Friday September 29, 2006
By Camille Hughes Guard Staff Writer
Batesville Daily Guard (USA)
In which country can you walk through the biggest temple in the world and swim in a crystal clear volcanic lake? In which country can you shoot a grenade launcher and visit with a former communist guerrilla? In which country are skulls and land mine museums a tourist attraction?
Welcome to one of the most fascinating places on the face of the earth, where the people have lived out some of the worst horrors the world has ever known.
Welcome to Cambodia.
Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the poverty is evident everywhere you look. Steve Norris of Batesville and his daughter Whitney recently made a three-week mission trip to this country, where tourists were still being killed as recently as 1994 and 60 percent of the children under age 12 are suffering from malnutrition.
Norris, pastor of North Heights Church of Christ in Batesville, made the trip to teach a seminar at the Cambodia Bible Institute in Phnom Penh, the country’s capital. The school was established several years ago by Bob Berrard and James Lork, who is the main local teacher.
“The institute is training teachers and preachers to share with these people the hope we have in Jesus,” Norris said. This was the second trip to Phnom Penh for Norris, who has also made mission trips to Mexico City, South America and Africa.
Cambodia has a sad and relatively recent bloody history. The Khmer Rouge regime took over in 1975 with the aim of turning Cambodia into a peasant-dominated cooperative. It implemented one of the most brutal and radical revolutions ever seen. Everybody was sent to the countryside to work the land. The vast majority of the country’s educated people were tortured to death or executed. Simply being able to speak another language was enough to get a person killed.
Between 1 to 3 million people were killed from a population of 11 million, so there is hardly a family in this country that doesn’t still bear the scars of this revolution. When the government was finally overthrown by the Vietnamese army in 1978, the horror didn’t end as millions of land mines were planted to separate the rebel-held areas from the rest of Cambodia.
Today there are still around 6 million land mines dotted across the Cambodian landscape, which is about half the size of Germany.
“Despite their troubles these people are very friendly, welcoming and polite. That is the beauty of Cambodia,” Steve said. “Despite the horrors of the past a whole new generation is looking towards a brighter future and I felt it was a safe enough environment for Whitney to make the trip with me.”
Whitney Norris, a 19-year-old sophomore at Harding University, spent her time in Cambodia teaching English to the university students and helping to pass out food from the feeding truck.
“Partners in Progress, which is based out of Little Rock, along with the World English Institute have set up this program,” Steve said. “The feeding truck goes around twice a week to the different villages and passes out bread and fortified milk.”
Cambodia has a population of almost 14 million people. While struggling to recover from war and massive displacement, 40 percent of the population in rural areas still lives under the poverty line. Children under 12 have the worst malnutrition rates in Southeast Asia, with 45 percent of them underweight and 65 percent anemic.
“We spent a lot of time at an orphanage in Thom Nap Thom,” Whitney said. “The children are so sweet and so courteous and they are very thankful for whatever you give them.
The images you see in this country stay engraved on your heart and mind,” she continued. “The Killing Fields are right outside of town, but it took us a while to get there because the roads are unpaved and unsteady. The first thing you see is a beautiful monument, but then you get closer and notice that the 17-story building is holding more than 8,000 skulls which have been unearthed in the field behind it. And you can still see bones sticking up from the earth with bits of cloth on them. It is a true picture of the horrors that took place in Cambodia.”
“But the country does have other claims to fame,” Steve added. “Angkor Wat, the largest temple in the entire world, is in Cambodia. It was built in 900 A.D. It was absolutely breathtaking to see. I couldn’t even get the whole temple in a single photo because it was so huge. And they also have the largest fresh water lake in Southeast Asia, called Tonle’ Sap Lake.”
Steve was also impressed by a “floating village” he was able to visit. “The town called Siem Reap sits entirely on pontoons,” he explained. “The houses, hospital and police station are all on a large lake. When you want to move you just pull your house to another location with a boat!”
Today, Cambodia still struggles to overcome its dark history. It is a country filled with ancient culture and still fresh with grief. Thirty years after its brutal occupation by the Khmer Rouge, it is trying to prove to its people who have seen so much hurt, that there is hope.
———
To see a slide show of more photos and video of Steve Norris at the Bible institute, visit www.guardonline.com.
Welcome to one of the most fascinating places on the face of the earth, where the people have lived out some of the worst horrors the world has ever known.
Welcome to Cambodia.
Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the poverty is evident everywhere you look. Steve Norris of Batesville and his daughter Whitney recently made a three-week mission trip to this country, where tourists were still being killed as recently as 1994 and 60 percent of the children under age 12 are suffering from malnutrition.
Norris, pastor of North Heights Church of Christ in Batesville, made the trip to teach a seminar at the Cambodia Bible Institute in Phnom Penh, the country’s capital. The school was established several years ago by Bob Berrard and James Lork, who is the main local teacher.
