Several years ago, I read an ad in Christianity Today for a new book. I later came to find out that it was a short chapter out of the book itself.
It was a story about the killing fields of Cambodia, and the power of our great God as He answered the prayers of desperate people crying out for life.
I have read this account at least 12 times. I think I have cried almost every time.
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CAMBODIA…from The God Who Hung on A Cross by Dois Rosser, Jr., and Ellen Vaughn
To depopulate it’s major cities, in 1975 the Khmer Rouge regime forced 3,000,000 people into the countryside as slave labor. As a result, over 1,000,000 Cambodians starved to death.
In September 1999, a pastor named Em Daniel traveled to Khampong Tom province of Cambodia. Daniel had wanted to bring the Gospel to the remote villages there for years. But they had been under the control of Khmer Rouge Radicals until early 1999. Now, as far as anyone knew, he was the first person to speak of Jesus in that isolated area. Most villagers cast their lot with Buddhism or Spiritism; Christianity was unheard of.
But when Daniel arrived at one small, rural village, the people welcomed him eagerly. They could not hear enough about the Gospel. Smiling, Pastor Daniel asked the people why it was as if they had been waiting for him to come. An old woman bowed and grasped Pastor Daniel’s hands. “We have been waiting,” she said. “We have been waiting for you for twenty years.” And then she told him this story:
After the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, they made their way through the countryside, destroying just about anything created with purpose and design – bridges, highways, hospitals… human beings. It took a while, but after they had dealt with Phnom Penh and other city centers, they focused on the villages.
So it was that the soldiers came to this hamlet in 1979. Their technique was the same as it had been for countless communities, but for the people who lived there the terror was new.
The communists emerged from the jungle and strode from hut to hut, ordering villagers out. Those who resisted were shot at once; many died in front of their homes.
The rest were marched to a clearing behind the village. Their own farm tools were thrust into their hands. “Now dig!” the soldiers shouted.
The villagers hacked the red-clay soil, trembling with the dark realization that they were digging their own mass grave. Some lost their nerve and tried to run. They were shot and dragged to the edge of the still-shallow pit.
Hours passed as the people sweated and wept and dug… and finally, the hole was deep enough. The people laid down their spades and shovels. The soldiers shouted for them to turn and face the pit.
They braced themselves, waiting for the killing blows, knowing that the soldiers would bludgeon them to death rather than shoot them—why waste any more of their precious bullets on ordinary peasants?
The heavy, humid air lay still, and then the villagers began to cry out: the wail before death, when the heart’s longing to live becomes a desperate plea for help. Some screamed to Buddha, to ancestors, to demon spirits; a few cried to their mothers.
And then one woman began to cry, intuitively, to one of her earliest memories: the faint echo of a story, told her by her mother, about the God who hung on the cross.
She called out to God. Surely the One who had suffered Himself might have compassion on those about to die. Time stopped.
And suddenly the screams around her became one great wail, as the entire village called out as one, crying for their lives to the God who hung on the cross. There was only silence. They sobbed into the darkness of the pit before them.
Silence.
A flicker of hope.
And then the people turned, one by one. The jungle was empty. The soldiers were gone.
And ever since that astounding day in 1979, the people of that village had been waiting…waiting for someone to come and tell them more.
More about the God who hung on a cross.
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Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Your friend and brother in fighting the good fight,
Marc
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Saints, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!
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Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Marc White, Director, Walk Worthy Ministries, www.WalkWorthy.org
Steve says
Wow…that is a powerful testimony. How can I get a copy of this book? And can I post a link to this on my facebook wall?
jesusislord says
Brother Steve,
Yes, feel free to ‘share’ the link! You can find the book on Amazon we’re certain…
Blessings in Christ…
Brother Marc
Arria says
WHAT A FAITHFUL AND TRUE GOD WE SERVE!!! GLORIOUS HALLELUJAH!!!
jesusislord says
Arria –
Yes, He is! Majestic, powerful, tender, wrathful…all of these and more.
Thanks for writing.
Marc
Kathie says
This is my first knowledge of this happening. His WORD is true! Forever and always!
jesusislord says
Amen, dear sister Kathie!