Go Beyond

   After almost twenty-three hours of actual time in the air on three different flights, we finally arrived in Cambodia. We made our final approach to the Siem Reap Airport over the muddy tan-colored waters of Tonlé Sap Lake, bounced twice on the tarmac, and rolled to a stop near the pagoda-roofed terminal building. We quickly secured our visas, retrieved our luggage, and then met Barnabas, our host. Barnabas is a 59 year-old father of nine children with twenty-five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He is a tireless worker for the kingdom of God with a contagiously joyful attitude. Barnabas is responsible for training national pastors and workers and has also written and translated over four-hundred songs for the Cambodian church. He is committed to the vision of planting a church in every one of Cambodia’s fourteen-thousand villages.
 
   After we checked in to our hotel, we had our orientation meeting with Barnabas. We learned about the history of the church in Cambodia before and after Pol Pot’s killing fields. We also learned about church-planting initiatives. Since 1992, the year Christian churches were first allowed to worship openly, every new church is required to apply for a permit from the Minister of Religion. The Minister of Religion is a Buddhist. In 1992, before he was the Minister of Religion, this gentleman survived a serious air crash and spent twenty days in the hospital. Every day, Christians visited him without fail, prayed for him, and paid all of his medical bills. Although these acts of kindness did not lead him to faith in Christ, they softened his heart toward Christians. This gentleman has granted permits for new churches to meet since his appointment as Minister of Religion.

   After our meeting, we drove the short distance from Siem Reap to Angkor where we visited three of the ancient temples on the vast grounds. Amazing! We visited Angkor Wat, believed to be the largest religious structure in the world. We learned that Pol Pot sought to build a kingdom even more glorious than Angkor. He was inspired to imitate the brutality depicted in the many bas-relief stories of battles carved into the temple walls. However, Pol Pot did more than imitate the torture methods carved in stone – he exceeded them. We also visited the Bayon Temple, famous for its many four-faced Buddhas carved into the massive and ornate stone towers. Even for a non-Buddhist, the huge faces of Buddha, the enlightened one, are quite impressive. Finally, we visited Ta Prohm, one of the oldest sites in Angkor. This Hindu site boasts trees with massive roots entangled in the ruins and is a photographers’ paradise.

   The temples of Angkor are evidence that what the writer of Ecclesiastes said is true – God has “set eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecc. 3:11). The vast complex of temples testifies to the restless longing of the ancient Khmer people to connect with something or someone greater than themselves. And, as impressive as this World Heritage site is, these temples no longer serve the faithful – only tourists. There are no priests, no worship, no fellowship, no instruction, and no life.

   In the coming days, in addition to meeting and speaking to gatherings of pastors, I will speak in three churches. Unlike the three temples we visited in Angkor, these churches serve the Anointed One and are full of life. Those who attend these churches are engaging the people of their respective villages, serving the needs of their communities, addressing broader concerns like Cambodia’s sex trafficking, caring for the least of these, and more. I am grateful to God for Barnabas and for the relatively few laborers seeking to make God known among the Khmer people. Unlike the mildewed and fern-covered stones of Angkor’s temples, they are “like living stones” that “are being built into a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:5) that will last into eternity.