A Light for the Squatters of Poi Pet
Main Street (only street) Poi pet
Ten years ago the city of Poi pet, Cambodia didn’t exist. Decades of violence within their borders had turned this northern region into contiguous minefields covering hundreds of square miles. Millions of mines still litter the countryside. However, one of the cleared areas is the city of Poi pet. It sits on the border of Thailand. Part of the city is a narrow strip of land that is technically between the two countries and is home to several casinos. Proximity to Thailand and the casinos have drawn many Cambodians here in search of jobs. Some find jobs while many more do not. The inflow of families has grown Poi pet to 100,000 people.
The paved road that is the main street of Poi pet is lined with buildings that are homes and various businesses. Though not yet up to the modern standards of western culture, the city is growing and steadily modernizing. However, scratch the surface and the sadness of Cambodia engulfs your senses.
On one side of the street you can find a discreet opening between and behind two buildings. The opening is like a cut on the skin, and as you enter it you enter a world infected with despair. Here you find the squatters of Poi pet. Approximately 5000 families have taken up unauthorized residence on a muddy clay strip of government-owned land. Dreams of two-dollar-a-day jobs have given way to dreams of survival. Most in this city are very poor, but these are the poorest of the poor.
Early morning and off to work
Cambodia is in the middle of its rainy season; it is wet everywhere. In Poi pet most of the ground is a red clay. The squatters live on a strip of land that is all red clay. The path between their dwellings is wet slippery mud. All of us spent considerable time cleaning our shoes afterward. Few of them have shoes to clean. Here are the squatters of Poi pet.
My first look into the village.
Children are everywhere
Widows too
Mud "streets" don't stop the commerce of life
Few things are more powerful than a smile - even here.
The main building for the new complex
In the midst of the darkness, Jesus sends light. From Christ, to a Buddhist governor who cares about his people, to a Kingdom building man from Iowa who grew up as a missionary kid in the Philippines now known as "the Big Show" by the Cambodians, to Kurt Dillenger and Life International , a piece of land in Poi pet is becoming a place of hope.
A center is being constructed that will take care of kids the state cannot handle and provide other types of care for the forgotten children of the city. It will also have a crisis pregnancy center and women's clinic. The amount of darkness and death in this place is staggering. There is massive poverty, five year old drug runners, meth addicted children, rape, large scale physical, mental, and sexual abuse of workers going into Thailand, unsanitary conditions everywhere, 40,000 unattended children wandering the town by day because their parent(s) are off working, and wide spread abortion. The church has a toe hold here now. Let us watch it grow. Better yet, let's help it grow. We can pray, support Life International, or maybe go to the center and work for two or three years. Seek the Lord on this matter. Maybe you're called to other ministry efforts and not Cambodia. Just make sure you are giving your full self somewhere to God's mission of making the world whole.
More buildings on the way
The Killing Fields
The Killing Fields. A very blunt and abrupt name for a very abrupt and blunt place. It is just outside of Phnom Penh. It is a tomb to almost nine thousand people. There is little fanfare. The government constructed a large monument that stands in the middle of the property. The monument, pictured here, is really a home. It is home to the skulls of the people executed here.
Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, and his deputies sent over 300 people here daily at the peak of their power. These people came from torture and interrogation centers around Cambodia. Their journey here was for the sole purpose of being executed. Unfortunately, the flow of victims reached too high of volume and the executioners could not keep pace. Consequently, they detained people until their turn came to be executed. Those waiting to be executed lived in inhumane conditions of brutality, squalor, and starvation.Inside the monument - a victim's caved skull
The executions were brutal. Even though it was the late 1970’s modern weapons were not used. Instead victims were beaten to death with bamboo canes, gardening hoes and other primitive tools. The cries of pain and suffering were so loud that the camp hooked up loudspeakers to a tree in the middle of the complex to blare music so nearby villagers could not hear the screams.
