This past week we finished up our month of ministry in
Cambodia, and had a few spare days to spend around Phnom Penh. While in Phnom
Penh, my team had the opportunity to visit the Killing Fields in Choeung Ek and
the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum also known as S-21, where Pol Pot’s regime tortured,
imprisoned, and interrogated thousands before they sent them to the Killing
Fields to be murdered.
Led by Pol Pot, the communist Khmer Rouge lead a genocide in
Cambodia from 1975-79 executing select groups including ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Chinese, ethnic Thai and other
minorities, Cambodian Christians, Muslims, and Buddhist monks, especially
targeting anyone educated or intellectual, eventually killing off nearly a
quarter of the entire Cambodian population.
Cambodia from 1975-79 executing select groups including ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Chinese, ethnic Thai and other
minorities, Cambodian Christians, Muslims, and Buddhist monks, especially
targeting anyone educated or intellectual, eventually killing off nearly a
quarter of the entire Cambodian population.
Beneath the brutality of the Khmer Rouge 2-3 million people
died. Walking across the dirt paths at
Choeung Ek, bones are visible, buried under foot everywhere you walk. At the killing fields 89 mass graves have
been uncovered where thousands of these were murdered. In efforts to cut the cost of bullets,
prisoners were told to kneel on the ground, were beaten, and eventually killed
with blunt farm tools to the back of the head. Some had their heads sawed off with blunt instruments. Women were stripped naked, oftentimes raped,
and killed. Some were beaten, thrown
into the open graves, and had poisonous chemicals poured over their helpless
bodies. Babies were either swung against
a tree or tossed in the air and caught on a bayonet tip.
died. Walking across the dirt paths at
Choeung Ek, bones are visible, buried under foot everywhere you walk. At the killing fields 89 mass graves have
been uncovered where thousands of these were murdered. In efforts to cut the cost of bullets,
prisoners were told to kneel on the ground, were beaten, and eventually killed
with blunt farm tools to the back of the head. Some had their heads sawed off with blunt instruments. Women were stripped naked, oftentimes raped,
and killed. Some were beaten, thrown
into the open graves, and had poisonous chemicals poured over their helpless
bodies. Babies were either swung against
a tree or tossed in the air and caught on a bayonet tip.
Horrendous things happen on this earth: the holocaust,
genocide, rape, babies being tossed into the air and caught on bayonets to save
bullets. There will become a point at which you will have to acknowledge the
existence of evil; it will simply be too much. You will not be able to bear it anymore. “This is too much, this cannot be, this should not be this way, I can
take no more. This is evil,” you will be forced to say in that moment of truth
when you finally stare reality in the face.
genocide, rape, babies being tossed into the air and caught on bayonets to save
bullets. There will become a point at which you will have to acknowledge the
existence of evil; it will simply be too much. You will not be able to bear it anymore. “This is too much, this cannot be, this should not be this way, I can
take no more. This is evil,” you will be forced to say in that moment of truth
when you finally stare reality in the face.
The walking path at the Killing Fields. Buried bones are uncovered every time it rains.
Some of the 8,985 skulls that have been uncovered and preserved at Choeung Ek.
And the good news is that evil is not final. The evil men
[we], have committed and continues among us will be wiped away and remembered
no more. In that day the righteousness of God will rain, and the full wrath of
God will be felt for the worker of iniquity. And all who have come to this
realization, and have trusted Christ, the perfect man, who was born of a
virgin, walked a perfect, sinless life, died bearing the sin of those who were
prepared beforehand, and rose again defeating death and declaring to the World
God’s acceptance of His sacrifice, for their salvation and righteousness will
be freed from the evil of this present World and the wrath that they rightly
deserve.
[we], have committed and continues among us will be wiped away and remembered
no more. In that day the righteousness of God will rain, and the full wrath of
God will be felt for the worker of iniquity. And all who have come to this
realization, and have trusted Christ, the perfect man, who was born of a
virgin, walked a perfect, sinless life, died bearing the sin of those who were
prepared beforehand, and rose again defeating death and declaring to the World
God’s acceptance of His sacrifice, for their salvation and righteousness will
be freed from the evil of this present World and the wrath that they rightly
deserve.
