Seth and Meagan Mau, along with their children Madison and Ethan, are going to Cambodia to be missionaries. Seth was born in Cambodia and he and his family fled the country to escape the mass killings by the Khmer Rouge. Seth and Megan have been mission interns at the Yakima Bible Baptist Church for several years. (Photo GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic).By ADRIANA JANOVICH
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC (Yakima, Washington, USA)
Seth Mau was too young to remember.
Born in Cambodia in 1973, he was just 3 years old when he and his parents and older brother fled the horror of the Killing Fields.
Nine miles from the capital of Phnom Penh, where Seth was born, the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek contain mass graves for perhaps 20,000 Cambodians, many of whom were tortured before being killed.
The soccer field-size area surrounded by farmland is one of hundreds of sites around Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla group, practiced genocide in the late 1970s.
Some of Seth's family didn't survive.
"If I have to describe the Killing Fields," he says now, three decades later, "it was a senseless act by evil men who killed millions of innocent lives and changed the face of Cambodia forever."
Thirty years after he escaped, Seth, now an ordained Baptist minister, is going back. He's bringing his wife, Meagan, and their two children, Ethan and Madison, and they plan to stay.
And spread the Word.
The Mau family of Yakima is embarking on a mission to Cambodia. They left Tuesday and will depart the United States on Sept. 14.
Their purpose is fourfold: Learn the language; lead Cambodians to Jesus Christ; establish independent, fundamental Baptist churches; and train Cambodians for the ministry.
"It's hard to believe it's finally
happening," says 26-year-old Meagan. "We've been preparing for it since Bible college."
The past several years, Seth and Meagan have served as mission interns at Yakima Bible Baptist Church. The past two years, they've been traveling around the Pacific Northwest, seeking support for their mission. They estimate their family's living and missionary work expenses, which will be administered by the Texas-based Global Independent Baptist Missions, at $3,800 a month.
"Our main desire is we can teach people the truth of the Bible," Meagan says.
"I think the difficulty would be trying to convince them to break a tradition that they've been so used to," says 33-year-old Seth.
Ninety-five percent of Cambodia's approximately 13 million people are Buddhist. The other 5 percent are mostly Muslim. Cambodia has a small but growing Christian community that makes up about 1 percent of the population.
"Not too many people would be willing to go," says the Rev. David J. Brown, pastor at Yakima Bible Baptist Church. "It's a real exciting commitment."
"In our definition of missionary, they go there for life," Brown says. "They're not just going for two or three years. It's not a career choice or place to go or a job. It's their calling."
For much of the past three decades, Cambodia has suffered through political upheaval and massive genocide. From 1975 to 1979, the dictator Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge soldiers killed 1.7 million Cambodians, or 21 percent of the population, according to Yale University's Cambodia Genocide Program.
It was a campaign based on constant fear. The Khmer Rouge forced city dwellers into the countryside and labor camps. People were made to work 14-hour days. Children were separated from their parents. Infants, children, adults and the elderly were killed without reason.
When the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, approximately 600,000 Cambodians fled to Thai border camps.
Fifteen years ago, the United Nations installed a peacekeeping mission in Cambodia to ensure free and fair elections after the withdrawal of the Vietnamese troops.
Today, with the help of foreign aid, things — including the economy — seem to be stabilizing. Tourists now visit the Killing Fields. Many guides tell personal stories of how they survived, often by becoming refugees.
"Some people were fortunate enough to escape," Seth says. "We came (to America) to start a new life. I was 3; I don't remember anything."
His parents didn't talk much about their old life: "It was a difficult subject," Seth says.
He and his family were sponsored by a church and arrived in Tacoma in 1976. Ten years later, Seth was baptized.
After he graduated from Tacoma's Henry Foss High School in 1991, he worked a variety of jobs — from commercial fishing to restaurant work — before feeling called to serve. He enrolled in Heartland Bible Baptist College in Oklahoma City, where he met Meagan, a 1998 Eisenhower High School graduate who was born and raised in Yakima. They've been talking about serving as missionaries in Cambodia since before they were married in 2001, the same year Seth graduated. When Meagan graduated a year later, the couple moved to Yakima.
