Room 9

Marty's Daily Diary #12

Yesterday was a transformational day at Rahab's House. The walls got there first coat of yellow and just like that the place became a whole new buidling. Well, almost.

This morning I walked in and the place looked fantastic - almost.

OK, so what am I getting at? Last Monday Rahab's House had 9 small cubicle rooms, 2 cistern rooms, a front room where 'deals' where made and a kitchen. 3 days later the majority of that had been removed, leaving only the two cistern rooms and "room 9."

Room 9 is still standing. It is going to be a 'museum' room. As such we haven't touched it. It is about 6 feet square with a wooden bed still in it and an old light fixture hanging on one wall. Remnants of posters and pictures are still attached to the disgusting pink paint and there are a few scribblings on the wall. One of which is the face of a little girl. Who is she I wonder?

Everything else around 'room 9' is newly painted. It doesn't resemble what it once was at all. But 'room 9' does! I stood gazing in to that room this morning and all I could think about was, how on earth anybody would want to have sex in that room, let alone pay for it?

One of the things that I have discovered whilst being here is that seeing these places and the village of Svay Pak on photographs is nothing compared to experiencing it for yourself. As such my friends and family back home will never really get a true reality of the horror of 'room 9.' So I want you to imagine a derelict house which has a small room that no-one has entered for a long time. The place smells and is dimly lit, if at all. The bed sheets on the bed in the room have not been washed for a considerable time and so you need to get that smell of fabric softener out of your noses and replace it with filthy dirty moldy clothes. Oh, and most importantly, the walls are painted pink! Now, in your wildest imagination, would you take your loved one in to that room for anything let alone to become one flesh?

So the people that have gone in to 'room 9' must be very weird people? They must be wired differently from me? They must be, and moreover look like, evil? Right? Well, in the past 2 weeks we have seen a few folks, both in Svay Pak and in our hotel lobby that, the chances are, they are not simply sightseeing. Today, one such person was sitting two doors up from Rahab's House, smiling, and then he rode of, down one of the little alleys in the village, on his motto. I wonder where he was going? And, all these guys look just like me. (Not literally, but you know what I mean.)

They don't look any different from me. I could be mistaken as one of these people. That's why, in preparation for this mission, our team discussed a lot about how to act in the eyes of the locals here to ensure that we can never be mistaken as being on the search for anything except some good food and a cold beer.

So what is different then? I need someone to help me here. I have read the stories of Hitler and WWII. I know a little, and have lived a little of the history of my own country, Northern Ireland. But I still don't understand the evil in these people. What makes someone do something deprived, inhumane, manipulative, immoral, wicked? What makes someone rob a child of their innocence for 'pleasure' in 'room 9?'

Whatever 'it' is - 'it' happens. Rahab's House and other places are evidence of that. But Rahab's House is more. Rahab's House is evidence that evil does not have the victory. 'Room 9' is surrounded by new life, the glow of God's grace and moreover love. 'Room 9' is nothing more than a museum. It is looking back, but Rahab's House is looking forward and by God's grace, the future of Svay Pak will not include 'room 9s' anymore.

May it be so Lord, may it be so.

Marty