Day 9 - Tim

It seems to me very difficult to avoid one's genetics, even as Christians, at least that's my own experience. We repeat so easily the sins of our fathers (and mothers - sorry, perhaps not the best day to point that out is it?). What about Cambodia's genetics? Can this country escape the relentless cycle in at least the last 2 centuries of invasion by either Thailand or Vietnam preceded or followed by vicious civil wars, even a world-unique intraethnic group Khmer-on-Khmer genocide? Can it escape its authoritarian, might-is-right culture of ingrained immaturity backed by a karmic Buddhism which reinforces the attitude "looking out for number one"? Who knows? It might not even be our business to ask the question. All we know in our weakness and ignorance is that we've been asked to do a job here, and we're trying to do it with all our might. Whether it makes any difference after we leave is, let's face it, entirely up to Him. It's up to Him to cause there to be joy and the conviction that death has already been conquered in the most achingly sad eyes I have ever seen in the old women at Rescue who lost all their children under Pol Pot - and that they will see their kids again. And it's up to Him to turn the unspeakable crime of the very existence of Svay Pak around. This is our common prayer. It's all we've got, and it's enough.