Our first activity Friday was attending the building dedication ceremony for the Pursat orphanage. We were all suprised at grandeur of the event as the provincial governor was an honored guest, along with a few other government officials. The governor, who is not Christian, shared a mini-biography about his life that was pretty inspirational. He too was an orphan whose parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge. He encouraged all the orphans at the ceremony that anything is possible for them as well. The governor also shared that he was amazed that coming from such a business-oriented profession, that the people of our church would just give money to build an orphanage all the way across the world. Who would have thought that the orphanage itself would be a witnessing tool to others in the community, especially the provincial governor?
The next item on our agenda was to meet with Yeng from Chab Dai to learn more about sex trafficking. Instead, we were asked to drop off some people at the Kompong Chhnang orphanage since they were on our way back to Phnom Penh. The drop-off turned into a mini-visit and we were all worried about the time since we had to get back to meet with Yeng. I'm really glad that we stopped there because Boeurn showed us these wells that were dug a couple years ago. At first there was no water and the orphanage did not have water to shower, drink, or cook, so they just prayed. After several days, water appeared. We were all amazed at the faith they had to simply leave up it to God to provide such a basic necessity to live. Later I spoke with one of the orphanage parents and asked some questions about the orphans, which he told me all of their parents died of HIV. I didn't know HIV was so prevalent here, which is really sad because it shows how prevalent the trafficking and prostitution industry is.
Our last stop was our visit to Svay Pak, a small village 30 minutes outside Phnom Penh, that is well-known for using children for sex. This was the most horrific, but eye-opening experience of our visit. The moment we jumped outside our van I could feel this overwhelming darkness and evil present. Yeng first showed us the community church, Rahab's House, which was a former brothel. He gave us a tour and showed us a small room that they had preserved that used to be a cell where they would lock a child in while waiting for customers to come in. It was surreal to be standing in a building where so much pain, suffering and evil took place. I tried to imagine what everything looked like before it was converted to a church. Next, Yeng took us around the community and pointed out which buildings were brothels, even though they had a front of another business like a coffee shop. The fact that children were locked in those buildings and we physically could not do anything about it broke my heart. There were also other small children about 5-9 years old following us around. Yeng asked the guys in our group to stay close as he explained that some children might come up to the guys and offer sex to them. Standing in the midst of the village gave me an overwhelming sense of fear, pain, hopelessness as the children stared at us and the villagers watched us walk around. I couldn't help but ask God how this could happen; how people could be so heartless and cold-blooded. I wrestled with so many emotions.
Yeng quickly scurried us back as the sun was setting and he warned us that customers would start coming by and we needed to leave for our saftey. Although there is so much pain, brokeness, and suffering in that community, the fact that the church was present gave me hope and showed that God is working.
~christine
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