We are in Cambodia now, I’m a bit culture shocked again to my surprise. At this point of the trip you’d think a cultural change wouldn’t hit you so hard. As we walked across the border a few days ago, I noticed a big difference. The children were everywhere begging and sleeping on the streets. The street kids in Cambodia seem to be everywhere. In Canada a kid wouldn’t last very long on the street before someone would call the cops and have them picked up and in the system. The lesser of the two evils is debatable.
Some of the orphans we are loving while we are in Cambodia.
S21 Torture prision.
We went to a torture camp where 20 thousand men women and children were tortured then sent out to one of the thousands of killing fields in Cambodia. We went to one of the killing fields, and saw the clothing and bones and skulls of those killed by the Khmer Rouge. In very recent history (1974-1979) Pol Pot had a plan to be the fastest leader in history to change a society. He began killing students and professionals anyone educated and anyone involved in religion. In one day he moved everyone out of the cities and forced them to work in the rice fields. No one had money and no one owned land or anything, they had only two classes of society, working and government.
Only 20 percent of the people living today in Cambodia were alive during that period. One third of the population died in 5 years due to murder, starvation, sickness, and disease. As we were walking through and learning about this tragedy I thought
look what happens when good men do nothing. Hatred ruled and love wasn’t allowed, families were split, and the devil had his way here. It made me realize that what we are doing is vital; history always repeats itself unless there is change. God loves these people and wants to draw them back to Himself, so He chose to send us as ministers of reconciliation. Idol worship has killed the old generation. This new generation in Cambodia is hungry for change and for a real living God. My question is who is willing to do some thing? Will this generation step up and reach its own or do we always look to others to do it?
God has a great challenge for us that can’t be accomplished with out Him. Try to love your neighbor as you love yourself. If God is love, then without God, love is absent. Our motives for doing good are usually to feel good or to try and make up for what we have done wrong in life, and we want to add evidence to prove to God that what we have done makes us a good person. Thus when we die we should be allowed into heaven because we are good.
At the killing field
The problem is that those motives aren’t pure, and you have no need for God other then to tell him what to do after you die. You can’t love everyone without God, and the first and second commands are to love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself. The world needs Jesus, if we do nothing, evil prevails, and people die.
Only perfect love casts out fear.
