Go Beyond

   Our visit to the Choeung Ek execution site on Monday afternoon was a sobering experience. I wept as I lay in bed that night, feeling a bit overwhelmed by all that I had seen. What I found even more disturbing is the fact that Choeung Ek is just one of many killing fields in Cambodia. Almost two million people lost their lives in the span of a few years because a few people in positions of power had lost their minds. Pol Pot and his lieutenants turned Cambodia into a nightmare – a living hell. Whatever visions of grandeur Pol Pot and his cadres had, they were not realized. When Pol Pot mysteriously died on April 15, 1998, his lifeless remains were hastily cremated atop a heap of old tires and rubbish – a fitting end. Only eight people were in attendance at this ignoble occasion in a small village in the district of Anlong Veng.

   On Tuesday morning we drove past the darkness of Choeung Ek toward the province of Takeo near the Vietnam border. When we finally turned off the main highway, we bounced along a rutted dirt road until we arrived at the village of Trapang Sdok. Almost four-hundred people had come from the surrounding villages to hear a message of life and hope in Jesus Christ. Unlike the signs of death I had seen at Choeung Ek, I saw signs of life everywhere at Trapang Sdok.

   When we visited Choeung Ek we were greeted by 8,000 human skulls, evidence of lives forever silenced by the Khmer Rouge. However, when we arrived at Trapang Sdok, we were greeted by almost four-hundred smiling faces, people enjoying one another’s company under the shade of colorful awnings. Friends and neighbors from this and other nearby villages had assembled without fear to worship the living God – something Pol Pot had tried to end. They treated us with respect and kindness and listened attentively as Barnabas and I preached the gospel. Sixty-three of those present that morning placed their faith in Jesus Christ. The expression of joy on their faces was priceless.

   When we visited Choeung Ek, we saw the Magic Tree, the place where the Khmer Rouge had mounted speakers to play loud music in an attempt to drown out the cries of those being brutally murdered. At Trapang Sdok, the speakers mounted under a lush canopy of shade trees played hymns and choruses and spiritual songs of praise to God. Those assembled joyously sang at the top of their lungs. My heart was warmed as I listened to and savored the beautiful sounds of life.

   When we visited Choeung Ek, we saw the Killing Tree, the place where the Khmer Rouge saved their bullets by dashing innocent children against the trunk of the tree. At Trapang Sdok, children played and laughed together. At Choeung Ek, children were torn from the arms of their mothers. At Trapang Sdok, mothers held their children in tender embraces. One mother and father brought their new baby girl and asked that Barnabas and I pray for her. We prayed that this child would grow up in a Cambodia free from the kind of fear that the previous generation had known, and that she would have an opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

   I am encouraged by what I have witnessed in Cambodia over the past week. The kingdom of God is advancing and bringing new life to the places where the Khmer Rouge once sowed death. In the parables of the kingdom recorded in Matthew 13, Jesus likened the kingdom of God to a mustard seed – something very small that grows into something very large (Matt. 13:31-32). The kingdom of God in Cambodia appears to be as small as a mustard seed, but it is beginning to grow. The signs of life are everywhere. Please pray for the Christ-followers in Cambodia as they sow the seeds of life that will one day result in a great harvest for the kingdom of God.

   After speaking at Phnom Penh Prison on Monday, we carved out some time to visit Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, located south of Phnom Penh. This bloody piece of real estate served as the extermination camp for Security Office 21 — the high school turned into a torture campus by the Khmer Rouge. Those who had already been detained and tortured at S-21 were transported by trucks to this killing field. Deceived into thinking that they were being transported to new quarters, these unfortunate souls were blind-folded and made to kneel in front of one of the 129 mass graves at the site. Then, they were bludgeoned and thrown into the pit where Pol Pot’s soldiers cut their throats.

   Although Choeung Ek is now a peaceful and quiet place, the signs of death are everywhere. After all, almost 20,000 people were executed at this site. The most prominent building at the site is the Memorial Stupa, which was erected in 1988. More than 8,000 human skulls are arranged behind the glass panels of the building. Many of the skulls bear the visible marks of blunt-force trauma. These are the skulls of men, women, and children who knew nothing but pain and fear in their finals days. What crimes had they committed? The Khmer Rouge needed little excuse to kill. My friend Barnabas told us that one of his sisters was killed because she had kept a few sweet potatoes she had grown in her own back yard. Another sister was killed because she showed too much emotion when she sought permission to visit family members in another town. I can only imagine what senseless reasons resulted in the deaths of those buried in Choeung Ek’s communal graves.

   Three signs in particular caught my attention at Choeung Ek. The first sign marked mass grave number 7 and said, “Mass Grave of 166 Victims without Heads.” These victims were among the 8,000 whose skulls were found separated from their bodies. I wonder about the individuals who were responsible for butchering these people and how they could possibly sleep at night and how they learned to live with what they had done to their own people. Unlike Hitler who killed the Jews, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge killed their own people. Barnabas related the account of one of these butchers who became a Christ-follower later in life. When asked what regrets he had about the killing fields he replied that he only had two. First, that he had killed so many. Second, that he did not know Jesus at the time. He said that he could not have possibly murdered others had he known and followed Jesus at the time of the killing fields.

