Cambodia presents us with a completely new culture, and rooted deep within this culture are spiritual challenges that we need to overcome in order to reach these people with the love of Jesus Christ.
On March 8th, we were blessed with the opportunity to take a tour of Phnom Penh and learn more about the culture. Our trip began with a visit to the Toul Sleng museum. This museum does not exhibit sculpture or paintings, however – it is a look into the tragic recent past of the country. Pol Pot, dictator and ruler of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, had terrible motives when he came to power. His goal was to turn the country into a self-sufficient agricultural communist state. Pol Pot tricked the people into fleeing the cities and left them abandoned for the rest of his reign. People were to live out in the countryside and grow rice at an impossible rate – this led to the government getting most of the rice, and many people starving to death.
Pol Pot wanted a quick and easy tr
ansition to this new style of life, but he knew his people would challenge him. Rather than try to spend time and energy reeducating people, he decided to eliminate anyone he thought to be a threat. This thought process led to a genocide of over 2 million Cambodians over the next 4 years. Toul Sleng, once a school, became a prison where citizens were tortured and held until execution. These people had done nothing worthy of these terrible things, they were just classified as intellectuals – people like teachers and doctors, people who wore glasses, those who spoke another language, lived in the city, or resisted Pol Pot’s regime…and 90% of the Christians in the country.
With heavy hearts we walked around this site, seeing the prison cells and torture rooms, as well as many of the faces who perished. We were then taken to Cheung Ek, known in English as the Killing Fields. It was here that people were transported from Toul Sleng to be killed. This eerie site has several mass graves where the bodies were placed, and covered up by dirt and chemicals to lessen the smell. In the middle of the field is a large multi-story pagoda, constructed to honor the dead. Inside are multiple layers of victim’s skulls. Over 9,000 men, women, and children were found buried at this site.
Roughly a third of the population was lost during these four years. Many of those that survived and are still alive today suffer from some sort of psychological disorder. Cambodia desparately needs the love of Je
sus to descend upon them. These people need to be freed of their fears from the past and be able to move forward in their lives. We need to pray for the healing of broken hearts and families. My prayer is that we will be able to reach some of these people this month, and comfort and show them the love of Jesus Christ. We may or may not be able to do this directly, but I pray that we will take any and all opportunities to do so.
In the afternoon, we were able to visit Wat Phnom, a famous Buddhist temple in the city. Once we had taken our shoes off and gone inside, we saw what idol worship was really like. While the Buddha and the quest for “enlightenment” seem to be at the center of their religion, the people here also worship many Hindu gods. They also worship their ancestral spirits and believe that this is a very important family duty. Cambodians also believe in animism, which is a belief that spirits live in their land, their trees, and other things. The people often offer sacrifices of incense, foo
d, and even money to these spirits by placing their offerings in spirit boxes that sit in their house or in front of their property. Failure to do this will anger the spirits and cause many curses upon you.
Besides idol worship, the other main point of the Buddhist religion is the belief that everyone is constantly suffering. The only way to release yourself from this suffering is to die. Once you obtain enough positive karma during your lifetimes (they believe in reincarnation), you will obtain nirvana and break the cycle of life, meaning that you will simply cease to exist. Sounds like a bummer of a way to go for me – I’d rather live forever in Jesus Christ.
I pray that we are given opportunities to minister to these people this month. I pray that through our example people are able to see the joy that we have – and that there is more to life than suffering! I pray also that the Lord will continue to work in me this month. It looks like our ministry will be exciting but challenging, which is definitely an answer to prayer. Lord Jesus, please come and use us for Your gain!
