Some Photos for "Trying to Be a Christian"

These photos will follow the previous blog post, providing some visual context for the places I described.  I would say, "enjoy," but there is nothing enjoyable here until the last few.

The first stop along the Killing Field audio tour.

These palm leaves have a rigid edge described as a row of shark teeth.  Bullets were too expensive for the mass executions, so sometimes these branches were used to cut throats.  Most victims, however, were killed with blunt objects or farming tools.

This stupa was constructed to house human skulls excavated from the sight.  At the killing fields like this one there are an estimated 1.7-2.5 million victims.  This stupa houses 8,000 skulls, displayed like this:

After the killing fields we visited the infamous S21, the prison where victims were tortured into confession, and then sentenced to death, driven to the nearby killing field, and summarily slaughtered.  There were transcripts displayed of interviews from countless men, women, and children, many of which included statements like, "I have no idea what I did wrong."

And then our day experienced a blessed and drastic change.  We traveled by tuk tuk to Svay Pak and visited AIM, a ministry focused on rescuing young girls from the sex trade.  For security reasons I could not take photos of the girls themselves, but I think you'll get a feel for the liberating power of the Gospel at work in this community.

In what appears to Western eyes to be a slum, AIM is revitalizing an entire community.  Most, if not all of the buildings you see here were formerly brothels, now housing a vocational school, kickboxing studio, elementary school, church, and a pastor's home.

From the roof of the main building we can see a safe house for several teenage girls.  The inside is beautiful and clean, and has a computer lab, library, kitchen, and counseling room.  A year ago it was a brothel.

Also from the roof we see the kickboxing gym.  Pimps are trained here.  Try this for innovation - they are getting pimps off the street by teaching them how to fight.  Several men (boys) in this project have advanced to become professional fighters, giving them income and prestige that will get them out of the sex-trade.  Many of them are coming to Christ.

A street view of the studio.  Don't mess with those Cambodians!

A Christian CEO of a Chinese company has partnered with AIM to put in a factory.  Right now about 50 girls are making t-shirts in the room above.  Soon there will be 250 filling this entire place.  Many of these employees have not been a part of the sex-trade, but the problem is systemic, not isolated.  By offering good jobs the community begins to transform.  This is just one peace of the really big puzzle.

The upstairs room of the factory.  To our right (outside the picture) are the girls busily turning that pile of material into t-shirts.  Behind the material are sewing machines waiting for new hires.

 This building was featured in the film, The Pink Room.  The upstairs specialized in "virgin sales," meaning prepubescent children.  After a police raid the "Pink Room" became the original building of AIM, turned church (as AIM expanded), and is now the Cambodian pastor's home.  If you look closely you will see kids toys, flip-flops, and grandma sleeping on a mat. 

This is where the girls receive vocational training that will prepare for work in factories, like the one above, or other employment.  They are given computer skills, language training, and trade skills, predominately sewing and silk screening.  Beyond training, they are paid for their work, given a free lunch, free day care, and their language training and a Bible study are considered part of their paid work day.

Companies in the states contract for clothing like this.

I can't give you a face, but when you pray, think of the girl with the pony tail.  There are many, many more like her who need to hear some Good News.  From the preschoolers in the kids program (which was way to vibrant to find a faceless picture to take), to the pony-tailed girls on sewing machines, to the former pimps studying Muay Thai, to the community church at the center of it all, Jesus is changing lives in Svay Pak.

One of the missionaries hard at work.  Pray for these guys who see the darkness every day.  One of them showed me a display of photos of little girls in the community who are stuck in the trade and they can't get them out... yet.