   The second sign that caught my attention was positioned in front of a tree and read (exact text and spelling): “Magic Tree — The tree was used as a tool to hang loudspeaker which make sound louder to avoid the moan of victims while they were being executed.” It’s interesting how sinful people always try to drown out the sound of their sin – or cover it up. Yet, no matter how loud the noise, it’s never loud enough to drown out the cries of the afflicted. The Bible reminds us that God hears the cries of the afflicted and will call their oppressors into account (Ps. 10:12-18). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.said, “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Someone else said that the wheels of God’s justice may move slowly, but when they come they grind finely. No one commits atrocities like these with impunity.

   The third sign that caught my attention was the saddest of all. This sign was also posted in front of a tree. The sobering words written on the sign said: “Killing Tree Against Which Executioners Beat Children.” Ammunition was more precious to the Khmer Rouge than the lives of children. Pol Pot’s henchmen took small children from their mothers, swung them by their feet and smashed them against the killing tree, and then tossed their lifeless remains into the adjacent mass grave. The sign that marked that grave noted: “Mass Grave of More than 100 Victims | Children and Women Whose Majority Were Naked.” Throughout the world today, the unborn, children, and the weak are still being smashed against the killing trees.

   Among other things, S-21 and the Choeung Ek killing field remind us that what we believe matters. Pol Pot’s worldview devalued human life and two-million people died as a result. Christ-followers and the church must not take a neutral or passive stand on matters of injustice. We must take sides. We must side with life against death and with justice against oppression. We cannot just say we are passionate about matters of injustice and do nothing. Passion must lead to action on behalf of the weak and oppressed. Anything less is a betrayal of our Christian worldview.

We left the relative comfort of our hotel early this morning and plunged into the river of morning traffic to travel to Phnom Penh Prison. This local prison is one of twenty-one Cambodian prisons that house fifteen-thousand inmates. A young man invited us to meet with a group of inmates, all of whom have found freedom in Christ since their incarceration. These Christian inmates are allowed to meet for worship every Monday.

Today, I had the special privilege of sharing a message from God’s Word with them. Barnabas served as my interpreter – one of the best I have ever had on any of my travels. We spoke as one. I shared a message of encouragement and reminded these Christ-followers that God will perfect the good work that He has started in them. Afterwards we sang hymns together and then enjoyed a delicious snack.

And now, a little background on how this particular worship and Bible study group was started. In 1998, our host was involved in a kidnapping. He ran from the law for two-years. During that period he lived out of the country and eked out a living as a rickshaw driver in Thailand. However, he constantly looked over his shoulder, fearful that he would be found out and sent back to Cambodia. “I had no peace,” he told us.

In February 1999, he met a Korean missionary who led him to faith in Christ. This young man became a deeply devoted follower of Christ and went to Singapore to study the Scriptures for a year. However, he still could not escape the feelings of guilt for his crime. Finally, he returned to Cambodia and turned himself in to the authorities. He was arrested, tried, and sentenced to fifteen years.

While in prison, an American missionary visited this young man and assured him that he had done the right thing. He encouraged him to cling to the promise of Romans 8:28 — “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

At the time he did not understand how God could use a fifteen-year sentence for good. However, within a short period, the young man received permission to begin a Bible study, the first Bible study ever held in any Cambodian prison. God blessed his initiative as many of his fellow inmates came to faith in Christ.

After seven years, prison officials asked the King of Cambodia to grant the young man a pardon because of his exceptional behavior. They added that he had also contributed to making the prison a better place by leading inmates to follow Christ. The King of Cambodia granted the received.

Today, this young man continues to reach out to prisoners at Phnom Penh Prison. On Mondays the Christian inmates worship together. On Tuesday they have Bible study that focuses on discipleship. On Wednesday, he leads English classes and a computer lab for these inmates. Thursday is music day and Friday is devoted to literacy classes for inmates who cannot read or write.

Several of the men he has worked with have been transferred to other prisons throughout Cambodia. These men have successfully started Bible studies in their respective prisons. God continues to send these young disciples to other prisons with the life-changing good news of Jesus Christ. As a result – these inmates are redefining what it means to do life in prison.

   I have never forgotten a particular discussion we had in seminary when we studied the story of the woman caught in adultery. This story is recorded in the eighth chapter of John’s Gospel and, among other things, illustrates how sinners tend to treat other sinners. Our professor remarked that he would rather be a sinner in the hands of an angry God than a sinner in the hands of an angry sinner. The more I thought about his remark the more I agreed with him. The history of human atrocities certainly illustrates the truth of his conclusion. Angry sinners have the capacity to act without regard to any governing constraints. God’s actions are always consistent with His character and tempered by mercy and grace.

   This afternoon we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh. Once known as S-21, or Security Office 21, this terrible place was created on Pol Pot’s orders in April 1975. The buildings originally housed a high school and were a place of learning, the very thing Pol Pot feared, hated, and sought to destroy. The Khmer Rouge turned this place of learning into a horrific center for the detention, interrogation, torture, and murder of those deemed to be a threat to Pol Pot’s regime. Although the lives of thousands of men, women, and children were forever silenced here, they still speak and have a voice through this museum.

