Lessons From History (It's a long blog, but interesting. I think...)

Thurday morning I did admin work at Ruth's house. (she's the CEO and creator of Daughters). I kinda love admin work so that was easy, but the best part was afterwards when I got to talk to her as we ate lunch in her living room. I asked her a ton of questions about how she came to Cambodia, about how she started Daughters, and about the sex industry in general. Long story short, God very strongly called her to Cambodia and gave her clear visions about how to best help these women. Daughters is pretty...what's the word...revolutionary? in it's tactics towards trafficked people because the old and still popular model is the Raid and Rescue tactic (I think that's what it's called...) where they storm into the brothels, shut them down, and take all the girls and put them into a safe, loving place where they are trained. The problem with this method is that it does not solve the main reason why they are in the brothels: money. Here in Cambodia there is EXTREME pressure from their families to make money to support them- it's not like in America where you can just leave your family if you don't get along. I was shocked to find that often times the families aren't even extremely poor; they sell their daughters not for survival but to sustain substance addictions or greed for more stuff so that they can seem wealthier. Anyway, the Raid and Rescue method fails 90% of the time because the girls get out of this "retreat" type place where they are completely isolated from real life, and after 6 months when they get out they are in the same perdicament they were in before...I need to make money for my family. Most times the families will just sell them right back into the brothels. Ruth thinks that this tactic could be successful if they gave the girls income DURING and AFTER training. This is what Daughters does, and after 3 years there are 60-70 girls and 7 boys, whereas the Raid and Rescue organizations average about 8 girls who stay out of the brothels a year. I was devastated by the answer to my next question: why is the sex industry, including trafficking, SO PREVALENT in Thailand and Cambodia more than anywhere else? When did this happen? Ruth said that during the Vietnam war, many American soldiers would find prostitutes to sleep with while they were in South East Asia, and after the war the countries were so poor that they capitalized on the one business that was booming. This is why the governments are not quick to enforced the laws against brothels and trafficking, because sex tourism generates SO much money for their countries. I'm not saying American soldiers are the cause of all this. (I support the troops, Ranae!) Many of the customers now are from all parts of Asia, and of course Cambodian men so I'm not saying that Americans are worse than anyone else, but it was just really sad to think that this industry here was first started by my countrymen. I guess it's even more depressing to think about what my fellow human beings can do to each other...

Saturday was even more depressing. I went to Toulsleng, which used to be a high school but it was turned into a prison camp during the awful revolution in the late 70's led by the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge was terrible. Nazi status. And Toulsleng was the main place where the victims were totured before they were sent to the killing fields to be horribly murdered. Toulsleng is now sorta like a museum where they give tours and stuff, and our tourguide led us through the different rooms, tiny cells where captives were made to stay, where and how they were tortured with the actual torture instruments. I won't go into detail, but it was as if I could hear the echoes of their screams... The crazy part was that it really did look like a high school, so I kept picturing my high school being turned upside down and made into a prison camp. I looked at the white and orange square tiles and thought how much the prisoners must have hated that floor... How survivors probably have NO orange in their homes now. Next I went to one of the many killing fields where prisoners were taken to be killed and buried. It's only been since 1980, so it wasn't even completely excavated yet, so even the dirt paths I walked on had pieces of clothes and bones sticking out that the rain will wash up from victims that were buried there. It was disturbing to say the least. 2 million people were executed when Cambodia only had 7 million people, making this the most devastating massacre in the modern world- even proportionally worse than the Holocaust. I kept wishing that the victims could some how have gained power to overthrow the Khmer Rouge, but then I would come to the conclusion that had they been given the power and the weapons, the same kind of atrocities would have been done, only to the other side. We are all capable of doing such evil. How do we beat this evil? By the end of the day I felt covered in death, and I couldn't free my thoughts from nightmarish images... I prayed that God would give me peace and help me to think of pleasant Holy things, especially into the night. It wasn't until I went to church this morning that I realized that my Jesus was tortured in the same way. He was beaten, whipped, stabbed with thorns to his head, and hanged on a cross to sufficate and die. But one of the last things he said to God was "forgive them, for they know not what they do." Jesus forgave. Suddenly I felt like I was taking my first breath since before going to Toulsleng because I remembered the way to victory. Forgiveness! Love! There's no other way! If you take revenge then you are just as monstrous! You wanna hear about God's power??? Duch was the leader of Toulsleng. He not only devised the torture methods and ordered them to be carried out, but he personally participated. After the Vietnamese overthrew the Khmer Rouge he was the ONLY main leader to 1. turn himself in 2. admit to all his crimes and 3. show remorse. He sobbed at his trial and visited Toulsleng to recount what they did there with the deepest sorrow. He then became a born again Christian!!! He has repented of his atrocious crimes and has accepted the grace and forgiveness of God! He gets visited in prison every week by a pastor. Be inspired: if a man like Toulsleng can come to Christ, a man as horrible as Hitler, if God can break through to a man who was entrenched in evil and darkness of the worst kind, then we serve a very mighty God. Keep praying for those you love who do not yet know Christ... There is ALWAYS hope.

I have often times found myself getting full of rage towards brothel owners, customers, sex tourists, parents who willingly sell their children, and government officials who support the industry. I have more than once pictured the scene in Inglorious Bastards where the French girl shoots down and sets fire to a theater containing Hitler and his Nazi friends, all while terrorizing them with the sound of her laughter on the loud speaker. Me being the French girl, and all those people I hate in the theater. But what then would that solve? That was not Jesus' way... (although sometimes I wish it was! ...maybe I'm a Zealot...) How am I supposed to love and forgive these awful people?!?!?!! But these are the people Christ willingly died for. Like Libbie once told me, these men are broken too. Men who must be extremely lonely... it's hard for me to feel sorry for them, but obviously the only way to stop this industry is to change the hearts of the supporters and customers. That's a feat only the power of God can take care of. But if he changed the heart of Duch, then I pray that HIS KINGDOM CRASH INTO THIS PLACE! THAT HE WOULD SOFTEN HEARTS, REBUKE, CORRECT! THAT HE WOULD TAKE CONTROL AND DEFEAT THE POWERS OF DARKNESS ALL FOR HIS GLORY!!! I believe. Amen.

I promise to write more uplifting things in my next post. :) There is much to say about the good that God is doing here... Intrigued? Until next time! Stay classy, San Diego!