Ministry work in Cambodia faces some unique challenges, due to the cultural decimation by the Khmer Rouge during the Vietnam war. Not only were most religious institutions wiped out (Operation World says, “90% of monks and most Christians perished” in the killing fields of the 70s and 80s), but also education and business establishments.

Getting there

Monday, February 21

For the past several weeks, telling people I'm going to Cambodia has evoked the same response from nearly everyone: “Cambodia? Why?” I myself know very little about the country, and I was surprised at the consistently negative reaction to the idea of going there. My father asked, “It's not really safe there, is it?” A co-worker half-jokingly labeled this “The Trip Nobody Else Wanted.” And a lady at my church hugged me goodbye, wished me a good trip, and cheerfully advised, “Don't step on any land mines!”

I am traveling with two co-workers. On the bus to O'Hare Airport this morning I asked one of them what he hoped to get out of this trip. “My Number One goal,” he replied, “is to survive.” I seem to be alone in my enthusiasm for this adventure.

The things I've learned about Cambodia in preparing for this trip have incited more of a curious sadness than nervousness or fear. Three weeks ago I watched “The Killing Fields,” the movie about the Khmer Rouge coming into power, beginning in Phnom Penh. The protagonist of the movie survived starvation, random killings, exposure, indoctrination, and disease before finally escaping to a Thailand refugee camp and then to the States.

I also read a book called “Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields,” a compilation of the stories of Cambodian children who endured slave labor, family separation, hunger, and beatings, and in many cases watched the systematic execution of their parents and siblings.

I still don't understand all the politics behind the war that spilled over into Cambodia, but I understand the effects: under the Khmer Rouge the wealthier, educated professionals and businessmen of society were killed or banished; the remaining population were reduced to brutal slavery; cities were bombed; and a lush countryside was littered with the bodies of millions of victims.

The Khmer Rouge's reign of terror lasted from 1975 to 1985, and Cambodia has not yet recovered.

I'm intrigued by all that history, and I'm looking forward to learning more while I'm there.

Tuesday, February 22

Oddly enough, though the flight from Chicago to Tokyo was less than half full, our flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was packed! Once I wedged into my seat, I didn't move for the whole seven hours. (It would have taken a shoe horn to get me out, and it just didn't seem worth it.)

We arrived in Bangkok around 11:00pm and took taxis to our hotel, where our other Southeast Asian staff had already checked in.

The night market near our hotel does not close until 1:00am, so a few of us strolled through and looked at the merchandise before turning in. Interestingly enough, the merchandise on display included a number of topless dancers, since this market area is also known for its brothels. As far as I know, no purchases were made by our group.

Touring Bangkok

Wednesday, February 23

I got up at 7:00am and made it down to the breakfast buffet at 8:00, where I enjoyed fresh fruit, eggs, bacon, French toast, and juice. My two co-workers came in about 8:30 and announced that they had made arrangements with a taxi driver to take us to some of the local highlights and then directly to the airport. So I checked out of my room by 9:00am and joined the boys on a sightseeing adventure.

The thing that made our adventure adventurous was that our taxi driver spoke exactly as much English as we spoke Thai: zero. Plus, he didn't really seem to know exactly where these sites were we wanted to visit. We had a list that had been written out in Thai by the hotel staff, and we had a tourist map with all the sites plainly marked, but “Frank” (as we came to call him) seemed to drive around in circles a lot, stopping to ask people for directions more than once. It was really pretty amusing.

We didn't get to see everything on our list, but we did stop outside the king's palace, which was impressive. And we did visit a collection of famous Buddha statues, which was interesting. And, most important, we did get back to the airport in time. (This had become a major concern of ours while we were wandering aimlessly up and down the streets of Bangkok.)

The one-hour flight to Phnom Penh was uneventful, and by 6:00pm most of the conference attendees were checked into the Goldiana Hotel.

