Southeast Asia 2011 from Megan Hunt Fryling on Vimeo.
(Direct Video Link) vimeo.com/19615372
More to Come
-Tristan
Southeast Asia 2011 from Megan Hunt Fryling on Vimeo.
Today was amazing, filled with thought provoking experiences. After we checked out of our hotel in Siem Reap, we first went to visit a recently constructed well that was partially funded by our contributions. Helping to build wells in poorer neighborhoods is an important part of Pastor Samuel’s ministry in Cambodia, helping to spread the gospel through acts of Christian love. The well only cost $450.00 to construct and will provide multiple families in the neighborhood with clean drinking water for years to come.
After visiting the well, we took the van a little farther out from Siem Reap and caught a boat ride to the “floating village.” The village rests on the river quite a long way from the road with roughly 250 families living there. Residents of the village needed to sell the land they were previously living on to settle various debts, and thus they’ve been forced to build small shacks that float on large bamboo pontoons in the water. Living so far from the road, the villagers are forced to make a meager income fishing and hunting snakes, and have little access to proper schooling and healthcare.
Despite such difficult conditions, many of the folks living in the village would smile and wave as we road by. Christians are quite active in the floating village, ministering to a small but increasing number of families and running a primary school. Near the end of our tour we stopped at a small deck restaurant where Pastor Samuel and another pastor sort of summed up their experience as Christians in Cambodia. The sense of call, dedication and focus in both pastors despite great adversity was both impressive and instructive while thinking about my own call to public ministry. – Dustin
22 January 2011
This trip has been one big whirlwind of a time. Yesterday we went from visiting prison S21 in Phnom Penh to taking a bus across the Cambodian countryside and into Siem Reap after spending only two nights in Phnom Penh.
S21 is the prison where educated and rich Cambodian people were taken to be tortured and detained before they were sent to be murdered at the Killing Fields, which we had visited two nights prior. This conflict was one of which I was totally unaware until coming to Cambodia. I am still not very clear on why it all happened, but what I understand is that the new government in Cambodia was striving for equality for all people and the easiest way to accomplish this was to eliminate the rich and educated folks. Over the course of 4 years, over a million lives, men, women, and children, were destroyed in order to create a just society.
The other day we witnessed the bones and old clothes at the Killing Fields; at the prison today we saw those but also very graphic photographs, the cells where people were detained and tortured, and some of the torture devices actually used on people in that prison. I find that more and more this trip I feel the weight of human sin, something I want so desperately not to be real or to be able to ignore. But I cannot ignore the pictures of real people, emaciated from starvation. I cannot ignore the pictures of dead bodies, bodies that had been abused and broken in order to gain information, and then the people eliminated when they were no longer useful. I cannot ignore the torture devices in that museum along with the paintings on the wall showing how they are used. And I cannot ignore that all these things were done in the effort toward a better Cambodia, in the name of the greater good.
People inflict very horrible acts on other people; I know that in my head, but have not really seen it so blatantly laid out before me or felt it quite so keenly. The worst part about it is that the capability to do these horrible things is within each of us; THAT is the power of sin. It is hard during this trip of visiting war memorials and genocide museums to not get crushed under the weight of that sin; it lays very heavily upon my heart, especially knowing that I am no different from the people who perpetrated the violence. I do not know how non-Christians deal with the tragedies and traumas caused by sin; I imagine I would be adrift in a sea of melancholy and confusion all the time if not for the promises of God to comfort me and make me hope for a better time, a new creation. I am still feeling a bit crushed under the weight of it all, but in writing this blog I am able to work through some of that and remember the joy and hope that God gives. Thanks be to God for the gift of forgiveness and new life!