Last fall, Seth, Meagan and their son Ethan, now 2, visited Cambodia in preparation for their mission. During that trip, they met a number of Seth's relatives — two uncles, an aunt, cousins — who survived the Killing Fields.
Seth says he would like to learn more about his family history. To him, Cambodia seemed foreign, yet familiar.
"The people there know I am Cambodian but that I didn't grow up there," he says. "My dress was different. My demeanor was different. Even the way I looked was different. I look American."
Seth grew up speaking Cambodian at home. Now, Meagan — who will home-school Ethan and nearly 4-month-old Madison — is learning. In Cambodia, she will lead women's groups, including Bible study. Seth, who was ordained two weeks ago, will teach people about Christianity and start new churches.
In a couple of years, they plan to return to Yakima and report on their progress. After that, they plan to go back to Cambodia. It's where they plan to live, raise their children, spread the Word.
Seth uses a certain King James Bible verse — John 14:6 — as his guide:
"Jesus saith unto Him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: No man cometh unto the father, but by Me."
Born in Cambodia in 1973, he was just 3 years old when he and his parents and older brother fled the horror of the Killing Fields.
Nine miles from the capital of Phnom Penh, where Seth was born, the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek contain mass graves for perhaps 20,000 Cambodians, many of whom were tortured before being killed.
The soccer field-size area surrounded by farmland is one of hundreds of sites around Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla group, practiced genocide in the late 1970s.
Some of Seth's family didn't survive.
"If I have to describe the Killing Fields," he says now, three decades later, "it was a senseless act by evil men who killed millions of innocent lives and changed the face of Cambodia forever."
Thirty years after he escaped, Seth, now an ordained Baptist minister, is going back. He's bringing his wife, Meagan, and their two children, Ethan and Madison, and they plan to stay.
And spread the Word.
The Mau family of Yakima is embarking on a mission to Cambodia. They left Tuesday and will depart the United States on Sept. 14.
Their purpose is fourfold: Learn the language; lead Cambodians to Jesus Christ; establish independent, fundamental Baptist churches; and train Cambodians for the ministry.
"It's hard to believe it's finally
happening," says 26-year-old Meagan. "We've been preparing for it since Bible college."
The past several years, Seth and Meagan have served as mission interns at Yakima Bible Baptist Church. The past two years, they've been traveling around the Pacific Northwest, seeking support for their mission. They estimate their family's living and missionary work expenses, which will be administered by the Texas-based Global Independent Baptist Missions, at $3,800 a month.
"Our main desire is we can teach people the truth of the Bible," Meagan says.
"I think the difficulty would be trying to convince them to break a tradition that they've been so used to," says 33-year-old Seth.
Ninety-five percent of Cambodia's approximately 13 million people are Buddhist. The other 5 percent are mostly Muslim. Cambodia has a small but growing Christian community that makes up about 1 percent of the population.
"Not too many people would be willing to go," says the Rev. David J. Brown, pastor at Yakima Bible Baptist Church. "It's a real exciting commitment."
"In our definition of missionary, they go there for life," Brown says. "They're not just going for two or three years. It's not a career choice or place to go or a job. It's their calling."
For much of the past three decades, Cambodia has suffered through political upheaval and massive genocide. From 1975 to 1979, the dictator Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge soldiers killed 1.7 million Cambodians, or 21 percent of the population, according to Yale University's Cambodia Genocide Program.
It was a campaign based on constant fear. The Khmer Rouge forced city dwellers into the countryside and labor camps. People were made to work 14-hour days. Children were separated from their parents. Infants, children, adults and the elderly were killed without reason.
When the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, approximately 600,000 Cambodians fled to Thai border camps.
Fifteen years ago, the United Nations installed a peacekeeping mission in Cambodia to ensure free and fair elections after the withdrawal of the Vietnamese troops.
