With a month behind us, the warning of “no expectations” is always at the forefront of my mind. We are to ideally go into a country with no assumptions or formed ideas of what it will hold. With only a little debriefing of what the ministry host site was like from fellow World Racers, we(June and September Teams, about 50) embarked at 7:30 Thurs. morning on our journey to Cambodia. The four hours with 9 others on the back of a covered truck was filled with the last Thailand sceneries. Green plush grasses, open grasslands, the usual seen beautiful land that we were accustomed to over the past weeks went whizzing by. A few dust particles in our teeth and pleasant conversations seemed to pass the time quickly. Than it seemed the anticipated moment arrived as we crossed into the border crossing to Cambodia. Not much different for the moment, as we entered into the shared market places of Thailand and Cambodia. But wait, there were children of 7-8 years of age carrying 7month year olds that were perfectly shaped to their bodies as if it was as natural as putting on a shirt. They were very interactive but with a sense of adult ownership. Childhood notions of playing and laughing and saying “hello “in English to appease themselves seemed to never fall from their demeanor. Instead a simple “hello” turned into a desperate routine need to beg for food or ask for money. The beautiful child faces followed and begged until we reached the visa station. The first thought of comparison to one country to another quickly passed through my thought process. What else will cross my path this past month that will challenge and expand my norms concerning the Cambodian life?
After several hours of lunch and logistics it was back on a bus for another long leg of 9 hours or so further into Cambodia to our destination. Entering into the country lands I was filled with an introductory glance to the life and land of Cambodia. The land was filled with the friendliest faces, children waving and yelling “hello”, adults responding with genuine gestures. Naked children, men with their shirts off and approaching glances, children running in the streets, garbage filling the corners and littering the roads, and holed filled bumpy roads were quite a contrast to the reserved and composed generous life of the Thai people. Shocking but intriguing to see what response this country will give to foreigners , my thoughts immediately turned to the heart of God and His love and heart for all of His people. An immediate awareness for prayer filled my spirit and mind. “Lord, show me where you want my path to cross and where my passions and gifting can be used to love and serve these people”. The hard ship of the people and the roughness of the land brought even more of a desire to learn about the heartbeat of the Khmer (Cambodian) people.
As my time has unfolded over the past few days, I have learned many things about the life and Khmer history that I am drawn too. The openness of the people creates a nonthreatening and inviting manner that makes me want to sit down and have a chat, or hug the children at every opportunity possible. The lifestyle of fitness has been such a “in my face” reminder and challenge of treating my body with respect and keeping it in shape. The streets are quite crowded with people. But this doesn’t stop them from walking to the nearest stadium to walk and run the tracks, play soccer, and join the outdoor aerobic classes, archery, and basketball. It was a great encouragement to see hundreds of Khmer people on a Sat. morning engaging in physical activities. It was defiantly a blessing to me, a person who struggles with this area of discipline. It sure spurred me on! As if to challenge me further the Khmer lifestyle certainly promotes an early morning mentality. Life awakens and begins at 5 am so as to beat the hot humid mornings and terrible rush hour traffic. (I still cannot even think of “that” time in my head but I am striving toward 6 am mornings J ).The atmosphere of rest time from 12:30-2:30 and the laid back attitude has even made me restless and on time for things (I know it’s hard to believe). As I am made aware of the history of this country, empathy arises within me along with a great respect for their mindset of perseverance amongst the trials they have faced for over thirty years.
Thanks to my teammate Molly who typed this information about the Khmer history here is a timeline that gives a glimpse of what occurred in Cambodia for over 3o years:
1970 – Open civil war began between Lon Nol’s government (democratic) and Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge (communist). Many joined Khmer Rouge because they were unhappy with the American bombings and the new government.
April 1975 – Khmer Rouge (A Communist Party) took the capital of Phnom Penh and forced everyone out of all the cities in Cambodia. Everyone was forced into farming communes in the countryside. Once the Khmer Rouge was in control, they began to kill anyone associated with Lon Nol’s government or his military. They also killed educated people, teachers, and doctors; because they thought they had been corrupted by Western thinking. In addition, they killed religious people such as Buddhist monks and over ninety percent of the Christians. Conditions were hard; people had to work long days in the fields and sometimes got as little as one cup of rice each day. Therefore, starvation and disease began to grow. By the end of the Khmer Rouge rule, as many as two million people died (almost one-third of the population).
December 1978 – Khmer Rouge invaded Vietnam.
January 1979 – Vietnamese troops had taken control of Phnom Penh and the government.
1979 – Vietnam set up a new government. The Khmer Rouge fled to the Thai border and continued to fight from there.
1979-1989 – Many Cambodians fled to refugee camps to get supplies to bring back to their families, but due to thieves, they eventually moved to the camps. During this time, many resistance fighter groups formed along the border to fight the Vietnamese-controlled government. The Khmer Rouge placed many landmines, but the Vietnamese and resistance fighter groups placed even more to prevent each other attacking easily. Therefore, Cambodia became one of the most heavily land mined countries in the world.
1989 – Vietnam backed out of Cambodia for financial reasons. Then the resistance fighter groups along the border began to fight each other for control of the government.
End of 1990 – United Nations had fighting groups sign a treaty promising to stop fighting and work together to form a new government. All groups signed, but the Khmer Rouge backed out and continued fighting.
1993 – Because peace needed to be made, the UN named two prime ministers of Cambodia: Hun Sen, leader of the Cambodian People’s Party, and Prince Norodom Ranariddh of the royalist party.
1997 – Hun Sen took away the title from Prince Ranariddh to become the highest leader of Cambodia.
1998 – Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, died of natural causes.
1998 – The Khmer Rouge became officially disbanded as a political and military force and ended its fighting against the Cambodian government.
1999 – First year of peace since 1969
2003 – Elections were peaceful and Hun Sen in once again elected.
Steps are continuing to be made to rebuild the infrastructure of Cambodia.
This may be a lot of history. But because of this information, I was able to begin to understand the unrest that Cambodia is in due to the first year of peace out of thirty only occurred eight years ago. This allows me to look deeper into the hurt and pain of the Cambodians and gives me insight of what to be in prayer for.
Some prayers for the Khmer people:
· Restoration for the broken families
· People living with memories of what happened
· People who are disable due to activities within the past 30 years
· Healing of the land
· Breaking generational curses, including fear, hopelessness, and violence
· Cambodians would overcome the past and be release in order to move on
· Cambodians would come to know a Godly worldview.
*Information gathered with the help of University of the Nations (YWAM Cambodia). www.uofncambodia.org
Within the first days of being in Cambodia we were able to visit the Tuol Sleng Museum which was a high school turned into a torture prison where over 10,000 were killed during the years of April 17th 1975-1979. (I was struck by the fact that this was one month after I was born!)The places where they took people to execute them are referred to as “The Killing Fields”. (Please check out Traci’s blog soon on team Ignite, she has an amazing film slide that she put together about this!) As we toured these places and watched a movie about the life at these camps my heart was somber and prayerful. I can’t even imagine what they and their families went through. My heart wanted to break for them like God’s heart did as they were amongst the suffering. And the fact is I did not know that this occurred! For me this experience has challenged me not to be just within my American awareness. I have been challenged of late to look at the whole world with concern and awareness because Americans are not just God’s children but He is the Father of all the Nations. I know that I went into Cambodia with blinded eyes of truth. I truly can see why we shouldn’t go into a place or situation with expectations. Things are rarely what we conjure in our minds with false backgrounds and facts that can be developed. I know for me, the Khmer history and people have defiantly exceeded my expectations.
