Title: The Cambodian connection part 1
Tags:
Blog Entry: When I was growing up in the early 1970s, the Vietnam war was always in the news on tv. After Saigon fell to the communist north on 30 April 1975, there was hardly any news about Indochina ... until the end of 1978 & early 1979. Then more news about Indochina surfaced - news about the Vietnamese boat people who were sailing across the South China Sea & many of the boats wanted to land in Singapore. The Singapore navy was kept busy during that period of time. The other news about Indochina that frequently appeared on tv was the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia (known as Kampuchea at that time). At 7-8 years of age, the only impression that I had of what I saw on tv was that the Cambodian refugees were living in very miserable conditions. Throughout the 1980s, the bits & pieces started coming together & I got to understand more about the situation in Cambodia. After reading the book "The Killing Fields" in 1985, I got to know about the Khmer Rouge. Then there was news about the Vietnamese-backed Heng Samrin regime & the 3-party coalition (including the Khmer Rouge) that was fighting against it. ASEAN backed this coalition because it didn't want communism & kept insisting on a total & unconditional Vietnamese withdrawal from Cambodia, which finally took place in 1989. What happened next was that the 4 parties remaining in the country were slugging it out among themselves & the UN had to intervene to bring about order & a fair election. Until that point in time, I was aware of what was going on in Cambodia but not particularly interested in the country. When I was in university in Australia (1992-1994), I joined a church called Hope of God church. This church started in Bangkok in 1981 & has been spreading throughout Thailand as well as overseas. I joined a church camp in Bangkok in 1993 & was impressed to see many Thai people who were full of vision & who wanted to plant churches throughout their country. I am interested in missions, I like Thai culture & I am also excited to see people with vision. But with so many Hope of God churches mushrooming all over Thailand, I didn't think I would be able to add much value if I focus on Thailand as a mission field. I thought about going to a neighboring country with a similar culture & Cambodia was the first place that came into mind. I envisioned Cambodian people believing in Jesus, worshiping God, having lives that are transformed by the gospel, working together in unity with other believers & planting churches throughout Cambodia. It was exciting to think about such thoughts. If God can do it in Thailand, He can surely do it in Cambodia too! Nothing is impossible with God. There is something known as true love & there is also something known as infatuation (having a crush). They can be very similar, so how do we tell the difference? The one that fades with time & with unfavorable circumstances is infatuation while the one that can withstand the test of time & unfavorable circumstances is true love. Was my excitement about Cambodia true love or merely infatuation? Readers, you can judge for yourselves when you read my next blog entry.
VIEW FULL VERSION: Link