I Left My Heart in Cambodia

Well, at least a piece of it anyway. If you're friends with me on Facebook, then you know I've been mentioning Cambodia lately. It was just over a year ago that we had the wonderful opportunity to go and visit. Last week we watched a short video clip that reminded me of the living conditions we saw there although the video showed a cleaner village than the one we visited. Then earlier this week I used up the last of my parmesan cheese from there. The imported products from the States in Cambodia were much cheaper than they are here in Thailand, but it's not just the shopping I miss.

We had a wonderful time of sight-seeing, but we almost met some people that reminded us of the very real and not too distant pain that came from a devastation that I cannot even imagine. Estimates vary, but at least 1 million people were slaughtered at the hands of a rogue government who ordered citizens to turn on each other. All educated people were to be executed and those who were left would be farmers. Time went back to year 0, and atrocities were carried out on men, women, children, and babies. Standing in the killing fields and seeing the tree where so many babies were beat to death I was moved to tears. And my prayers began for the healing of a nation who still distrusts and still struggles to find good leadership and change.

My heart is in Thailand, but I've had the opportunity to travel to a few other places. My passport has stamps from other countries, but none of them has been a burden like Cambodia. They need Jesus, and I'm praying someone will answer that calling! Maybe it's you?

We were able to spend about an hour with these precious kids teaching English and having a good time together. They're eager to learn, and they need good Christian teachers who are there for their best interests. So many go to Cambodia for the cheap booze and sex trade. They're also the ones teaching in some of the schools.These kids face a very real danger of being sold into Cambodia's sex slave trade where girls as young as five are sold by their families in order to ease the pain of their poverty.

"This is the kind of brutal ugliness that is sort of hard to open your eyes to. But once you do I think as a human being you've got to take responsibility for it." Gary Haugen

What your eyes see affects the heart. Will you join me in praying that God will send godly people into their lives who will tell them how they can have true freedom?