Go Beyond

   Thirty years ago the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh was called S-21, or Security Office 21. Originally built as a school, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge took over the campus in 1975 and turned this place of learning into a place of unspeakable torture and death. Classrooms were subdivided into cells. Playground equipment was converted into instruments of torture. And, teachers were replaced by Pol Pot’s cadre whose pop quizzes were impossible to pass and were ultimately rewarded with various forms of torture.

   Today, the photos on display in the former classrooms of S-21 are of the thousands who were detained and tortured there. The graduation ceremony for S-21’s unfortunate alumni was held at the nearby killing fields. No caps and gowns, just a blindfold followed by a blunt blow to the back of the head and burial in a mass grave. It’s impossible to walk through S-21 without feeling a mixture of sorrow and anger. I was gripped by the same indignation I felt when I first visited this terrible place just one month ago.

   As I walked up the steps to the second floor of Building B, I noticed something I had not seen on my first visit here last month. Sometime in the weeks between my visits, a Spanish-speaking visitor had scratched two words into the stairwell wall – Nunca Mas. These words simply mean “Never More” or “Never Again.” I paused and solemnly whispered, “Amen. May what happened at S-21 never happen again!” Today, S-21 stands as a testimony to the logical outcome of a worldview with an impoverished understanding of the sanctity of human life, a worldview that refused to acknowledge the existence of God.

   On Tuesday, our team met with over two-hundred pastors and church leaders for the first of three days of intensive training on the sanctity of human life and related issues. Team leader Kurt Dillinger addressed the sanctity of human life. Team member Matt Zainea addressed the topic of battling worldviews – Biblical versus Humanistic. I listened to these men speak — while images of S-21 and the Choeung Ek killing field were still fresh on my mind. I am convinced that a Biblical worldview is critical to the future of Cambodia. This country’s new killing fields are the dark places where babies are aborted and the hotel rooms where the innocence of young women dies every hour of the day. What will it take to scribe “Nunca Mas” on the walls of these places?

   Earlier today, Wednesday, I addressed the subject of Biblical Sexuality and Sexually Transmitted Infections. My new friend John Tabor spoke about pregnancy and reproduction. Tomorrow, we will address abortion, post-abortion issues, and forgiveness and healing. I am encouraged by the responses of the men and women in attendance. They have come from provinces throughout Cambodia. These men and women are committed to life and to working together to end the practices that harm the defenseless and exploit the weak and vulnerable. They are committed to working toward the day when the words “Nunca Mas” will be written across walls in places where the innocent and innocence dies every day.

Steve Hyde, Director of Asia for Jesus, is our host and guide in Cambodia. He is a big man with a gentle disposition. Steve is married to a Cambodian woman named Noit. They have two very beautiful kids. But, beyond the surface of things lies an amazing story. Steve and Noit have more in common than their love for God and commitment to Jesus Christ. They both have suffered the loss of loved ones as a result of acts of cruelty, hatred, and violence.

Noit’s entire family died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. She was eleven years-old when the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh in 1975 and forced the entire population of the city to evacuate. Her father was a school teacher and was executed. The rest of her family died over the next two years. She alone survived. Steve told us this story in greater detail as we stood in the shadow of the Memorial Stupa that houses more than 8,000 human skulls at the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center located south of Phnom Penh. And, Steve told us this story through his tears. Although he never had the opportunity to know his wife’s family, he feels their loss very deeply.

Steve’s father, Bill Hyde, was martyred on March 4, 2003. Bill was also a big man with a big vision for reaching the people of the Philippines with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Bill and his wife Lyn served as Southern Baptist missionaries in Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao. They effectively trained national Christians to plant churches in remote Muslim villages. Over their years of service among Muslims, Bill received many death threats. However, these threats did not deter him from traveling to and working in some of the most dangerous places in the Philippines.

On March 4, Bill went to the small airport outside of Davao City to pick up fellow missionaries who were returning from Manila. While at the airport, members of one of Mindanao’s Muslim rebel groups detonated a bomb hidden in an unattended bag. The explosion injured more than one hundred fifty Filipinos and killed twenty-one people – including Bill Hyde.

