A Day in Cambodia

As we post Pam's email, we ask that you remember to lift both Pam and Aimee up in prayer. We questioned whether or not to send some of the contents of this particular email, yet not to share it would be to leave out what "real" life is. American life is not "real"--it's incredible abundance and blessings. We are thankful for what we have, yet Americans are sheltered from things such as what you'll read--therefore it's important to allow Pam's email to paint a picture of everyday life in a third-world country:

We went to the Genocide Museum this morning. I had never taken the time to do it before and considering the Khmer Rouge Regime is responsible for the condition Cambodia is in today, I felt it was a piece of history we needed to absorb. Words cannot describe how moved I was. I have seen all the pictures Penny has taken there but until I was there--reading story after story—my mind could not grasp it.

Aimee was taking notes like crazy. She and I were in this trance of trying to comprehend what we were seeing. Aimee then says, “people go to a museum and call this history and then we are going to go and interview sex workers who are under the age of ten tomorrow”. It was paralyzing.

We then went to Marie’s (The Rescue Center) and of course it was so great to see her--and as usual, she was so funny. As we walked around the compound she shared with Aimee how Penny had emailed her the news of how TAL could donate 15 grand. She went on to explain how that was the start-up for the whole compound! It was just so cool to hear her side of the story. She then went on about how Penny and I had been reading The Prayer of Jabez during that trip and how the entire thing was such a miracle.

It was like a slice of heaven being there. I walked around carrying a little boy named James who had CP. He was loving on me like no tomorrow. His mother had died of AIDS. He is my favorite.

All the kids kept bringing us picked flowers and James was putting them behind my ear. Amongst all the sweat and greasy hair I was a “flowering princess to him”. It truly was a moment for me.

Then we went to meet a 22 year old mother who had a 7 year old little boy. She was skin and bones and will most likely not be alive much longer. She looked 55 years old. I stood at the foot of her bed listening to Marie encourage her. She was excited for her that she had been able to come to church in a wheelchair on Sunday. Marie made the comment (and I quote), “Men are Jerks. All they leave their wives is AIDS as they move on to another woman. They don't even tell them they are infected”.

It was gut-wrenching when a beautiful young child came up to Marie with another child to give her a big hug. She introduced us and then quietly said, “They are infected”. It was just so surreal.


Aimee is in love with Marie, of course. We sat under her porch and shared and shared. It was wonderful to just be there sitting with her.

We were driving home and talking non-stop with our driver, Sokah, who works with ARM. Suddenly he said, “Someone dying”. I said, “What?” He said, “Someone dying”. I looked up to see a young man—about 21 years of age—convulsing and bleeding in the middle of street. It was such a horrible experience! I said, “Stop! Can't we help him?” Sokah said, "No, they will call ambulance”. His friend who looked about the same age was hysterical. I was breathless. I cannot tell you how it affected me and Aimee.

We came back to our room and replanned our whole trip. We are not heading up north. We feel we need to stay here and finish up with the book. Thearan (our translator) is working with sex workers from Vietnam. Angkor Wat will have to wait until heaven. There is just no doubt that we are just supposed to stay here and see what God has in store for us. Plus Marie was like, we need more time. We feel we need to meet with Marie tomorrow. I want to ask her “Do Cambodians just really drive on by and hope an ambulance does come?”

It didn’t feel right.