First Impressions

We had the opportunity to go to Cambodia in August, for the purpose of meeting church leaders and potential partners for our ministry. We feel happy about ministry prospects and feel that the problem won't be finding ministry, but discerning what to do among all the possible ways in which we could serve. We will share as that discernment process happens. It was the first time in Cambodia for both of us. What was our first impression? It is difficult to sort all the sights and sounds and smells of a new country. Let me describe some of the smells. There were cooking spices and herbs (our hotel was called "anise")—obviously we won't suffer for food. There were streets in Phnom Penh that smelled bad—there is a large open waste water canal. It took a few days for me to figure out that behind everything was the smell of incense. Shrines are so ubiquitous that incense suffuses the air even of a burgeoning city like Phnom Penh. We did not go out in the streets once without seeing the saffron robes of the monks. The most striking and ornate buildings are the temples and pagodas. These are every where too. People come from all over the world to see them. Interestingly, of the few Khmer words that we learned, two of them might be translated sacred or holy. The sense of the sacred seems to suffuse the language. What is sacred? Mostly it seems to be places. We took our shoes off a lot. Juxtaposed to these impressions, my most difficult moment was at Choeung Ek, the Killing field that we visited a short distance outside of the city. Over 8,000 bodies have been excavated from mass graves at that particular site: including children and young people, women and men (there are more that haven't been excavated). It's hard to gather one's thoughts in such a place. There is a shrine of skulls. What got to me the most though was that, as we walked among the open pits, we were stepping on clothes that were coming up from the ground. I felt like it was such an indignity for those who had been buried there, a violation on top of all the dehumanizing that had happened to them. When it comes to the sacred, it's everywhere, but people don't seem to be included. The regime of the Khmer Rouge was intent on eradicating every vestige of human dignity. As I learn more about the history of Cambodia, I wonder whether the culture ever gave people the sense that they are in the image of God and therefore imbued with basic dignity and worth. Could the average person, working in his field, ever feel the holiness of his calling, think of himself as a temple of the Living God? Of course, these are first impressions. People and places are always more complex than they first seem. We do hope, however, that as we bring the gospel, people may find dignity in that they are made in the image of God, rejoice that God considers them worthy of giving his Son for their salvation, and live their lives as vessels of Christ. - Joyce (see the related photo on the side bar)