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