Today, with the help of foreign aid, things — including the economy — seem to be stabilizing. Tourists now visit the Killing Fields. Many guides tell personal stories of how they survived, often by becoming refugees.
"Some people were fortunate enough to escape," Seth says. "We came (to America) to start a new life. I was 3; I don't remember anything."
His parents didn't talk much about their old life: "It was a difficult subject," Seth says.
He and his family were sponsored by a church and arrived in Tacoma in 1976. Ten years later, Seth was baptized.
After he graduated from Tacoma's Henry Foss High School in 1991, he worked a variety of jobs — from commercial fishing to restaurant work — before feeling called to serve. He enrolled in Heartland Bible Baptist College in Oklahoma City, where he met Meagan, a 1998 Eisenhower High School graduate who was born and raised in Yakima. They've been talking about serving as missionaries in Cambodia since before they were married in 2001, the same year Seth graduated. When Meagan graduated a year later, the couple moved to Yakima.
Last fall, Seth, Meagan and their son Ethan, now 2, visited Cambodia in preparation for their mission. During that trip, they met a number of Seth's relatives — two uncles, an aunt, cousins — who survived the Killing Fields.
Seth says he would like to learn more about his family history. To him, Cambodia seemed foreign, yet familiar.
"The people there know I am Cambodian but that I didn't grow up there," he says. "My dress was different. My demeanor was different. Even the way I looked was different. I look American."
Seth grew up speaking Cambodian at home. Now, Meagan — who will home-school Ethan and nearly 4-month-old Madison — is learning. In Cambodia, she will lead women's groups, including Bible study. Seth, who was ordained two weeks ago, will teach people about Christianity and start new churches.
In a couple of years, they plan to return to Yakima and report on their progress. After that, they plan to go back to Cambodia. It's where they plan to live, raise their children, spread the Word.
Seth uses a certain King James Bible verse — John 14:6 — as his guide:
"Jesus saith unto Him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: No man cometh unto the father, but by Me."
5 comments:
How many more Bible teachings are they going to offer to Cambodians who are now so confused by Morman, 7 days, Jehowa's Witness, Catholic, Methodism, on and on.. These chistians are divided. They themselves don't even accept each other. Are they now trying to divide Cambodians? Is this a help or to create more divisions? Stop worshiping idol Buddha, bibles and money will be used heavely to buy faith... Many rules in bible conflict itself. Look at Warren Jeffs, how many wives and millions does he have? Are you spreading it to Cambodia?
Dear Mr Seth Mau,
You want to convert Cambodians from bouddhist to Christianist, don't you? so you think that the advice of bouddha is not as good as Jesus.
Can you explain why Protestants Catholics irish have been fighting each others for years though they are Christians and all believe in JESUS
Khmer rourb rourm cheat
Religions are one of the principal source of division, the war. so stop to divide anymore khmers. we are all fed up of that.
RESPONSE TO 9:51 am COMMENTTATOR
Dear friend
Why did Khmers killed khmers. I'm buddhist and I could see the killing is coming from intolerance,arrogant,and being unfulfilled oneself with peaceful mind. it is nothing to do with religious. Buddha and Jesus and Muslim are teaching people to love one another. Buddha taught us not to kill and Jesus taught us "love your neighbors and enemy". Islam want us to make peace. We have to accept ourselves strengths and weaknesses,which we need to learn, listen, and feel others.
Love and peace
It is not just Khmers killed Khmers, Indians killed Indians, any races killed each others. Hitler killed Jews, Jews (Israel) killed Palistines, on and on... Most of these killing are from relegious conflicts. Religions have been on earth for thousands of years, but the killings are still going on.. Religions were used as an excuses to kill. It is the failure of religious teaching to blaim. Christians used money to buy faith while others don't. Paying salary, brain washed missionary people to spead their empire.... Those who are Chritians they themselves are corrupted look at Warren Jeffs. Priests raped young boys...
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