Phnom Penh Photo Guide

 These photos are in no apparent order, much like the driving.  Enjoy.

Typical power line configuration.

Some random white guy.

One of the difficult things for our Western minds is the stark contrast between the rich and the poor.  In the middle of all this poverty stands the Royal Palace with it's lavish buildings, rich lawns, and modern comforts. 

It's hard to see, but lady on the bike has an IV bag in one hand, and a baby in the other.

Full load.

Our tuk tuk driver's home.

Some of the prisoners at S21.

Street side view of the neighborhood where AIM is located.

The geckos were out in force.

The view from our hotel room.

Potatoes or some other root vegetable.

The government buildings are another example of the rich/poor divide.

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.

Trying to Be a Christian

Revelation 6:4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword. 

Today we visited the "Killing Fields."  The cruelty humanity is capable of is nothing new.  The first brother in human history committed fratricide.  Never-the-less, the chilling reality of who we really are sinks much more deeply when seeing the sights first hand, be they on American, European, Asian, or, I would imagine, African soil.  Pol Pot's genocide is one of many stories that could be told, and need to be told, if we are to understand who we humans are beneath our veneer of PBS styled philanthropy.

I don't put much stock in dreams.  They are easily influenced by Pizza and whatever we watched on T.V. before bed.  But, I had a dream last night in which I was asked a brilliant question.  I only mention it because the question was profound, regardless its source.  In this dream a lady asked me, "are you trying to be a Christian?"  That was her witty way of letting me know that she knew that Christianity is far from a simple vocalized profession.  I answered, "yes, I am."  She responded with a sincere, "why?"  I told her something that became very real to me while working with skeptics in Germany (and then I woke up).  That is, only the Christian story offers both an honest recognition of the evil in the world, and a plausible solution.  Every other philosophy, world-view, religion, or whatever you want to call it deals with one or the other, but essential Christianity presents both.  I am trying to be a Christian because Cambodia, Germany, Rwanda, Burma, and the U.S.A. need bold faced honesty about evil, and be offered a solution that is brazen enough to make a difference.

Which brings us to Revelation 6:4.  I grew up under the teaching that Revelation, in its entirety, has yet to be fulfilled.  Since then I have learned of other interpretations that allow for a partial fulfillment throughout human history.  Any way you slice it, Revelation 6:4 has a lot to say about us.  Notice, this second horse of the apocalypse did not kill anyone, or cause anyone to be killed.  Rather, he "took peace from the earth."  It is as if peace is a sustaining force for our good, a blanket that inhibits our natural, violent tendencies.  Once that blanket is removed we humans do what is our natural instinct, post-fall, and we "slay one another."  Pol Pot.  Hitler.  Burma.  Rwanda.  9-11.  The evening news.  Every now and then the curtain is pulled back and our fangs come out.  This is who we are.  

Now, a generation after grass covered the graves of the Killing Fields, Cambodia leads the world in the pre-pubescent sex-trade.  It is bad enough that Cambodians slaughtered Cambodians in the 70's under a psychopath's rule.  Now Cambodians are selling their preschool sons and daughters to demented Westerners for a few bucks a night.  The sustaining curtain of peace is pulled back.  Fallen men rape, torture, and kill their fellow man.  The red horse of the apocalypse marches on, while we sit at home, insulated from the horror much of the world wakes up to every morning.

But not everyone stays home.  We spent our afternoon today at a mission that has taken this seriously.  They have been brutally honest with themselves about the evil in our hearts and have decided to try to be Christians.  They have left all and followed Jesus, and He led them to Cambodia.  They are rescuing children and women from the sex-trade.  They are helping pimps find more noble forms of employment.  They are training parents how and why to value their children beyond the few dollars a night they can sell themselves for.  They are working with authorities to prosecute the perverts who prey on the vulnerable.  And they are doing it all in the name and the power of Jesus Christ.  

Why am I trying to be a Christian?  Because Jesus came and died because evil is real.  Because, though there is more work to be done that what I can do alone, it is other followers of Jesus who are trying to do it.  Because it takes a heart-change to convince a pimp to find other work, and Jesus is in heart-changing business.  Because I've seen a whole lot of evil in the world, and only one solution beefy enough to make an actual difference.  Why are you trying to be a Christian?

Initial Thoughts on Cambodia

I arrived in Cambodia this morning.  What a roller-coaster of experiences this will prove to be!  My first impression is that if the Cambodian writing on signs and awnings were substituted for Spanish this could be any number of Latin American cities I have seen.  I suspect the same could be said of Africa, but I haven't been there (yet).  I intend to post more later, but I'll briefly share some of my early experiences with you.