   The Khmer Rouge carefully documented every person who was brought to this center. Each prisoner was photographed, and in many cases, photographed again after being tortured and killed. They unwittingly left the world a bloody record of their inhumanity. As we walked through each room and looked at the cells and the torture devices, we also looked at the rows upon rows of photographs that captured the frightened and dazed looks of the people who died here. Even children were not an exception to the brutality. Instead of wasting bullets on babies and children, the Khmer Rouge soldiers found it easier to dash their small bodies against the compound walls or trees. This is the ultimate result of a world view void of any belief in God and without any regard for the sanctity of human life.

   Our friend Barnabas, a survivor of another of Pol Pot’s prisons, was an excellent guide. His insight was born out of personal experience. And, while walking through the rooms, we met another of the handful of survivors of S-21. He was 48 years-old at the time of his imprisonment here and showed us his photograph which is on display in one of the torture rooms. He told us that he comes to S-21 every weekend to talk to the visitors who come here from around the world. He wants for the world to know what happened here in the hope that it will never be repeated in Cambodia or elsewhere.

   Visiting S-21 is a sobering experience. The photography on display in each room is unedited, raw, and very graphic. There are human skulls and fragments of jaws piled up behind glass cases in one room. One survivor who is an artist painted the scenes on display in the building where prisoners were tortured. They depict babies being taken from mothers and prisoners being painfully tortured. Each painting tells a horrible tale of how thousands of people spent their final days in agonizing pain. S-21 is a monument to what happens when people find themselves in the hands of angry sinners. May we never forget what happened here and in other places where genocide has left its bloody signature. And, may we live with awareness and act with intention on behalf of those suffering similar atrocities today at the hands of angry sinners.

   We left Siem Reap early this morning. After a quick breakfast, we loaded our bags into our Mitsubishi transport and made our way to Highway 6. As we slowly bisected the green fields toward the southeast, Barnabas shared a little more of his story about how he lost his father and six siblings, all Buddhists, to Pol Pot’s killing fields. Barnabas, who was the only Christian in his family, gives God the credit for sustaining and helping him to survive two brutal years of imprisonment. I hope to write more about his inspiring story later.

   Soon after entering Kompong Thom province, we met our escort who led us down the erosion-scarred back-roads to the village of Skun. When we arrived, Pisat, a slender and strong woman, approached our vehicle. Piseth had served as a commander in the Peoples Republic of Kampuchea army, which is now a part of the Royal Khmer Army. She is a Christ-follower who had heard about Barnabas’ church-planting initiatives. She enrolled in Barnabas’ training course for church-planters and has since used her administrative gifts to plant three churches. Pisat is committed to planting churches among Cambodia’s twenty-eight unreached people groups. She does not pastor these churches but instead gives oversight to their work. God recently led her to plant a church among the Kuay people who live in and around the village of Skun. This growing church is in the process of constructing a building that will also serve as a Christian school.

   Piseth did an excellent job of preparing for our arrival. Since Malcolm and I are westerners, she had to arrange for policemen to be present to provide for our security. She also had encouraged the members of the Skun church to invite their families, friends, and neighbors to attend our meeting. And, they did! People from other villages in the area had walked several kilometers to Skun to hear the gospel. When we arrived the people were sitting patiently under awnings flapping gently up and down in the breeze. As we approached, they welcomed us with applause. Barnabas invited me to preach the first message and then he followed-up with the second. At the end of the morning 152 of those present had placed their faith in Christ for salvation.

   Piseth and her team of church-planting pastors interviewed those who professed faith in Christ and noted their home villages. Several village leaders were in attendance and asked that someone plant a church in their villages. The immediate plan is to start new churches in two of the villages that had large numbers of people profess faith in Christ. Piseth wasted no time in talking with the village leaders about the next steps. She and her team have already assigned responsibility to those who will start these new works.

   Before we left Skun, a mother holding her infant daughter approached us. The two-month old girl named Huat was laboring to breathe. Her mother said that her child’s breathing has not been normal since birth. It hurt just to hear Huat struggle to draw a breath. The people of Skun are far from medical care, so the mother asked that we pray for her daughter, which we did. We took the time to talk with the mother and to pray for her baby girl. When I assured her that I would ask the people of Kingsland and other Christ-followers to pray for Huat, peace chased away the anxious look on her face.

   We spent the afternoon in the village of Tnal Bek where I had the privilege of speaking to a gathering of pastors from throughout Kompong Thom province. We met under a tin-roofed shed that serves as the building for the church there. I love meetings like this because they remind me of how vast the kingdom of God is. The kingdom of God is advancing in remote places because of the commitment, faithfulness, and determination of people like those assembled at Tnal Bek. Jesus said that “the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Matt. 13:33). God’s work is growing here through the leavening work of transformed lives – as one transformed life touches another and then those in turn touch others and so on. I am encouraged to learn about and to see how God’s kingdom is growing in Cambodia one person and one village church at a time.

   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.