Wondering how sadistic dictators come to power often puzzles people. However, most people are not puzzled or concerned by the forty-two million pre-born children killed each year by abortion. Over a million of those are killed in the United States. This lack of care tells us something about how dictators come to power. Most people care about suffering. However, most don't care about the suffering of others. They only care about the suffering of their own or those close to them. Christians are called to not be "most" people. Christians are called to care like Jesus cared. We are to saturate the world with compassion for the purpose of raising up the glory of Jesus Christ to the world. We care about everyone, especially the defenseless. No one is more defenseless than a pre-born child. Every year abortion wipes out more people than any dictator could in ten years. The culture of abortion is clear evidence of a world that needs Jesus. If you are a Christ-follower, the world needs you.
If you have been part of an abortion in the past, take heart and do not be slowed to the battle. We are all equal in our depravity. We are all crippled sinners made whole only through faith in Christ. We must grab the reality of Christ's righteousness in us to battle the culture of death that has overtaken much of our world and too much of our own thinking. We must move. Prayer, persuasion and participation in the public square are what we must do daily. Not only on abortion but on all life issues which touch every area of life. Where is your thinking? Where do you fit in for the fight? There is a dictator killing millions and his name is abortion. Do you care? Prayerfully find your place and go.
Phrayer and Phraise in Phenom Phem
I apologize for thinking myself clever with my title. I phromise I won’t do it again. Well….phrobably not. Oh well, nobody is pherfect.
I have so much to write and many pictures to post, however technology issues have dogged me in Cambodia. My computer and phone woes have devoured much time and patience. Technology is a mistress who invites you in and then leaves through the back door. Proverbs 32:1. (yes I know there is no Proverbs 32).
Conference update: We completed our three day conference earlier today. It seemed to go well. Many prayers were answered. Praise God and thank you. It is very encouraging to see the gospel alive and well in the heart of a Buddhist culture. We talked with many of the church leaders in attendance (about 200). Despite the language barrier there was much mutual appreciation. We taught on biblical worldview with a focus on life issues including abortion. The abortion culture is deeply entrenched in Cambodia but in a different way than in our culture. Here much of it is out of ignorance and misinformation even within church leadership. We have ignorance and misinformation on this issue also, but we have a level of awareness available that they don't. This conference was meant to bring truth and light into this arena through the presentation of the biblical worldview. Please pray that the truth given here will spread throughout Cambodia. Even if you just take 20 seconds right now it will make a difference.
Teaching through an interpreter was a new experience for me. You must trust the Spirit to deliver what needs to be delivered because so much is lost through the loss of metaphor, illustration, and non-verbals. If you think I'm boring in Rockford you should hear my teaching through a Cambodian interpreter. You'd never complain again. Well, maybe you would but it would be a couple of months.
Cambodia: I have only been in Phenom Penh so far. It is the capital and by far the biggest and most advanced city in Cambodia. This country is still suffering from the effects of the devastation enacted by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in the mid 1970's. Pol Pot, in order to bring about an agrarian utopia that was a mix of French enlightenment thinking, marxist idealism, and ancient Khmer brutality, destroyed over 1.5 million of the 7.1 million inhabitants. Many of those killed were the country's well educated. Children were separated from parents, brainwashed in political thought and taught to torture. Consequently, people, families, cities and culture were decimated. There is little beauty or art in the city with the exception of several Buddhist temples. Poverty is widespread. They are a people trying to recapture their identity. It will come if no new atrocities arrive, but what that identity will be remains to be seen.
I visited a park in the middle of the city which has a prominent Buddhist temple in the middle. The park is full of monkeys and even has an elephant that you can get a ride on. None of them are caged which makes for an interesting environment. My friend tried to take a picture of a small monkey with his iphone. The monkey tried to steal it. Apparently they frequently steal food from people's hands. I like the idea of untethered elephants in a park. It adds a little tension. I would love to see Rockford put one down by the dam.
Also in the park are many locals including families selling or begging to get money. The picture below is part of a family out begging. Their teeth were rotten and their parents, if they have both, were nowhere to be seen. There were many more like these kids. It was heart-breaking.
hope for the hopeless?
- Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. Acts 17:23
About 50ft. uphill from these kids was the temple which had a main worship area and many outdoor statues for sacrifices like this one to the right. The disturbing porcelain bust has neon lights behind it and many other artifacts all over it. It is covered with trinkets, food, and money. The contrast of the impoverished children nearby and the affluent statue makes one sick. How can this happen? Rather than feel haughty we must ask ourselves some questions. Has Christianity ever made this error? Certainly. Do we make this error? Unfortunately yes. This country definitely needs Jesus Christ, while many reading this already have Jesus Christ. However, have we allowed His view of the world to become ours? Have the down-trodden and oppressed captured our hearts and actions? Or are we stuck in the muchness and many-ness of life (Richard Foster quote) without giving a compassionate thought to the suffering in our midst? Are we too busy being disappointed in our spouse, children, parents, boss, pastors, friends, on and on, ad nauseum, to think beyond our own pain? Why do we choose to live like this? Do you want to keep living this way, or do you want to catch the wind of the Spirit in your sail?
It starts on our knees where we tell the truth about the darkness in our own hearts and how we have loved ourselves more than others. We call ourselves out by the names we have become. Names like liar, hater, adulterer, pornographer, gossip, thief, sloth, glutton, jerk, bully, coward, etc...., and repent. Then we move in love to our family, friends and co-workers where we forgive and bring life, real life in Jesus Christ to others. Then our love spills out into the streets and on to where the Lord calls. Maybe Cambodia, maybe to an orphan, or the city or our neighborhood. There are so many in need of Christ and real compassion. Pray about it, but remember it starts in our own heart not in someone else's.
Let us be the church rather than just people ignoring a dying world on our way to church.
Chilln’ In Bangkok
Just before departure. Leaving her was hard.
I am posting from Suvarnabhum Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. You might want to get the Thai version of “Hooked on Phonics” tapes before you try to say the airport’s name. One hour to Minneapolis, twelve hours to Tokyo, seven hours to here, where I have a seven hour lay-over until morning and then a one hour flight to Phnom Penh. Anyone who does this kind of travel regularly for Kingdom building is my hero. I am somewhat of a travel wuss. I don't sleep on cars, buses, or planes, so I alternate between being groggy and being grouchy. Right now I am groggy. Grouchy is just around the corner. Air travel is amazing but draining.
I find some things about air travel mysterious. Why is the 1/8 inch that my seat goes back for reclining luxury a safety hazard on take-off and landing? Who buys from the Sky Mall magazine in my seat pouch? Who invents some of the stuff Sky Mall sells –
Along with the junior cheerleading and wrestling team.
like the Kitty Washroom Cabinet that looks like a cabinet except for the big hole where the cat goes in to do his business. How discreet. Your company will never know where the smell is coming from. How about the canine genealogy kit so you can do the Roots thing with Fido. Imagine your pet’s joy at finding they are the great, great, third cousin, twice removed to Lassie. And the amazingly necessary kitchen helps. How about the $50 deluxe bagel slicer? You’ll never be so barbarian as to use a bread knife on a bagel again. I almost bought the electric carrot massager. Who doesn’t want tender carrots? We just have too much time and money on our hands, which leads me back to some more serious thoughts about this trip to Cambodia.
As much as I like to poke fun at American consumerism (including my own), many of its side effects are not fun. Asia seems to be a region where a huge wave of western consumerism and decadence hit with much greater force than the small waves of Christianity.
Consequently, this region is infamous for its sex trade. Money, sex and power have a grip here in ways that feel very sinister. I know it is not more sinister than back home. I know our culture is equally perverse, but some practices are much more open here. Prostitution is common-place and the child sex slave trade is very active. Our (US) sexual immorality is almost omnipresent, but we try to make it look sophisticated in many places. Here it seems laid bare.
This became obvious to me quickly. In the airport I stopped two gentlemen to ask where to go to eat. They seemed very friendly and spoke broken English. One of them told me to follow him and he would take care of me. I asked several times for reassurance that he was keeping me in the airport which he affirmed, though I don’t think he understood. He started leading me out of the building toward the parking ramp. I asked where we were going. He said we had to drive one kilometer and he would take care of me. He promised to get me beer and women. He seemed quite certain that I wanted both, and insisted that I would be very happy with the women.