At 8:00pm we met in the hotel conference room for introductions and devotions. Tomorrow the conference begins in earnest.

The conference begins

Thursday, February 24

This morning at 8:45, we got the conference off to a good start with singing, prayer, and devotions. Our devotional was based on Psalm 29:11- “The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.” There is always so much work to be done, our leader told us, and we are always very busy doing the Lord's work. But we need to remember, if we are not doing it in His strength, we will not feel His peace.

We spent the morning listening to reports from our co-workers in Cambodia and Vietnam, after which it was time for a break. We snacked on exotic fruits (jack fruit and tiny green bananas), cookies, coffee, tea, and bottled water. We resumed our meeting at 11:15am with a ministry training presentation, and at 1:00pm we broke for lunch.

This afternoon was spent on a field trip. First stop-our office in Phnom Penh. We moved into this office building about two years ago and have been very happy with it. It is large enough to provide storage for materials, a reception area where customers can purchase Scriptures, a conference room for training, two rooms where staff members can board, and a guest room for visiting speakers and others.

We learned that it takes a long time to develop ministry materials for Cambodia because so few people are educated enough to do translation. English is not widely spoken or read here. In fact, many Cambodians cannot read their own language.

Eager to make us feel welcome, the staff set out a buffet of fruit and drinks to socialize over. We sampled a grape-like fruit called dragon's eyes, and I cracked open a can of Winter Melon Tea. Very tasty.

We boarded the bus again then and drove around the city while our hosts told us about the history and politics. I was impressed by how similar everything looked to the way it was pictured in “The Killing Fields.” There has been very little development in the past 20 years. Streets are unpaved and rutted, buildings are worn, and the people seem worn as well.

We stopped at an open-air market (which is, in fact, the downtown business center of Phnom Penh) for an hour of shopping and observing. As soon as we stepped off the bus, a number of beggars approached us, most of them disfigured in some way, many with missing limbs. One out of every 200 Cambodians has been injured in an explosion: while the cities are pretty safe, the countryside is still littered with undetected mines.

Our last stop of the day was at a local restaurant, where we all crowded into a reserved room for supper. We ordered a variety of dishes that we all shared: frog legs, vegetables, fried shrimp, a spicy soup, and a large fish. Everything was delicious, and the fellowship was hearty and warm.

Friday, February 25

We began our devotional time this morning by singing “This is the Day” in five different languages: English, Tagalog, Khmer, Indonesian, and Thai. It was certainly a joyful noise. (Someone made the comment that the language of heaven will have to be English because Americans can't learn any other languages!)

Our director in Myanmar (Burma) had been scheduled to lead us in devotions this morning, but due to passport difficulties he had not arrived yet. Someone else filled in with Jeremiah 24:7- “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”

We spent the morning hearing reports on Myanmar and Indonesia, and then took a break for lunch. We had ordered lunch in advance because we learned yesterday that service in the hotel restaurant is very slow. Today's lunch was ready on time, but not everyone got exactly what they had ordered! I had fried rice with vegetables (which is, in fact, what I had ordered), and a Cambodian “fruit shake,” recommended by one of our staff here. Everything was delicious. And filling.

The afternoon was filled with a discussion on publishing Scripture materials, keeping them up-to-date, making sure they are written and designed well, etc. He seemed to get the group thinking about some details they hadn't considered. The afternoon session ended at 4:40pm.

Over a supper of fried noodles and vegetables, I had an interesting conversation with our new director in Laos. This man's parents were among the first Christians in Laos, converted through some translating work they did for missionaries. Today all eight of their children are Christians active in ministry. Only the one son, however, remained in Laos. He feels a strong calling to be there, in spite of the persecution he and his family suffer. (For example, his children will be denied entrance into a university just because they are known Christians.)

