workers were inside. Only about 3000 made it
out alive. The others were trampled or caught in the flames. Some were
pregnant. Some were mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, and friends. We
immediately began praying for all who were affected by this fire. We prayed for
the husbands who lost their wives…kids who lost their moms…people who lost their daughters, siblings, and friends. We prayed for the women who lost their jobs. We
prayed that they could find other ways to provide for their families. We prayed
that the community would come together and help. We prayed that God would use
us to comfort the people. We prayed, and prayed, and prayed.
A couple of
hours later, two other men showed up with a van to take us back to the church. We
began driving and heard the sounds of fire trucks and ambulances. There were
thousands of people crowding the streets. Some of the roads were blocked off
and closed. The closer we got to the burning building, the more chaos and
terror there was. A few minutes later, we got our first glimpse of the flames.
They were high above all other buildings–hundreds of feet in the air. Then we
saw it. My heart sank. This was a lot bigger deal than I had imagined. I have
never seen such a HUGE structure completely engulfed in flames. It was
horrifying. There were thousands of people lining the streets
trying to get closer to the action. My heart immediately broke. I was sitting in
the dark back seat of the van by myself and I began to cry. I cried for the women who lost
their lives. I cried for the families that would have to go on without mothers,
wives, daughters, sisters, friends. I cried for the ones who had lost their
jobs. My mind began to wander to the thought of these women being forced to
turn to prostitution or other means to provide for their families…
Once we had gone as far as we could in the van, we got out and loaded on all of our packs to begin a long walk through packed, pitch-black alleyways. It was hot, the fire was raging, and people were panicking. We walked on through the darkness and chaos and I was just praying that the fire would stay contained. There was a gas station nearby that could have so easily blown up if the fire had spread. When we finally reached the church building, we took all of our stuff upstairs to our rooms and headed to the balcony on the top floor. This is what we saw only 100 meters away…
[photo by Ginger]
Luckily, there was a tall building separating us from the flames. Down below, I could see people on the narrow streets spraying water on the roofs of their houses as a precaution in case the fire began to take off. I could hear things in the factory exploding and windows shattering from the pressure of the heat. It was intense. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Some of the church members gathered with us on the balcony to watch the horror unfold. I was exhausted, but somehow the adrenaline and the beating of my heart wouldn’t allow me to walk away. I was mesmerized. My heart was hurting. I continued to pray as I watched the flames burn away the factory into a skeleton of what it once was. So many lives lost. So many people hurting. So much destruction and devastation. So much hope lost.
Please pray that we can bring God’s love, comfort, and hope to the people involved in the fire. I truly believe He brought us here for a bigger purpose than we could have ever imagined. We thought we came here to teach English to children at a church. Maybe His plans are bigger…
Also, check out Ginger’s blog about last night’s events.
