SE Asia Trip

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.