Freedom in Cambodia

The sound at Rapha House is soothing. I don't think it is the compound, or the acoustics. It is just the girls. Anywhere they are, beautiful music is played. Their laughter is overwhelming. Hearing them laugh and play with each other brings so much joy.

It is an overwhelming sound of freedom.

Yes, the most important thing is that the girls were saved from slavery. They are no longer slaves to horrific master. That's a great thing. But the girls are given so much more than they bargained for. You see, other children in Cambodia (even children who are not in slavery) are not free. Most children that we came in contact with were still under a different kind of bondage. If they have younger siblings, they become caretakers.

Our group put on a Mother's Clinic one day. Two mothers in our group spoke to the Khmer mothers. They talked about being good mothers and the ways to do that. They talked about health, nutrition, and caretaking. They also told the mothers to be mothers and let their kids be kids. The mothers don't allow their older children to run and play and be kids. They expect them to take care of their younger siblings(something ironic is that one girl brought her little sister to the mommy clinic because she is her caretaker...) They might be free in the sense that they aren't slaves of sex trafficking or of child labor. But they are not free to be kids.

In America, we have opportunity. Seeing chilren playing on a playground or in front yards is not uncommon. The only place you see children playing in Cambodia is in the dirty streets, but that is only until their parents find out where they are.

I have mentioned the Kids Club we participated at. This place is freedom for the kids of the slums. As different as those kids were, they showed me a new sense of freedom. Watching those kids come through the gate is like watching them run into a candy shop or a water park. They light up. They wait outside of the gates just to get in to play for the afternoon and they become sad when 7 oclock comes and it is time to go home. Their freedom for the day is gone. The family that we worked with is Jesus to their neighborhood. They provide a way for kids to be kids.

Like I said, there is nothing like watching the girls at Rapha laugh and play with each other. They know they have been given freedom from sex trafficking, freedom from obligations to be caretakers for younger siblings, but most of all, Rapha House gives them freedom in Christ. They are given teaching about how Jesus died to set them free.

I still have a hard time understanding why God gave me the opportunity to be a part of something so great in a place that is overcome with darkness. I hope that by everything that I write you can understand how your prayers and thoughts are a part of a huge light in Cambodia.

Isaiah 58:6-14: Justice

The people of Cambodia don't really have anyone fighting for them. Because of the Khmer Rouge, there is so much poverty. Because of this poverty, they have to do whatever is possible to make money. This includes things like, making jewelry, learning to cut hair, sewing clothes or making fabrics, or things like selling their children. Luckily, there are organizations bringing justice to much of the slave situations. There are people rescuing children and arresting the perpetrators. But still, the people of Cambodia are hurting. No one is fighting for them. No one besides God. This passage brings me a lot of confidence that God is looking out for all of the nations that have no one else fighting for them.

⁶ "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

¹¹ The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

¹³ "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the Lord's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

¹⁴ then you will find your joy in the Lord,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
The mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Love, Justice, Freedom

While I was in Cambodia, a lot of the members of my team were discussing tattoos. Many of them planned on getting tattoos when they returned to their hometowns. All of these tattoo ideas were about words or ideas that would constantly remind them of our experiences. I don't have any problems with tattoos. I think they are for some people but not for others. They are not for me... the whole pain thing, plus who knows if I would love to look at it in 30 years... It's just not for me. But I wanted to do something. I wanted to do something artistic and meaningful. I wanted it to be something that could go in a place that would remind me each and every day of the things that I learned. So I bought a canvas and I painted.

There we go. So I will dedicate this one post to the first word that I painted. First I will tell you that the colors are all significant. The first color, which is a bright blue, is to represent one of the two girls I became attached to. She had three or four shirts total and two of them were that bright blue. That's what she met the night I met her... I will always associate that color with her.

Love.

Have you ever loved a person and all that they wanted was for you to express that love to them? Have you ever known someone who you were sent to love and they just relish in your love for hours? It's easy to love them.

Have you ever been told to love people that want nothing to do with you? Have you tried to love a person who just does not really feel the need to be loved by you? It's hard to love them.

The Rapha House girls wanted our love. I know that I loved those girls long before I met them... but I am positive they loved me before I arrived. They have so much love to give. But more interestingly, they want love. They just want to be held and adored. So that's what we did. From the moments we arrived until the moment I was sitting on the bus to leave Rapha for the last time, they loved on us and accepted our love. These girls were made to love and be loved.

So as you can imagine, when we entered the gates of the Kids Club in Phnom Penh, we were shocked. Initially I expected lovable kids to fill the area. But let me tell you about the kids that are not given the life at Rapha House. They are rough. We walked in the gates and were not greeted by smiling children who anticipated our hugs. We were greeted by children who looked us up and down and did not care to love on us. The hardest part was that they were reluctant to accept our love. I am guessing I hugged about 3 kids in the 3 or 4 days I spent there. Some children would run up and hit us and run away. We had instances of them drawing inappropriate pictures on the pieces of paper we had given them to draw on.

Honestly, I wanted to just go and sit down and have nothing to do with them. I had just spent 3 or 4 days with the most beautiful and lovable little girls in Cambodia and now I was with children who did not want my love. I told myself that my time is precious and I don't need to be spending my time trying to give my love to kids that don't want it. Uh, hold on. Did I just say that? Did I just say that I don't need to love the people who are harder to love and should just love people who already have plenty of love? You probably know where I am going with this.