He also explained that there is much Buddhism in Laos, but most of it is combined with animism. “There is no power in Buddhism,” he explained. “There are no miracles, nothing supernatural. So people follow the teachings of Buddha, but they add the animism because there is much of the supernatural in animism. Even the Buddhist monks practice animism.” I asked him if there was any conflict between Buddhism and Laos' communist government. He said no, mostly because the government sees Buddhism as harmless. At one time Buddhists were persecuted just as Christians are. But more recently that has changed. In fact, the government now works with the Buddhist monasteries, using monks to promote political messages in their sermons and teachings.

After supper we reconvened for a couple of hours to continue an earlier discussion. By 9:00pm we were finished with meetings and ready for bed.

Saturday, February 26

This morning's devotions were based on 2 Timothy 4:1-5- “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

We then heard a report on the ministry in Laos, including the following facts: In 1990 there were an estimated 13,000 Christians in Laos. Today, after a decade of missions work by Laotian Christians, there are 70,000. “We praise God for that,” says our staff, “but along with that blessing come suffering. Every year, without exception, we have many people in jail, many pastors.”

Rather than defy the government or go completely “underground,” our staff have chosen to work hard to develop relationships with government officials, so that they will not see him as an enemy. This is a difficult path to walk, and it takes great patience and discernment.

One staff member related the story of a conversation he had with a government official: “He was accusing me of practicing foreign religion-because I am Christian. He said Buddhism is religion of Laos, and he is suspicious of Christians and their foreign teaching. I said, 'If Buddhism is Lao, why not translate the Buddhist Scriptures into Lao?' (They are in Pali, a language taught only in Buddhist seminaries.) I said, 'My Scripture is in Lao, so I am more Lao than the Buddhists!' But he was blinded to the truth of that.”

The next sessions were all budgeting meetings that I didn't need to be a part of, so I and three others went to Watt Phnom to take in the one tourist attraction we had seen there: an elephant ride. “Phnom” means “hill” or “mound” in Khmer, and “Watt” is the temple on top of the hill that Phnom Penh is named after. There is a temple or something built on the top, and the elephant ride follows a route around the temple. For $3.00 a person, we each got a 10-minute elephant ride. I think the local people in the park there were as entertained by us as we were by the elephant!

After two trips around the park, we fed our friend an entire bunch of green bananas and two small melons, which he popped into his mouth like grapes.

We arrived back at the hotel in time for supper, but none of us was too hungry, so we walked down to the Lucky Market for ice cream bars instead of a full meal.

Sunday in Phnom Penh

Sunday, February 27

Wow! What a day.

It started when we left for church at 7:30am. We divided into two groups; the larger group visited a more established church. I was in the smaller group, and we visited a new church established by a church planter just six months ago.

I counted 43 in attendance this morning. We arrived at the church just before 8:00am, and about 20 people were already gathered for a service that would begin at 8:30.

The church building is a “storefront” type structure on a busy street; the entire back wall is open, and the traffic and street noise was constant. We visitors had places of honor in the front, though, so the distractions were minimal.

By 8:15 the size of the group had doubled. The pastor began the service at 8:20 by introducing us visitors, giving us an opportunity to stand, smile, and wave.

The power had gone out shortly after 8:00am, so the Pastor and the praise team debated about how to proceed-they normally accompany the singing with a synthesizer and use microphones to lead the praise. But in the absence of electricity, they simply began singing a cappella. At about 8:30 the power came back on, so they fired up the synthesizer and microphones at that point.

All of the songs throughout the service were in Khmer of course, but quite a few of them were familiar tunes, so we visitors could sing along in English. “Hosanna in the Highest,” “No Not One,” and “They'll Know We are Christians” were a few of the numbers.

The service was punctuated by prayers at various points, led by members of the praise team, the pastor, and one or two women from the congregation. For at least one of these prayers people kneeled on the floor and bowed their heads. During the offertory prayer, the deacon held the offering over his head while he prayed, demonstrating that this was in fact an offering to God.

Before the sermon, someone from the congregation came up and led a responsive reading of Psalm 67, an appropriate Psalm that says more than once, “May all the peoples praise you.” It was exciting to hear that in Khmer, English, and Tagalog.

