When I was little, my family and I always went to the early service at my church (the family still does, I joined the choir and got to sleep in an extra hour!). Most of the service was traditional, but it began with a 10 minute Hymn Sing. Church members would call out a number and we would all join our voices in that song.
One of my goals this month was to praise God every day, and that continues to remind me of the joyful noise my congregation made in that time. One of my favorite songs that we consistently sang was Hymn #302, Lord of the Dance.
This week especially has been full of dancing, from having a dance/worship night for team time, to learning line dances to teach to our students after our farewell dinner, to random moments during the day.
But I am often reminded that Cambodia is not a place where dancing comes so easily. Yesterday, my team and I visited the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, more commonly known as the Killing Fields.
This is one of hundreds of sites where 3 million Cambodians lost their lives during Pol Pot’s reign of terror from 1975 – 1979. Teachers, students, doctors, businessman and lawyers died here. Their only crime: being educated city-dwellers. Men, women, and children were killed indiscriminately. Even innocent babies were murdered in the most horrendous of ways.
They will never get a chance to dance.
Walking through that hallowed ground, where bits of bone and clothes rise to the surface after every flood, I could hear birds chirping happily in the trees. Across the street, at a park or school, children laughed and screamed for joy – so unlike the screams of terror that once filled the air.
Dozens of butterflies flitted among the flowers.
Forty years ago, Cambodia too had the devil on it’s back. It was too hard to dance. But just as Jesus rose from the dead, this country has risen from the brokenness and tragedy it has suffered. Her people are still going on, while at the same time striving to never forget their past. And I desperately hope and pray that as these wounds heal, as life continues to flourish, that they would learn about the Life that never dies. That they would experience the dance that never ends.
