Ok..i am distrubed..here is why

[Judy Hamilton]

sleep evades me..a few of you were concerned that i would have a bit of problems returning to South east Asia...your fears were reasonable...I had a conversation with a naztetter tonight, she asked how i felt about the trip in relation to the time i served in Vietnam...I told her the streets of Phnom Penh were the same as if i had stepped back in time..and was riding down the Boulevards of Saigon...and assured her that i was OK with returning to this part of the world

however i did not anticipate glaring at history in its most brutal form. The tour of the "Killing Fields" and to the famed prison "S-21" located in Phnom Penh, where some 20,000 innocent men, women and children were brutaly interned and interrogated will not allow rest to the deepest part of my heart.

Here are but a few of the photos depicting a tragedty when Cambodia sealed her borders and the internationl community chose to look the other direction

Not until I walked through the empty corridors of S-21 Tuol Sleng Prison
does Slalin's idiom ...that "one death is a tragedty..a million is a statistic" take on meaning.

I would like to address this..if the Lord will pen the thread and the subject of this grievous international time in our recent history.

I well remember when as a young adult asking my foster mother in an accusing tone about the Concentration Camps and the Extermination of the Jews with, "How did your generation allow this to happen?" (as if she were responsible for the genocide of millions of Jews)

Do I have an answer to my daughter should she quiz me in such a manner about the decimation of 1/3 of Cambodia's people by Pol pot and the Khmer Rouge? This was taking place when I was exhilarated with a new baby. Shannon captured my attention. and as a new mother I could say I was distracted. Having just watched the Fall of Vietnam, I was deeply grieved and in this grief had suceeded in isolating my emotions. I would not concern myself with the cries of the Cambodian people who were daily enduring starvation and a brutal death of the masses.




I really need to feel ok as an American..however..when viewing this tragedty up close and talking and praying over the older generation of Cambodian people that were left with non-healing soul wounds.. I know as I walked the streets of Phnom Penh, that a part of me is ashamed to be an american .. I am humbled..not a proud braggadocious American


I have placed an album on my photo site that documents recent history of PolPot and the Khmer Rouge

http://heyjude.smugmug.com/gallery/1304056



Judy

[Ian Gentles]

What can is say, yes the west looked the other way, but it was no fault of your, or mine! For most of us it was thousands of miles away in another culture, at that time we just changed the channel on out TV's. I'm not sure our being upset about it would have changed things, after all our goverments werent going to intervene. Much evil is still occuring today, and we look the other way, maybe noit out of complaicemcy, but more a matter of self mental survival, because we know our goverments arent going to do anything, and in a way we understand their problem.
My desire and prayer for you is, that you will again sleep well, and your memories will be pleasant ones. You folks did a great work, Judy you did good!

[Judy Hamilton]

I know you are right in a sense Ian.....however this Mass Genocide..is it really not our place in the world to alleviate our brothers horrible destiny and perhaps be a tool to pen history with a stroke of LIFE and not DEATH?

You would also have questions that are not readily answered had you walked with me this past two weeks

Cambodia is for me shorthand for all that has gone wrong in this world.

Touring the S-21 Tuol Sleng Prison equates to Hitler’s ovens.

The walls of several of the rooms contain photographs of the prisoners…thousands of faces looking back at you, some of them attempting to smile, as if the Khmer Rouge perhaps might take pity on them.. Walking through these corroders was a dizzying experience. As the prisoners look at you they created a false intimacy and at the same time the repetion of so many faces striped them of their indivuality. I thought that this is the lasting trace that these people had ever walked on this earth before being “smashed to bits.” The terror on the faces of these victims certainly elicited a response of sorrow from the depth of my soul.

Judy

[Barb Bouldrey]

Judy,

When I see the commericals of the starving children in other parts of the world it makes me cringe. It makes me wonder how there can possibly be hungry children when 1/3 of our world is so wealthy and there are so MANY organizations in churches and in the world who reach out to feed the hungry. I cannot feed them all, but I can help feed one.

When I read of the holocaust, I too wonder how the world let it happen. But the world did not know it was happening until it was over.

When our troops went into Iraq and found prisons of boy children who were starved and mistreated to try to control their families to submit to Saddam's rules, we were awakened to what had been happening. But we were not there, or allowed there so there was nothing we could have done to prevent it.

The tragedies of this world can discouage us until we cannot enjoy life. They can burden us too much when we can only do
so much.

We cannot prevent what we do not know about. We cannot solve all the problems of world. The U.S. cannot take responsibilty
for the entire world.

There are many organizations trying to help. There is just more need than help available. But many are trying.

I know you saw the need first hand. Work & Witness teams so often come home so burdened with the need they saw that they cannot eat for a while, wondering what can be done.

All we can do is do all we can. We cannot eliminate or prevent the suffering of this world. That is a result of our world being a sinful world.

Barb

[Gord Evans]

All we can do is do all we can. We cannot eliminate or prevent the suffering of this world. That is a result of our world being a sinful world.

Barb
Dear Barb, and dear Judy,

I frequently read many posts to this forum without responding or commenting, but I also frequently pray as I am led to do so.

As I have been reading Judy's posts and other media, I have been overwhelmed by the depth of cruelty and degradation that is possible in humankind.

Barb, you have such a wonderful and tender spirit. You have ministered to my heart and soul with your response to Judy. My prayer is that you have also ministered to Judy's heart today.

We are commanded to love God, and to love others as ourself. We are commissioned to go into all the world and (as we are going) to make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 6 tells us that we are to put on the full armor of God and to take our stand against the enemy. God's word through these verses also remind us that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authroities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Elsewhere, we are reminded to be strong and courageous. We are reminded that in this world we will have struggles, but that we should take heart, that our Savior Jesus has overcome the world.

Barb, your words were a tonic today. Thank you.

Judy, I love you and your tender heart, dear sister. You are a hero in my eyes, and your photos for a long time now have been an ongoing ministry to me. I pray that your heart will be stilled as you contemplate the greatness and the might of our God who sees all, who knows the sin and cruelty in our potential, but who chooses to love us anyway.

As we will always have the poor, we will also have the cruelty that exists in this sin-filled world, and when we think we've seen it all, there will be something new to astound us, just around the bend.

Let us each do that which we are able and enabled by our God and then be still, and know He is God.

Blessings, Grace and Peace ...

-- Gord