A snack during my brief layover in the Tokyo airport.  The bottle of soy sauce reminds me the tabasco sauce they put in MRE's.

A European inspired, in-flight breakfast on AirBangkok this morning.

In-flight entertainment.  Can you name the show?

We are staying in a plush, 4-star hotel for less than the cost of a Motel 6 in the states.  These shacks along the river are the view from our window.  Wrap you brain around this: more people in the world live like this...

than like this.  In other words, the houses above are normal.  Yours isn't.

The drive here.  We survived!

This evening we will meet with a missionary working in the area, and tomorrow we'll get a tour of his mission organization.  We will also get a tour of the Killing Fields.  We are surrounded by spiritual and economic poverty.  Pray that we can be a light in the brief time we are here.  Pray that we can be as gracious towards our hosts as they are towards us.

Unexpected Blessings

Out of the blue some friends from home Facebooked me on their drive from Switzerland to Frankfurt.  They drove out of their way to Landstuhl, and we were able to spend some time together.  Juli's ancestors are from nearby Otterberg, so we spent most of the evening there.  We found the Cathedral that was originally Catholic but turned Lutheran with the Reformation.  Eventually, the Catholics and Lutherans agreed to share the building.  It took many years to iron out the details, but in time they found harmony and it is still shared to this day.  That kind of cooperation is virtually unheard of in our age, let alone ca. 18th century when the preferred method of theological compromise involved the wrack.

If you know me, you know that I firmly believe in theological conviction.  I hope you also know that I firmly believe in civil conversation, even constructive debate.  The differences between theological camps are significant enough they should not be overlooked in the name of unity.  We need to wrestle through the tough issues of justification, election, communion, and so on.  If the Reformation taught us anything, it is that Truth is worth dying for.  But, we need to hold these convictions with the Spirit of Christ seeking harmony when unified melody is simply not possible.  If you know the Jarvis family, you know that this ancestral spirit of peaceful cooperation has survived the generations and geography separating them from this Cathedral where it all began.  If you know them, you'll also know that Chris had equipment suitable for photographing Otterberg in the low light, so check out his Facebook page, or Juli's blog for more pictures and stories coming soon (I'm pretty sure).

Dinner, where Juli strategically positioned herself in view of the Cathedral.

Juli and Chris in my office at 2:00 AM.  Never a dull moment around here!

Saarburg

We took some of the guys to Saarbug today, located close to the French border.  We started with a tour of a castle followed by another fabulous meal.  The restaurant was part of what I called a European food court.  A small river runs through the center and tumbles over small waterfall.  Both sides are lined with restaurants and tables and awnings outside.  It was so cool to watch these guys, some limping, some with an arm in a sling, some with invisible wounds, but everyone of them looked like kids in a candy store.  OK, maybe I did too.

The view of Saarbug from the castle tower.

After some free time we headed over to a stainless steel tobogan run.  The first time down the guys were pretty macho and played along just because it was expected.  The second time down they were giddy.  Check out these battle hardened soldiers pushing past the little kids waiting for the same ride.  No, I'm not kidding.

Today I went to Kirche...

This morning I walked down to the Protestant Church (Kirche) in Landstuhl.  The steeple in the picture below adorns the beautiful building.

 I got there at 10:00, and saw that the service started at 9:30.  Given my Baptist heritage I assumed I missed the hymns and got there in time for the preaching.  Not that it mattered, the whole service was in German anyway.  I went on in and slipped quietly into the back pew.

 This sanctuary could easily seat 200+.  To my left were two young ladies and a group of elderly folks numbering roughly what you see in the picture above.  They sang a hymn, the pastor stood and I assume prayed (again, it's all in German), and then walked out.  It was now 10:05 and church was over.  So...

I walked down a block to the cafe and enjoyed this cup of coffee.  I wish the picture did justice to the setting.  It was a beautiful sunny morning, about 70 degrees.  At 10:20 the bells from both the Protestant and Catholic church started ringing.  Apparently the Ecumenical movement has brought some harmony to the German churches, because the bells were tuned to each other.  The tones resonated through the streets, bouncing off the stone buildings.  I posted a video below, but in person it was much easier on the ears.

I did some reading, thinking, and relaxing.  Not a typical Sunday morning for a preacher, but I'll take it.