One of the greatest lessons I learned was about loving people who don't want my love. Those people are probably the ones that need my love and attention most of all. Loving the girls at Rapha was sooo easy! But the Kids Club... it was soooo hard.

I think that we can find these two groups of people in America. We find people who want to be loved and we find people who think they are perfectly fine without the love of anyone. Those are the people that I want to love. I want to love the people who say they don't need love. I want those people to become like the other people who long to be loved by anyone and everyone and to give that love in return. I want the children of the Kids Club to become like the girls at Rapha, where love is in the center of their lives.

So I hope this can encourage you when it's hard to love someone. Whether it's someone you know, someone you don't know, someone you work with... just remember that those are the people that might need your love more than those who accept your love easily.

A very special guitar.

There were two girls who I met at Rapha House that had a pretty big impact on my life. These two girls are sisters. Their ages are 13 and 17. They have lived at Rapha House for three years. Originally, they were sold for labor trafficking in a boating community... but eventually they were exploited in the community. They were sold together, rescued together, and now they love life together.

Right now I want to tell you about one of them. The older sister had a huge impact on my life. She was actually the very first girl that introduced herself to me at the beginning of the welcoming party. I had no idea that she would continue to hold such a special place in my heart...and she will forever.

My first big memory with her was on the second night. I had been spending my time with the two sisters and eventually, she started calling me mother. This touched my heart in a new way. I began wondering some things... I had to guess that her mother is not in her life. Some families are still in touch with their daughters, but I assume hers isn't. She was calling a perfect stranger one of the dearest names. A mother is someone who loves and protects you. A mother is a person who provides. What did I do that she would call me mother? Might I mention that she is just 3 years younger than me? I can't imagine a 17 year old that I know today walking up to me and calling me that. But I am going to be honest, I wish I could have brought her home to be her mother. But I know that it must be my place to love her from the other side of the world.

Something I should mention before I begin the next memory is that we were not really supposed to ask girls what their stories are. No matter how close we felt to them, some of them are not far enough in the healing process to verbalize their stories outside of counseling. So stories just were not shared. I don't know if the girls realize that we know why they live there, or if they think we don't have any idea.

The second memory I should mention was after devos on the same night that she called me mother. One of the other girls on our team had given her own testimony of how her father trafficked her as a child. After devos, the girl who called me mother found our translator so she could tell me something. She pulled Theara over and spoke to her a minute and told her to tell me something that shocked me. She wanted me to know that she had the same story as the girl who gave her testimony... that she had also been trafficked. I honestly had no idea what to say, so I just hugged her. Her sister was standing right there so I just hugged both of them. I told them I loved them. What do you say when a girl wants you to know that she had been trafficked? I was touched that she wanted me to know.

The final one happened on our last day in town. We had stopped by the salon where the girls work (this particular girl works there) and were going to walk over to the market. So we walk over, and we notice some of the girls that work at the salon were shopping. So I found my girl and gave her a hug and told her I would see her later tonight. So we go back to the salon where we were supposed to meet and she pulled me into a back room. She then gave me a necklace. I'll just be honest, when I saw the necklace I had to let out a little giggle. It's a pretty good sized guitar. It's unique, but I have to love it. I couldn't believe that she would spend her money on me. I wanted to tell her to get her money back! But I have worn it every single day since I left and will continue to. It's the silliest necklace, but it's probably she most meaningful peace of jewelry I have.

I wish I could tell you her name, or show you her beautiful face... and I can in person. But for the safety of the girls we are not to share their information or publish pictures to the internet. I would love for you to find me and ask to see her picture, along with her sisters...and show you the beautiful necklace she gave to me.

After she began to call me mother I would correct her and tell her we are sisters. Instead of her being my daughter, I told her it would be better if we are sisters because we will be sisters for eternity, so we should just start being sisters now. One of the things that excites me most about Heaven right now is knowing that I can talk to all of my dear sisters from Rapha. I can talk to them without frustration, hesitation, or worry that they will understand. And the best part is we are going to be worshipping the same God together for longer than a lifetime.

Freedom

I know that this holiday is about our freedom. As Christians it is also about our freedom from sin. But this year I can't help it but reflect on a different freedom. Freedom for people that don't live in America and don't designate today to celebrate their freedom.

In the 70's the people of Cambodia spent 4 years under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. They experienced communism. They were forced to leave their homes in the city and take part in what Pol Pot thought was the best way to run a country. He forced them to do labor as a part of his view that the agricultural lifestyle would do best for them. Eventually he began executions. Who did he have killed? Anyone who was educated, or previously worked with the government. He feared being overthrown and decided that only educated people would do that, so he had them killed. Over the four years about 1.7 million people died. They died of execution, malnutrition/starvation, and other diseases after being forced to live in the country.

I also think about each of the girls I met that are experiencing freedom today that I cannot even comprehend. They were slaves. They were slaves in like, the worst way possible. They were in bondage for years. They were used for years. But now they are in a home where they are given the freedom to be children. They laugh and play. They get an education, and they are excited about their education. They have the freedom to love life again.

I am thankful for my freedom. But for two weeks I was shown what freedom from modern day slavery is like. I was also shown places where there are still girls in bondage. I was shown a whole nation of people that have a new excitement and zest for life because they are free from the Khmer Rouge.

So today, I am thankful for my freedom. But I am thankful for the freedom of people all over the world that have been through years of slavery and bondage. I am thankful for the opportunity to see a new freedom in the Kingdom of Cambodia. I am thankful to have spent time with girls who are now dwelling in a place that they have been given a new freedom.