“The institute is training teachers and preachers to share with these people the hope we have in Jesus,” Norris said. This was the second trip to Phnom Penh for Norris, who has also made mission trips to Mexico City, South America and Africa.
Cambodia has a sad and relatively recent bloody history. The Khmer Rouge regime took over in 1975 with the aim of turning Cambodia into a peasant-dominated cooperative. It implemented one of the most brutal and radical revolutions ever seen. Everybody was sent to the countryside to work the land. The vast majority of the country’s educated people were tortured to death or executed. Simply being able to speak another language was enough to get a person killed.
Between 1 to 3 million people were killed from a population of 11 million, so there is hardly a family in this country that doesn’t still bear the scars of this revolution. When the government was finally overthrown by the Vietnamese army in 1978, the horror didn’t end as millions of land mines were planted to separate the rebel-held areas from the rest of Cambodia.
Today there are still around 6 million land mines dotted across the Cambodian landscape, which is about half the size of Germany.
“Despite their troubles these people are very friendly, welcoming and polite. That is the beauty of Cambodia,” Steve said. “Despite the horrors of the past a whole new generation is looking towards a brighter future and I felt it was a safe enough environment for Whitney to make the trip with me.”
Whitney Norris, a 19-year-old sophomore at Harding University, spent her time in Cambodia teaching English to the university students and helping to pass out food from the feeding truck.
“Partners in Progress, which is based out of Little Rock, along with the World English Institute have set up this program,” Steve said. “The feeding truck goes around twice a week to the different villages and passes out bread and fortified milk.”
Cambodia has a population of almost 14 million people. While struggling to recover from war and massive displacement, 40 percent of the population in rural areas still lives under the poverty line. Children under 12 have the worst malnutrition rates in Southeast Asia, with 45 percent of them underweight and 65 percent anemic.
“We spent a lot of time at an orphanage in Thom Nap Thom,” Whitney said. “The children are so sweet and so courteous and they are very thankful for whatever you give them.
The images you see in this country stay engraved on your heart and mind,” she continued. “The Killing Fields are right outside of town, but it took us a while to get there because the roads are unpaved and unsteady. The first thing you see is a beautiful monument, but then you get closer and notice that the 17-story building is holding more than 8,000 skulls which have been unearthed in the field behind it. And you can still see bones sticking up from the earth with bits of cloth on them. It is a true picture of the horrors that took place in Cambodia.”
“But the country does have other claims to fame,” Steve added. “Angkor Wat, the largest temple in the entire world, is in Cambodia. It was built in 900 A.D. It was absolutely breathtaking to see. I couldn’t even get the whole temple in a single photo because it was so huge. And they also have the largest fresh water lake in Southeast Asia, called Tonle’ Sap Lake.”
Steve was also impressed by a “floating village” he was able to visit. “The town called Siem Reap sits entirely on pontoons,” he explained. “The houses, hospital and police station are all on a large lake. When you want to move you just pull your house to another location with a boat!”
Today, Cambodia still struggles to overcome its dark history. It is a country filled with ancient culture and still fresh with grief. Thirty years after its brutal occupation by the Khmer Rouge, it is trying to prove to its people who have seen so much hurt, that there is hope.
———
To see a slide show of more photos and video of Steve Norris at the Bible institute, visit www.guardonline.com.
8 comments:
Thank you Sir and Miss for visiting our country. Also, for not just seeing it in your eyes , but also in your heart.
Many best wishes!!!
Stick your bible up your ass Cambodia is BUDDHIST
Cambodia may be, but you're not.
To Mr. Steve Norris of Batesville and his beautiful daughter Whitney for the best of good luck. I thank you for highlight the bitterness and the sweetness of Cambodian people but you fail to mention the Vietnamese occuption for 10 long years and ignited a civil war and Cambodian people never see the peace and prosperity until the UN came in and even now Cambodia hasn't change much since then.
That has to be the most ridiculous thing I've read in the comment section in a while. Really? Cambodia is Buddhist? Every Cambodian is a Buddhist, really? Seems to me that Cambodia has many religions: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam to name three. Also, isn't Angkor Wat a Hindu temple? So, Cambodia hasn't always been Buddhist, has it?
To 10:49p.m
Please don't pay attention to my brother. He doesn't know everything.
Yes, Cambodia is a Buddism country, but Cambodia is also a pluralis society and it's free for people to choose and do or worship whomever God they want to worship.
Please brother give peace, freedom and love a chance. It's for the love of our Lord Buddha and for people around the world!
To 5:50p.m
You know that you are going to H... by saying that. You go and apologize to Mr. Norris and his daughter now!!!!!!!!
You made feel ashame to be Cambodian and I mean it.
To brother 4:50PM
Please excuse the behavior of 5:59AM for he spoke with emotion and anger. I reason that when people are too emotional and full of anger and they lost their reasoning and fail to see thing in the right way even evidences and facts point to it.
This is the beauty for being a human. ahahah!
Post a Comment