When Steve received word about the bombing and that his father was barely clinging to life at Davao Doctors Hospital, he arranged to fly to Mindanao. En route, sensing that his Dad had died, he unmistakably heard God’s gentle voice telling him to avenge his father’s death with love. Later, at his father’s funeral service in Iowa, Steve said: “I will avenge my father’s death. Not by killing or violence. I’ll go into this dark world and shine the light of Jesus into dark places.”

In the years since his father’s death, Steve continues to train indigenous Christians to reach their own people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And, the men who came to Christ under his father’s ministry have planted hundreds of churches with almost 10,000 believers. Jerry Rankin, President of the International Mission Board, said: “Reaching all peoples for Christ will not be accomplished without the blood of the martyrs.” He is right. And, no act of terror will halt the advance of the gospel. The blood of the martyrs is indeed the seed of the church.

After his father’s death, Steve and his family placed a wreath at the site of the explosion that claimed the life of Bill Hyde. The banner on the wreath said: “From the Bill Hyde family and Americans who love Filipinos and know they are worth dying for.” Lyn, Steve’s mom, continues to serve and prays that her ministry might one day send Filipinos to reach those who killed her husband — and train them how to give life, not take it.

   As we made our final approach to Phnom Penh, I looked out the window at the lush green patchwork below. The tall palm trees looked like thumb tacks — randomly placed to keep the wind from blowing away the variegated green carpet. Cambodia really is a beautiful country and I am happy to be back for my second visit. We descended quickly, bounced hard onto the tarmac, and rolled our way to the terminal. Once inside, I secured my visa and then made my way to the luggage carousel. I’m always happy to reunite with my luggage.

   Once outside the terminal we met Steve Hyde, the Director of Asia for Jesus and our host. Steve is a big man with a big heart for Cambodia. He grew up the son of missionaries in the Philippines and received his education in Texas. He first came to Cambodia as a Journeyman with the International Mission Board in 1994. That’s when he learned the Khmer language – not an easy task when you consider the alphabet has forty-eight vowels and thirty-five consonants. Each of the consonants has two different sounds. And, then there are the irregular vowels and consonants and a cryptic few of each that apply only to some select words. It’s all very confusing and challenging. But, Steve learned the language quickly and speaks it fluently.

   What I found a bit strange as we made our way from the airport to our hotel was the relatively few vehicles and people on the streets. I was here just a month ago and remember the chaotic choreography of cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians. But today, the streets seemed empty by comparison. And, very few shops were open for business. I wondered if this is what Phnom Penh must have looked like after the Khmer Rouge invaded and evacuated the city in the mid-70’s.

   Steve cleared up the mystery of the empty streets. Today is a Buddhist holiday, locally called Bon Bpchun Ben. This is a day when people pray for their dead ancestors whose spirits may not be at peace. The people fear these restless spirits and believe that they capriciously cause accidents and all kinds of bad stuff to happen. So, it’s incumbent upon the living to pray for these spirits to be at peace. In order for this to happen, family members are required to pray at seven Buddhist temples. They also pay the monks at these temples to perform special chants on behalf of their restless ancestors.

   So today, the streets of Cambodia are empty. And, I am reminded that the hearts of so many Cambodians are also empty, filled with frustration and longing for answers to life’s most important questions. A distinctive of our Christian worldview is the understanding that we can know where we will spend eternity before we step across the threshold that separates the living from the dead. And, because of that understanding, we do not “grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13). Tomorrow, the streets of Phnom Penh will again throb with bustling humanity, many of whom will wonder if their prayers had any impact on their restless ancestors. I am thankful for guys like Steve who have planted their lives in difficult places like this in order to help the restless souls of the living find peace in Jesus.

   I am at Incheon International Airport in Seoul, Korea, having just completed two of my four flights to Cambodia. I am traveling alone to meet Kurt Dillinger, the President of Life International, in Singapore. We will meet other friends and a film crew there, and then we’ll fly to Phnom Penh where we will spend several days speaking to national pastors about the sanctity of human life and other related topics. Then we’ll make our way across the country to look at land that has been donated for a pregnancy help center and orphanage. It will take us a full day to drive to the location for the proposed new center and a full day to drive back to Phnom Penh. And then, back on a plane for the long journey home. I will enjoy four restful days at home and then off to Uganda.

