The Brokenness Of Cambodia, And The Hope That's Set Before It

I’ve been learning a little about my outreach country. Cambodia suffered greatly from a genocide that took place during 1975 – 1979. The Khmer Rouge, followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, attempted to rebuild the country's agriculture on the model of the 11th century. They discarded Western medicine, destroyed temples, libraries, and anything considered Western. My team watched a movie called The Killing Fields, which gave some insight on what these people went through. The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime during its rule of the country. People were sent to work sites, which were similar to concentration camps. The Khmer Rouge killed anyone considered intellectual – doctors, lawyers, teachers, students, even people who just wore glasses. Approximately 2 million Cambodians died from executions, overwork, starvation, and disease. During this time The Khmer Rouge wanted to take land from Vietnam, so Cambodia was in war with Vietnam. The Khmer Rouge recruited a lot of children, brainwashed them, and made them kill innocent people. This genocide happened only 30 years ago so many of those children are living in Cambodia today. They suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. They were trained to believe that life has no value. Many of them lost family members in the genocide. Cambodia is still in the process of getting back on its feet. It has had to start from ground zero because most everything was destroyed in the genocide and attacks from Vietnam.

Cambodia also has a lot of child trafficking and sexual exploitation. Children as young as 5 years old are sold into prostitution. Many Cambodians think of children as having no value. Some parents purposefully sell their children in order to get money, and some let their children go with people who offer them jobs in places such as restaurants, only to find that it is into trafficking. Many girls sell themselves and think that it’s ok to sacrifice their self in order to provide for their family. Some of the girls who are rescued and in rehab centers are even bitter that they were taken away from their brothels because their families will starve without the income they provide. Some run away and go back to prostitution.

As bleak as this information sounds, there is so much hope for Cambodia. Christians have been making an impact there. Cambodians are eager to be taught English and are open to hearing what we have to say.

            I’m going to be visiting these girls who were sex trafficked, and these people with broken lives who were affected by the genocide. Please, please pray for my team and the broken lives we will be encountering. Pray that we will bring hope and that they will see Jesus, and that Cambodia will experience restoration. Intercession for the Cambodian people is desperately needed.

There’s a stirring in your soul that cannot be controlled.

This is the hope that lies in you.

We can hear the sound of all the earth rejoice,

with angels all around - lifting up their voice.

Where are you hopeful ones? Have we come undone?

Come down - we need Your hope to come down.

We need Your grace to pour out. We need the face of God now.

-The Hope That Lies In You by The Glorious Unseen