Friends International

The best example of inner-city education, welfare, industry, vocational education I saw in Cambodia was Friends International.

Check out this video: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/globalhealth-jan-june12-cambodia_05-09/

Let's stand on the shoulders of others, cooperate (lift them higher as well), and make a spark.

Status update: Thurs pm

Just a status update. This morning we left the hotel at 6:30 am to go to the Phnom Penh International airport for our flight to Bangkok. We are waiting now at thei airport. Each time we travel on the roads of Phnom Penh we marvel at the protecting graces of our guardian angels. Driving in traffic needs its own post, but I find it hard to describe.

All four of us are operating optimally. Daniel is over his fever, and Andrew is completely recovered from an earlier illness.

Today our group split up. About half of the group returns today to America. We are headed to Bangkok for video recording of pastor training.

It is sad to leave Cambodia.

Update Thursday eve: made it safely to BKK, no problems. It has been a joy to visit with Greg, Amy, Tyler and Ryan and to get to meet Ceeda for the first time. Greg and Amy work for Global Mission and live in the BKK Adventist Compound.

We are staying in guest rooms in the Adventist Mission compound, and it is quite safe here.

God is good. Thank you for your prayers. Tomorrow is cultural learning around BKK.

Pray with us for a spark.

Genocide

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/past-present-collide-cambodia/

"It’s now nearly 40 years from the April 17, 1975 morning when the Khmer Rouge Maoist guerrillas marched into Phnom Penh and embarked on a three-year, eight-month and 20-day reign of murder that killed at least 1.7 million Cambodians in a population then numbering 8 million. The country is still struggling to find its feet."

My heart goes out to these people. Anyone as old as I am lived through this time period, and remembers. 40 years is not long enough to really say this genocide was a thing of history.

Every person with glasses -- must be educated -- was murdered. Anyone with a book in their home -- was killed. Anyone with any connection to Christianity -- was systematically eliminated.

Almost a quarter of the entire population of the country was slain in genocide. The Adventist church of Cambodia was exterminated in the mid 1970's. It is very sad to learn about these things.

Lessons that come to mind:

1) Satan will push mankind under his control to great depths of depravity. When a group of people devote themselves to anti-God mentality, Satan then has full control to wield carnage, suffering and death.

2) Man has no goodness on his own. The natural inclination of the heart of man is oppression and cruelty to his fellow man.

3) Having gone through all of this, the people of Cambodia are incredibly kind and courteous. Seeing how sweet the people are makes the genocide even more tragic. I can only imagine it was sheep led to the slaughter.

4) The children are also kind -- the parents have not been so mentally damaged with suffering as to ruin the next generations outlook on life.


My heart goes out to these people. Who will strike a spark for Cambodia?