Green Drinks

Steve and I tried something new tonight.  Green Drinks is an international monthly event dedicated to the environment and conservation.   And we got to be a part of the very first one in all of Cambodia.

I don’t think about the environment enough.  But it is so important in the justice conversation.  It’s about stewardship, about worship, and about honouring our brothers and sisters who live on this planet with us.

You care for the land and water it;
you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to provide the people with grain,
for so you have ordained it. ^{(psalm 65:9)}

Lord, help me to be more mindful of your gorgeous creation and how I can discipline myself more to honor and steward it.

let the NGOs do it

sitting five metres from the Gulf of Thailand, I am mesmerized by the deep blue that stretches to infinity before me.  Hemmed in by a few gulf islands that calm the sea.

Small waves lick the shoreline.  Nothing but quiet.  And peace.

Which is disturbed by 10 & 11 year olds selling trinkets, jewelry, massages, pedicures.  They drive me insane.

“Hello miss, buy bracelet?  You want massage?”

I ignore them.  NGOs always say to never buy stuff – anything – from the street urchins.  It reinforces and legitimizes this behaviour.

But I wonder what other alternative they have.  Within a kilometre of this pristine beach, there is a squatter camp.  The stench cauterized my nostrils as we drove by.  Smoke from wood fires, makeshift latrines, animals, and dirty, uncleaned skin mixing to make a god-awful smell.

Without a doubt some of the beach sellers ply the sand by day and spend the night with their families in those rickety, collapsing huts.

Who knows if they go to school.  Who knows how much they eat and what their families do to make a living.  These girls could be single handedly providing for a family of five or six.  Or maybe their fathers and mothers work on the construction crews that are building the new five star hotel across the street.

“Let the NGOs do it,” we say.

But isn’t it just so easy to play God in the lives of the poor.  Me.  With my blonde hair and distinct caucasionness, and my purely Western upbringing…How can I possibly know what is best for people eking out survival in Cambodia.

I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

I am reminded of a Derek Webb song – Rich Young Ruler.

so what must we do.

here in the west we want to follow you.

we speak the language and we keep all the rules – even a few we made up.

common and follow me.

but sell your house sell your suv.

sell your stocks and your securities

and give it to the poor.

It’s a whole lot easier for me to say “let the NGOs do it” when what Jesus really wants is for me to take him and his words seriously.  I’m just not sure what that looks like yet.

november resolution

i wonder maybe if i’ve gone about blogging all wrong.  i’m tried to be too smart.  to witty.  too wise.

And when you try too hard to do anything, it always backfires.  the best things are the ones that roll out naturally.  that’s when it is the most beautiful.  i once heard that we should write what we know.  and when i try to hard, i try to be smart at the things i don’t know – and i think people can see through that.

so here’s to a new blogging beginning.

to honesty.  to authenticity.  to courage.

to getting out in the open the things i do know…and being real about the things i don’t.

to saying the things that are spilling over in my heart from the past year and a bit that i’ve lived in this beautiful Cambodian kingdom.  because i think the things i’ve learned are worth sharing – and maybe, somewhere around the world, someone can find some nugget of truth in the messiness of these stories of following Jesus and pursuing justice and love.

-amie

why i buy?

Our home church group has been discussing the theology of poverty.  i cannot believe how nicely colossians remixed fits within the scope of the dialogue.

we have been talking about the lies we believe as truth.  about empire and consumerism.  about coveting.  about the lust and greed for more.    and about how we have all internalized the images and icons that surround us every day.  images of beauty and perfection.  of  the complete and happy life.

and how one can never actually get there (wherever there is) because there is always something new to make you realize that you still haven’t got it.

you are only what you are able to buy.

and so we buy.

and buy. and buy.

and

buy

buy

buy

and how unlike Jesus that theology of affluence is.  the Jesus who said that “life does not consist of an abundance of possessions.” (lk. 12:5)

And perhaps more importantly, that Jesus calls us to something higher.  brighter.  to choose him as our God instead of money and the lust for more.  because Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

It becomes a justice issue too…

“it isn’t difficult to see how the powerful myths of our own culture are evident in the images that surround us in daily life…these images tell a story of consumer affluence, Western superiority and the ineluctable march of economic progress…

Just as in the ancient world the images of peace and prosperity masked the reality of inequality and violence, so the contemporary images projected by advertising maske the reality of sweatshop, inequality, and domestic and international violence created by our lifestyles. ” (colossians remixed (63)

Lord, teach me to live serving only you as Lord.

colossians remixed

Colossians Remixed (Brian J. Walsh & Sylvia Keesmaat) is the book I am reading right now.

Wham.

It is intense.  It is forcing me out onto the balcony every morning to reflect and cry out to God for wisdom and discernment.  For how to live in this age of global empire.  Where I am tempted every hour it feels by new things and wanting to buy and this deep, ugly, evil, unsatiable desire for more.  more more more more more.

I might live in Cambodia where I am surrounded by the grinding reality of poverty.  Of people who don’t even have their most basic needs met.  Of forced evictions.  Of human trafficking.  And still the ugly monster (I want more) rears its head.  And I covet what I don’t have.

God forgive me.

And teach me how to live.  And give me the courage and the discipline to obey.

