Well after 80 something hours of travel, we finally made it from D.R. to Phnom Penh Cambodia. The culture change has been intense. In the Caribbean the cultures were at least somewhat similar to America. It definitely feels like we are on the other side of the world. They say that 90 something percent of the population is Buddhist, and most people have no knowledge of Jesus or the Bible. The country has freedom of religion, but there are restrictions on how you can evangelize. I think our ministry here is going to be a lot more relational.
Our first two days in Phnom Penh we had kind of an orientation of the city/country. We toured various sites in and around the city. The last 100 years of Cambodia’s history has been a war torn mess. We visited a prison and an execution site used in the genocide that happened about 30 years ago under the rule of Pol Pot. One third of Cambodia’s populations were massacred in a couple year time span. Most of these were the educated or religious people. Visiting these sites was one of the more intense things I’ve done. There were mass graves at the killing fields, and no joke there are still bones sticking out of the ground. This atrocity is still a very real part of these people. Anyone over 30 years old lived thru it and still remembers.
Well I thought that the Caribbean was hot. Oh, guess not. The Caribbean feels like winter compared to this place. Put it this way. I’m sitting here writing this in nothing but my shorts with a fan blowing on me, and I’m still sweating.
