Born to Injustice
As I was riding in a tuk tuk the other day with two of the girls, we had stopped at a red light. As we waited for the light to turn, a young boy, about 8 or 9 years old approached our tuk tuk obviously begging for money. This child, however, was holding a young baby wrapped in a cotton cloth. We all looked at the baby, already sad at the sight of such a young child begging, only to find that the baby was quite sick. As I touched the baby’s face here and there, he did not respond. The baby’s lips were dry, his mouth was open and his eyes were half way closed. We began to question if the baby was even alive when I moved the cloth away from his face and he blinked from the sun shinning in to his eyes. By then our traffic light had turned and we were whisked away in the traffic. I have not been able to think long without my thoughts drifting to that child with the baby. So concerned over this child, but not knowing what in the world to do, I asked the head of the health ministry of New Life Church that we are working with this month about what could possibly be done. Then came the very sad and enraging news. He already knew about the child that I had encountered and had been out there himself to try and help them. The mother, however, uneducated and accustomed to a life of begging, with the rather substantial finances that it produces, refused his offers of assistance. So rather than live in a house provided by the health ministry and receive medical help, this woman has chosen to keep her life on the streets, exposing her children to sickness and the hazards of walking all day in the busy streets of the city. Though I am enraged over the injustice caused to these children, I also can not help but think about how great is the sadness that this mother really and truly does not know any better. 
In the reign of the Khmer Rouge, all the people of education where mass murdered as well as much of the Cambodian people in general. Since that time, this country has been in process of building it self back up from the ground. There is an extreme lack of education, a strong prevalence of corruption and a HUGE need of prayer. Pray for Cambodia and it’s people! They need the Lord!