Amen

nonviolence

as i work in Phnom Penh, I’m often enveloped in really incredible stories of transformation and hope.  This post by Chris Baker Evens on the Sojourners blog reminds me to always be aware of what’s happening under the surface in Cambodia.  It calls me to action – I still don’t know what yet.  But the spark is there.

Read the article, The Dark Side of Development.

a prayer for justice and peace

Saw this in Google Reader this morning from Sojourners.  Beautiful isn’t it?

Voice of the Day: Taizé Hymn
08-10-2009

The kingdom of God is justice and peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Come, Lord, and open in us
the gates of your kingdom.

- Hymn from Taizé,
an ecumenical monastic community in France

AFP - Cambodian students read textbooks about the hardline Khmer Rouge regime at the Hun Sen Ang Snuol high school in Kandal province, west of Phnom Penh. It plunged their country into a communist "Year Zero" in the late 1970s and killed about a third of the population, but most young Cambodians shrug when asked about the Khmer Rouge.

Great news from the Kingdom of Cambodia!  Students are now going to learn about the Khmer Rouge Regime that devastated the country 30 years ago.  History books have never included that extremely dark chapter in Cambodia’s history even though the country is dealing with the afteraffects of Pol Pot, his extreme policies, and the thousands upon thousands of individuals who lost their lives during his reign of terror.

I am hopeful.

For the new generation.  They are a generation marked by the nightmares of their parents, by human trafficking, by incredible development and change, and hopefully now – a way to make sure the past never happens again.

genocide and justice today

I went to the trial of a mass murderer the other day.  I even heard his voice – through earphones projected over a sound system – but nonetheless his voice.  It’s hard to believe looking at him while he sits, small and frail in the defense box, that Duch was the one who gave the execution order for thousands upon thousands of people during his leadership at Tuol Sleng.

I learned something else today:  that the school across the street from my house was not just a torture and execution centre, but was also a burial ground for awhile.  Dozens of bodies were interred there, until the Khmer Rouge became concerned about sanitation and moved the execution grounds out of Phnom Penh to the infamous Killing Fields at Choeung Ek.

As I sat in the gallery of the Court and watched the drama unfold before me, I couldn’t help but wonder what it was accomplishing.  Today, Duch was being questioned about S24, a third Khmer Rouge centre that operated as a labor and re-education camp.  Most people were shuffled from S24 to either Choeung Ek or S21 (Tuol Sleng) for execution.

Slow.  Droning detail.  Question after question.  Digging a little more for a bit more detail.  The word for execution?  Smash.  Duch gave the word, and women, babies, children and men were smashed.

Still, in spite of Duch’s often gory confession, I do wonder what the trials are accomplishing.  It’s taken no less than 30 years for the UN in partnership with the Kingdom of Cambodia to get them started.  The ECCC is outside of Phnom Penh by about 10km in a stunning, state of the art, glossy new compound.  The trials are open to the public, but it’ll take you 40 minutes (and about $10) to get there – making it out of the question for your average Cambodian.  There was a group of Cambodian students at the trials today, which was a glimmer of hope for me.

Still though, only 6 former Khmer Rouge are being tried.  Co-Prosecutor, Pierre Petit (Canadian woohoo!) has resigned from his post for personal reasons.  It is rumored, however, that his ‘personal reasons’ is the lack of justice that under girds the whole trial.  He can identify at least 6 other individuals (all in upper-level positions of the current government) who should be tried but are not.

Plus, it was 30 years ago that all of this happened.  One of my coworkers was planning on coming today but decided against it.  “What will it accomplish,” she told me.  “It is in the past.  We all know what happened and want to move on.”  She thinks the Khmer Rouge secrets will go to the grave with them – exactly where they belong.

Fair enough.  Except I can’t help thinking that Cambodia’s battle with history isn’t over.  Because the secrets it holds from the Khmer Rouge era are feeding a current generation of leaders with the idea that you can get away with murder.  In Cambodia, that’s not just an idea – it’s reality.  The future of Cambodia lies in how deep Cambodians dive into their modern history, and how the Khmer Rouge regime is brought to justice.

musings

i spoke today at my parent’s church – Hope Covenant – in Strathmore about Hagar. i’m not a pro when it comes to public speaking, but i believe so firmly in the work that Hagar is doing that it kind of oozed out of me.

after having lived in Cambodia for the past 8 months, and working with Hagar, i think i actually believe in redemption – i actually believe that new life is possible – in this life time. i’m reminded of the redeeming power of love every day as I work for Hagar and hear stories of reintegration. women and kids who’ve come out of the most horrendous conditions – trafficking for sexual exploitation, horrific domestic violence, rape – are finding hope and new life through the work Hagar does. that inspires me. i also live across the street from tuol sleng, the old interrogation center the khmer rouge used to torture people (14,000 of them) before shuffling them off to the killing fields. now, the neighborhood is a pensive one. apparently it took years for people to populate this area again. but now there are families. and that’s where we live. on the second floor of townhouse, overlooking the banana grove behind the torture centre. i love where i live because it reminds of how jesus can make all things new. and how people are dreaming again in cambodia – a country that was devastated by civil war.

so my heart is full today. full of hope. and expectation that God is bringing new life to this world as His body cares for the oppressed, feeds the hungry, and speaks out truth in love.