Three Little Words

It's been just short of a week since we arrived back in Vancouver. It's been a bit rough adjusting to the time change - not sleeping at night and making up for it at the office! It seems so long ago that we were melting in the sticky heat of Cambodia that it almost doesn't seem real. But then I wake up in the middle of the night (wondering where I am), and lie there trying to get back to sleep, the memories come flooding back. Or a picture pops up on my computer, and I remember.
I was asked by someone this week to sum up our experiences in three sentences. Being the non-stop talker that I am, I boiled it down to three words:

Amazing, Heartbreaking and Rewarding.

Amazing - I have not been anwhere like Cambodia before - a country of contrasts - the people of Svay Pak and Phnom Phen, of ARC and Rescue. The sights and smells, the garbage everywhere, the insane traffic, the food. The beauty of the countryside contrasted with the overcrowding of the city. The hot, sticky, humid air and the warm rain showers to the pounding torrential rain. The poverty and (for want of a better word) slums and the grandeur of the mansions, temples and government buildings. It is a beautiful, humbling place. We don't realize just how blessed we are in this country.

Heartbreaking - from the kids of Svay Pak, to the orphans of Rescue, to the girls at ARC, to the boy selling newspapers outside our hotel, to the girl carrying a huge plate of lotus seeds on the riverfront, to the boy dragging himself across the street begging because he can't walk. They are all children of God, but because of circumstances, they will not all have the same future. I got to know the kids of Svay Pak much better than the others. They are just ordinary kids who are looking to have fun, to be loved, to get attention- other than being yelled at or hit.

And yet they are in survival mode. They are 'sharks' - out for what they can get, because this is what they have been taught. This is all that they know. The only way they know how to behave. When a soccer ball that a boy has been given is taken away by an adult because they can make a profit by selling it, or they don't want kids playing in front of their home, or they just want it for their own child - what does that say to him?

Then there are the unspeakable things that happen to them at night. I don't want to believe that the kids I was playing with during the day were the same ones being abused at night - but I know that everyone is for sale in this place. Kids have no value here - except as a product to be sold. And when they no longer can fetch a good price, they are discarded with the rest of the garbage

You can see it in their eyes.
I really noticed it in the pictures. It was rare to capture their happy smiling faces. the eyes gave them away - sad, hard too old for their years. Their childhood has been stolen from them - just like the soccer ball.

Rewarding - Because the old, dark, horrible, evil building has gone!! the cubilcles, the ugly, cheap pink paint, the ceiling, even the nails are all gone. It has been replaced by a bright, open space, that can be used to redeem these kids and maybe give them a brighter future. Give some value and self esteem back to them.
I hope that our being there has left the door open to the kids and people of Svay Pak and that they will see it as a safe, welcoming place that they can go. With people like Clay and Ratna there, I am confident that this is the future of Rahab's House and the reason that God sent us there.

Rewarding because I have seen glimpes of the Kingdom in places like ARC and Place of Rescue and now Rahab's House, where the yeast is starting to spread and will keep spreading until evil has no place left to go. This has given me the proof that God is working to redeem his creation and there is hope for this world - and us.

I would like to thank everyone on the Field Team for making this such a memorable trip. and the Home Team for the support and prayers that made this trip a reality - and of course thanks be to God for giving us this opportunity and allowing me to be a part of it.