I WIll Now Arise November 6, 2009
article and photo by Paula Guest
As I struggle to put ‘Cambodia’ into words, the feelings well up, and the tears flow. How can you describe the horror of genocide, and the resulting devastation?
Where was I in 1975? Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, were being driven out of the city of Phnom Penh at the mercy of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Did I even know?? Did I pay any attention??
Where was I from 1979 – 1999? Just living my life, consumed by my own wants and needs. Did I even care? And all the while a bloody civil war raged. An entire generation of teachers, doctors, bankers – any one who so much as wore glasses – was executed. An equal number were maimed by land mines. Tens of thousands eked out an existence in refugee camps across the border in Thailand. 1999 was just ten years ago. Ten short years of recovery, of trying to regain the soul of a nation.
Is it any wonder people sell their children into s
ex slavery? Human life has very little value. Grinding poverty creates a desperation that we simply cannot fathom. If one child can provide enough money for the others to survive, is it not her ‘duty’ to do it??
Ps 11:5 “Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will protect them from those who malign them.”
God ‘arising.’ How awesome is that?? And ‘arising’ He is. In Cambodia He is ‘arising’ in the human form of Chomno In. Chomno was in the forced march out of Phnom Penh. He was in that civil war. He was in those refugee camps. And it was in the refugee camp that he met Christ in the form of an American doctor.
God burdened Chomno’s heart for the plight of his country and the tragedy of its children. He gave Chomno a vision, and a promise, of a place where children could recover, and women could find a way to earn a living without selling their own bodies, or their children’s.
Chomno moved to Poipet, and began working to make that vision a reality. And so was birthed a dream, the Cambodian Hope Organization. A place where hope begins by meeting the God of the Bible.
It was Northshore’s privilege to be allowed to partner with Chomno in his dream. To make Safe Haven a reality.
And that is why I went back to Cambodia.
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