--Julie Recher
23 January 2011
Today was a lovely break from some of the more heavy aspects of the trip; we got to visit Angkor Wat and many of the surrounding temples, as well as spend some time in the market. Going back to yesterday’s blog and thinking about the different ways people can cope with the weight of human sin, I realize we do not have the monopoly on peace and hope. The temples were sometimes Buddhist, and sometimes Hindu, but whichever they were, they remain to this day places of tranquility and sacred spaces. While these temples were overrun with tourists snapping pictures (like us!), there was still a sense of the sacred for me, a recognition of the time and effort it took to build the temples and carve all of the intricate details to not only share the story visually but to memorialize it, to venerate it. There is holiness in the thought that people came to these temples seeking a connection with the divine for centuries. The stairs and the walkways were well worn from worshipers as well as travelers, and many ways to follow the story throughout the temple buildings. Symbolism abounds; I wish I knew more about it. We are so blessed to be in these places, experiencing history and culture in such a tangible way.
A man pushed a gate open as our van pulled inside the entrance to the Phnom Penh Bible School. There was a brick pavilion on the left that was neatly lined with picnic tables. Bright yellow buildings formed a U shape around a quad —a volleyball net in the center. Each building was open. Instead of walking through a main door to a building and having to navigate the halls from inside, the hallways were outside with the sun reflecting off the tile floors.
As I stepped out of the van into the warm sunlight, I had a flashback to Philadelphia. I pictured trekking across Germantown Avenue in ten feet of snow: my face bundled in a scarf.
And I thought: I can totally transfer here.
We were greeted by Anna: the registrar for the Bible school. We sat at a large wooden table and listened to how Phnom Penh Bible School was the first Bible school to open after the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement on October 23, 1991. This agreement allowed Cambodia to have freedom of religion; therefore, the Phnom Penh Bible School was officially recognized by the government in 1992.
We had the opportunity to sit in on a class that was not spoken in English. We sat in a line in the back of the classroom observing how the teacher and students interacted with one another. The students did not bat an eye as a gecko walked up the yellow wall. There were no laptops, just graph paper that each student wrote notes on.
At first, it thought this classroom couldn’t be any different than LTSP; however, I quickly saw how similar it was. The students and professor laughed together, asked each other questions, and were engaged with one another. They were a community.
We had the opportunity to worship with the students and faculty of the school. The chapel was open as well with birds chirping and flying around the chapel during the service. Two students lead the community in song with the accompaniment of two guitars, a keyboard, and drums.
I did not understand the words, but I appreciated the beauty of the student’s voices. As the second song started to play, I immediately recognized the tune to “How Great Thou Art.” The students and faculty of the Phnom Penh Bible School sang in Khmer, we sang in English. Our voices swirled in unison and starkly contrasted one another beautifully.
After chapel, we had the opportunity to eat with the students. As I sat at a table, I was greeted with a warm smile and quickly started to get to know the girl sitting next to me. We would ask one another questions, often stumbling to understand one another. As we got to know one another, we learned that our live couldn’t be more different.
She was 21. I am 24.
She has six siblings. I am an only child. She commented that my parents must be able to show me a lot of love, while I was amazed by the idea of living with six siblings.
She has a best friend she referred to as her sister. I have a best friend who I refer to as “my BFF.”
She was wearing a long skirt and a long sleeve shirt with gem buttons as I had sweat beads on my forehead even though I was wearing a short sleeve shirt and skirt. She told me how she likes it when it’s warmer, but that was about as warm as I would ever like to be.
She went to church for the first time in order to learn English. I went to church because my Dad took me each week for as long as I can remember.
Her parents do not believe in God, and this is a source of pain for her. It’s a source of tension in her relationship with her parents. She goes home each weekend, and often her parents ask her to stay home rather than going back to Bible school.
However, despite our differences, we were similar. In that moment, we were able to connect with one another and learn from one another.
As I sat down in the van and it started to pull away, I was struck by the beautiful silliness of the world. She and I live on opposite ends of the world, in completely different cultures, and yet we are connected to one another—we can grow together even if it was for that short lunch. - Joanna