It wasn't so much the offer that struck me, as it was his demeanor. It seemed so casual and his nature seemed so cheerful that it spoke of a normalcy of this kind of hook up. There was nothing clandestine about it. It didn't need to be. It's common and it is common for men like me to partake when they arrive. East meets west to buy and sell sex. As Christ-followers our job is more than just condemning these realities. Christ has already condemned them. It is our task to move against them in very real redemptive and life-giving ways. To do this we must connect the dots with the worldview we embody in our everyday lives. Organizations like Life International, Closed Door Ministries, and Women at Risk Ministries are a few of the organizations Blythefield Hills Baptist Church supports that fight on the front lines in this arena. However, we all fight everyday by the way we live our lives moment by moment. Our lives tell a story, and it is either a story of life or a story of the world that is ultimately a story of death. What is the story of your life? As you follow me and Life International through Cambodi, think through your own story and what it tells the world around you. What is God calling you to?
Please pray. Two hours after I land (about five hours from now) I will go teach 125 or so Cambodian pastors. Most speak no English. Most do not own a bible. Our team feels in way over our heads. That's how Kurt (the head of Life International) likes it, because we are totally dependent on God doing His thing.
ps. I made up the electric carrot massager. There is no such thing....yet.
Farewell Faz
Yesterday was the funeral for Kevin Fazio (Faz). He was 41, a husband, a father, a son, a brother, an uncle, a co-worker, and a friend to many including myself. His funeral was a beautiful tribute by his family and friends. He was a unique man, but remember we are all unique. The things that make each of us special are often only reflected on at our funerals. Unfortunately, most of the time we are known by the things that make us common, which are our short-comings. Some think Christianity ruins our individuality and reduces us to a mass of robotic parrots. The reality is that as we bend our knee to Christ's work in our life, we truly become individuals as the unique gifts we are meant to use emerge. When we do it on our own, our shortcomings define us, and we lose the divine individuality meant for us. In our sadness I encourage us all to take time now and in the future to recognize the unique and special presence of the people around us.
Much good emerged in Faz as evidenced by the response to his sudden departure. He left much behind, especially his wife and two children. A married couple is two persons who become one. His wife has lost his love and presence, but she has also lost part of herself. His kids have also lost his love and presence, but they have also lost their history. In the face of this loss is the reality that Faz invested heavily into building Christ-followers through his church. It is now for the family and church to carry what he no longer can. There will always be a scar, but the body of Christ is a salve until our healer comes to make us whole again. Jesus told us that our way would be marked with suffering, but that He would be with us until the end of the age. So we persevere through the wreckage of evil in our lives because Christ will come for His bride one day. We must always remember that light swallows the darkness.
To honor Faz and acknowledge his love for the music of U2, I've included the lyrics of "Walk On". They did not originally write this for Faz, but good art has a way of giving light in unexpected ways. Thanks, Faz, for loving God and letting us into your life. We will miss you, but we look forward to one of your hugs in the future. The line forms behind Cathy, Nate, and Megan.
U2 Lyrics - Walk On
And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring...
And love is not the easy thing...
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind
And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong
Walk on, walk on
What you got, they can't steal it
No they can't even feel it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight...
You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed to be seen
You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly for freedom
Walk on, walk on
What you got they can't deny it
Can't sell it or buy it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight
And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on
Home...hard to know what it is if you never had one
Home...I can't say where it is but I know I'm going home
That's where the heart is
I know it aches
How your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on
Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress up
All that you scheme...
What’s your creed?
- We all live by a creed. Most of us have not sat down and thought through the creed that governs our lives, but it is there.
Several years ago I was on a 26-hour bus ride with 50 soon-to-be high school graduates. I am the type who cannot sleep in cars, buses, or planes. Wide awake in the middle of the night, uncomfortable, sore, grouchy, and lonely (my family was not with me), and with various corporate body odors beginning to gain critical mass, I began to wonder why I was there. Why would I leave family, home, and comfort for nine days to speak to a bunch of 18 year olds about the Christian life, many of whom don't care about what I have to say, and those who do care won't remember (my pout was going pretty strong)? In my stupor I wrote the following creed as the answer to my question.