   People often ask me if I still enjoy flying, how many frequent flyer miles I have, if I have ever flown first class, and lots of other questions about my travel. My answers are always the same. The thing I enjoy most about flying is meeting people from all over the world. An airplane is a great place to engage the nations. I do have lots of frequent flyer miles on too many airlines. And sometimes, because I purchase really cheap tickets from my consolidator, I am not eligible for frequent flyer miles. I have never flown first class and don’t intend to – that’s a matter of stewardship. Those seats are just too expensive. However, that does not mean that I have not looked enviably at a first or business class seat.

   On this flight across the Pacific, I started thinking about the different forms of transportation I have taken as I have traveled the world. You can’t get from here to there unless you use some form of transportation. So, here is a quick summary of the various forms of transportation I have used in order to get to the other end of the Great Commission.

   Airplanes | Airplanes are the primary way to get from home to anywhere on the planet. I fly on lots of really big planes and occasionally on small planes. I have flown on planes I thought would never get off the ground and on planes that never should have left the ground. I have had more than my share of scary moments in the air.

   Trains | I have been fascinated by trains ever since my Mom and Dad gave me a model train set for Christmas when I was a kid. I have traveled by train across the Gobi Desert, through the Andes Mountains in Peru, and across vast stretches of Ukraine, Bangladesh, and Mexico. Like airplanes, trains are a great place to meet and talk with people.

   Automobiles | I have traveled by taxi cabs in urban areas and wedged myself in to public buses crammed with humanity, animals, and overstuffed-bundles. I have bounced across the African bush in Range Rovers, crossed the frozen steppes of northern Mongolia in an old Russian jeep, nervously inched my way through the foothills of the Himalayas in a vehicle almost the width of the narrow mountain road, and once hired an old bus about to fall off its frame to take my weary team across Bangladesh. All this and more just to reach Macedonians crying out for help (Acts 16:9).

   Boats | I have spent days on a boat on the Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh in order to reach remote Muslim villages – and was robbed along the way. I have taken an old ship across the Bay of Bengal to visit people on a remote island who had not heard about Jesus. I once hired a motor boat to escape another interrogation by local officials in South Asia. That didn’t work — but that’s a story for another blog! I have traveled by ferry boats up and down the Padma River in Bangladesh and reclined on shikara boats in Kashmir.

   Rickshaws | I have profound respect for Asia’s hardworking rickshaw wallas. These guys are scrawny but muscular and can navigate with ease through the most crowded streets. Our missions ministry currently supports an initiative in New Delhi to reach 100,000 rickshaw drivers with the gospel of Jesus Christ by using a creative Bible-storying comic-book. When traveling in Asia, I look for every opportunity to ride rickshaws and to minister to the hard-working guys that power them.

   Horses | On occasion, I have found myself in situations where a horse was the best option for getting from point A to point B. I remember riding a horse across a frozen Mongolian lake in late winter in order to reach the Reindeer (Tsaatan) people. I don’t think I have ever been as cold. At the end of the day I took my boots off and put my frozen feet near the fire. My feet were so cold and I put my feet so close to the fire that I failed to notice that my thermal socks were melting.

   Walking | Finally, I have been in places where walking was the only option. In Pakistan, my friend Lee Pullin and I hiked to a mountain village at the insistence of a man who refused to take no for an answer. It was a month after the 2005 earthquake had claimed almost 80,000 lives. When we finally arrived at his village he took us to the rubble where his home had once stood. He pointed out the place where he and his small son had been buried. And then he asked us to tell the world about what had happened there. He was sure the world had not yet heard because no one had come to help.

   I will arrive in Cambodia at 8:55 AM on Sunday morning. Traveling to far-away places is long, hard, and often challenging and inconvenient. But, that’s ok. Regardless of how we get from where we are to the other end of the Great Commission, we need to get there. The people living in difficult and far-away places deserve an opportunity to hear the good news. So, I hope you will join me in chasing rickshaws – in other words, in venturing to the places where people are still waiting to hear the good news about Jesus Christ.