Greetings Folks,
The last time we met, I think we left off at the Andong Relocation Village with the Eastside Churches from Seattle wrestling with “in yer face” issues of poverty, disease and human suffering. Originally, the ESC (Eastside Consortium) of Seattle was a pioneering experiment conceived by Brian Sellers-Petersen (BS-P) of World Vision as he brought together churches in the same local arena into partnership with each to do Vision trips through World Vision-US and World Vision-Cambodia. “BS-P” left and my long-time friend and coach, Jim Schmick became the US facilitator and I was asked to be the Cambodian facilitator. Originally, First Presbyterian of Bellevue, Westminster Chapel, and Overlake were the heavy weights but over time, the ESC morphed into a tight tag team of First Pres and Calvin Pres. The partnership no longer includes much engagement with World Vision, as WV is just not set up for mission trips.
The New and Improved ESC group later visited Unicas Orphanage where they found another one of our Youth Commission Diamond Program grads. They did some skits and played with the children, and had too much fun for Presbyterians. Then they hit the dusty and bumpy Route 1 toward the ‘Nam border where they did skits, puppet shows, taught English, and did some sports in Seila’s home village. Both Pres churches have been developing the infrastructure of this village for a while now, and the improvements are having a positive impact and people credit this to the God called Jesus. Back to Phnom Penh, and then onto Kompong Cham to visit the Youth Commission’s Satellite office in the provincial city. They were able to take part in the launch our first Provincial Diamond Program. From Kompong Cham, they left to visit WV sponsor children in Kompong Thom, visited Angkor Wat, and returned to PP where I met up with them again. On their last day, Dr. Kek Galabru of Licadho led five of the group of 11 to Pray Sar Prison on the Kandal Province along with myself and Lok Kru Seila (my partner in crime). We were first briefed by the warden then give a tour of the prison starting with the woman’s ward, of whom many had their children up to 8 years old with them living in the prison. There was no one on the outside that was able to take care of their children. Imagine having spent your formative years growing up inside a prison. Beriberi, Tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS were prevalent. Not one person in the entire prison had been given a blood test for HIV/AIDS. I visited the infirmary which was full of women with HIV/AIDs symptoms and their babies. Again I couldn’t resist and I held their babies. And, by the way, most of these women contracted AIDS from their unfaithful husbands. We visited the juvenile ward where young men from 14 to 18 were housed. The van driver and I went into some cells to visit with the inmates. Many of the prisoners in the medium security areas were doing long sentences for petty crimes while most of the rich elite live off their billions (yes billions, don’t doubt it) of corruption, drug, and foreign aid money with immunity. We were shown some workshops done for prisoners in one section of the prison and lo and behold, there was one of our first year DP students teaching literacy to prisoners. We chatted with him briefly and we had known that before he became a follower of Jesus, that he, too, had been a prisoner in jail. In the next classroom over, Prison Fellowship was teaching a Bible Study from the book of John. We were not allowed in the maximum security area but that didn’t matter much, from talking to many prisoners, I understood that many of these prisoners were unjustly or wrongly convicted and even those convicted of stealing a mango because they were hungry, are serving sentences unbefitting of the crime.
Our van driver was a Jesus Follower and he quoted me this verse which to me is the most clearest articulation of the gospel in the Bible.
Luke 4:18-19: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
A Western Reductionist/Individualist Gospels says that because of Jesus we can have our individual sins forgiven and enjoy eternity in heaven with God (Its all about me). A Biblical gospel begins with the proclamation that the Kingdom of God has arrived in the person of Jesus in the flesh and has been inaugurated by Jesus among the rule of humans and this Kingdom is especially good news for the poor, oppressed and the outcasts who all other forms of human rule or government have historically oppressed through power, corruption and violence. This Kingdom is a Kingdom with totally opposite values of human institutions, and also some of own “Christian” churches as well. God’s rule is here, but not yet fully realized.
Because of our exposure and partnership with a secular human rights group called Licadho which God seems to working through, we have been exposed to the heart of God at both Andong and Prey Sar Prison. Both Seila and I are convinced that our youth work must incorporate some of these Kingdom focuses on those outcasts who have suffered gross injustices at the hand of the rich and powerful. The ESC will be exploring ways in how they can have their hearts further broken by the things that breaks the heart of God as well.
# posted by Brian Maher @ 11:59 PM