My creed has three main shapers:
It is historic, drawing on creeds from the early church.
It is contemporary, drawing from our current cultural setting.
And it is personal, drawing on my own calling and feelings.
The reality that struck me as I wrote it is this: If I am not intentional about thinking through my creed daily....hourly....almost moment by moment, I drift to a creed that comes from the darkness of my own heart instead of the light of Christ in me. I encourage you to read it, but more important, write your own. Use mine and make changes or start from scratch, but make it personal and ground it in the love and truth of Christ as found in the Bible.
MY CREED
I believe God is the perfect and exclusive father of all reality and that we know something of Him through Scripture, nature and our inner being.
I believe that though He has made something of Himself known, there is much more mystery to Him than we know and are comfortable with.
I believe Jesus Christ is the one true living Son of God.
I believe that all we know including ourselves was imagined and created by Jesus.
I believe our sin smeared corruption on everything He made.
I believe Jesus’ finished work on the cross was Him taking His perfect creation back.
I believe you and I are lost without Him.
I believe the only way to life in Him is simple faith.
I believe our sinful state causes us to resist this faith.
I believe our resistance has many names: doubt, skepticism, open-mindedness, tolerance, enlightenment, shallowness, niceness, wait and see, hope for the best, I’ve been wounded by the church.
I believe the real names for our resistance are anger, presumption, foolishness, and hatred.
I believe our culture hates even the sound of His name.
I believe a part of us wants to hate even the sound of His name.
I believe our eternal state hinges on deeply held beliefs about Him.
I believe these deeply held beliefs are evidenced more in our daily small choices and behaviors than in the words we say when we talk of our faith.
I believe in the Holy Spirit as our true help to be good and gain comfort in this life.
I believe in heaven and hell.
I believe there is a real spiritual battle raging all around and in us.
I believe that though the battle can’t be seen with our eyes it is more vital than the things we can see.
I believe the greatest power in life for this battle is the power to forgive.
I believe we can truly forgive only through the power of the Holy Spirit.
I believe there are 2 main governing stories which we choose from as the reality of how we live our lives: The story of God & The story of man.
I believe these things about the story of man: It tells you -
Lies about what it means to be a man and a woman.
To draw life from money, things, power, and sex.
Sex is only about pleasure and life is a commodity to be measured in $ and cents.
The customer is always right…. And you are always the customer.
Life must be fair, and you are the judge of fairness.
You are always being gypped and you are ever the victim.
Parents/authority and rules are a prison.
Freedom is your most fundamental right and true freedom is doing whatever you please.
I believe the story of God stands opposed to the story of man and is the one true reality that tells you -
How to be free in true manhood and womanhood.
To draw life from serving others for Christ.
That you are a sinner before you are a customer.
Only Jesus was gypped and that your life abounds with blessing undeserved.
Sex is about wholeness, obedience, and being in the image of God.
In short the story of man begins with personal power but delivers weakness. Conversely, the story of God begins with godly meekness but delivers true power.
I believe that all of us are more firmly planted in the story of man than we can begin to believe. That is why we:
Get more pleasure from buying than from sacrifice.
Struggle with pornography and lust.
Breathe words of death in the form of gossip, cynicism, anger, sarcasm, criticism, and negativity instead of breathing words of life in the form of encouragement, love, compassion, and fidelity.
Think the topic of modest dress is ridiculous.
Are eager to explore outside the rules, and new ideas are better than old rules.
Judge churches like we rate movies.
Base our theology more on feelings than on Scripture.
I believe we are all broken, lonely, hurting and often angry people, but the story of man sells you broken answers that control your life and keep you from God.
I believe many of us are in the most turbulent, dangerous, lonely and scary time of our lives.
I believe this is what the enemy wants. Paradoxically, this is where Christ does some of His best work. I believe there is more light than darkness, but the darkness cannot comprehend the light. I believe Jesus is calling you out of the world of darkness.
I believe that the local Church is the hope of the world, and that this church cares about you and I am called by God, through this church, despite my sin, to speak to you for God and call you out to be His people.