The pastor prayed again before beginning his sermon. He read a text from 1 Corinthians 13 and preached for a while. But every few minutes he had us turn to another text, and then he would preach for a while on that. I think all his texts had something to do with love-God's love and Christian love and maybe even love in the face of persecution. At the end of his 40-minute sermon, the congregation applauded, and the praise team returned to the front for two more songs.

The singing was followed by testimony time, during which the pastor invited us foreigners to address the congregation. We said a few words of encouragement, and then another woman from the congregation came up to pray.

Our doxology was “Shalom, Good Friend,” which they sang about four times in Khmer and then once in English. Very nice. The entire service was finished before 10:00am.

After rejoining the rest of our group, we all traveled to Tuol Sleng, the Cambodian Genocide Museum. This was an incredibly powerful experience that is difficult to put into words.

The museum is a compound of three buildings that had been an elementary school before the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh. Comrade Dutch, a Khmer Rouge commander, turned the school into a prison where people were brutally tortured and killed. Each of the classrooms was turned into a cell. Some housed individual prisoners; others held large groups at a time.

I think this museum is so powerful because it is so simple. Most things have been left exactly as they were found in 1979 when the Vietnamese forced the Khmer Rouge out of the city. A few photos and signs have been added to explain what happened, but nothing is roped off or under glass. You can walk into each room and see the shackles that held each prisoner; you can even still see the blood on the floor. It's eerie.

The first building we entered was made up of rooms where individual prisoners had been celled. In fact, when the Vietnamese arrived, they found in each room a body chained to an iron bed, left there to rot when the persecutors fled. The Vietnamese took a photo of each body before burying it in a plot next to the building. Those photos now hang on the walls of the rooms. The beds are still in the rooms. And the shackles still lie on the beds. So each room is sort of a shrine to the victim who died there. It's haunting.

In a separate building are displayed some of the torture devices the Khmer Rouge used. It is almost incomprehensible, the perverted creativity that these people used to kill their victims. Seeing the different tools and machines they invented, you sense that these killings were sport to them.

I kept trying to understand this place, kept trying to wrap my mind around the reasons people would do this to other people. And I couldn't. Whatever political or ideological motivations Pol Pot had, they are simply inadequate to explain why. As I looked at the photos, read the history, smelled the fear and death in the air, I kept coming back to the question, How could this happen? No answer seemed satisfactory.

Tuol Sleng was a place where many of the city people- educated business or government people-were killed. After lunch we drove out to one of the killing fields where thousands of peasants had been slaughtered. Again, the site is haunting in its simplicity. Looking across the field, you see only grass and trees and paths around a number of large pits. It doesn't look like much, and there are few signs or explanations. But slowly the realization dawns that each of these large pits was a mass grave for hundreds of victims. When you look closely, you find fragments of clothing, bones, and teeth.

The bus ride back to town was very quiet.

That night after supper we gathered for one more session. Before our report from the Philippines, we sang a song together: “Because He Lives.” Watching our Cambodian bookkeeper sing that song brought tears to my eyes, having learned what I did that day, and knowing that she had lost her whole family to Pol Pot's horror. How beautiful to know that for her all fear is gone, and she can face tomorrow because He lives.

Final thoughts

Monday, February 28

We began our final day together with Philippians 4:1-7, which we read in unison before hearing the report on our ministry in Thailand. The rest of the morning was spent on ministry discussions, and then we all had lunch together before checking out of the hotel.

As our plane took off from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, I found myself praying almost desperately for our ministry in Cambodia. The problems throughout the country are so deep and so many that it seems almost foolish to think that we can make a difference! And of course such thinking is foolish. Only God can make a difference here. We can make a difference only in God's power. In fact, God does not even call us to make a difference; He calls us only to be faithful, for “the one who calls [us] is faithful and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24, NIV). Amen.