Answering the Call to work with Dying Prisoners in Cambodia

Answering the Call

Lisa Cescon left a high-level position with a top entertainment company in London to work with dying prisoners in Cambodia.

PFI.org

As a young child, Lisa Cescon hated the inequity she saw around her. “You're lucky if you are someone who has the ability to succeed in life, and you're just jolly unlucky if you don‘t” she reflected. But Ms. Cescon was blessed with the ability to succeed, and she eventually became a top executive at Warner Brothers in London, England.

Despite being a committed volunteer all her life, her desire to help those less fortunate deepened. At the age of 35, she made the decision give up her successful career to go to Cambodia. Shortly after arriving in Phnom Penh, she and her friend Nicola received the call to work with prisoners. They were earnestly praying that God would use them in some direct way, when they were interrupted by a phone call from a local woman they had recently met. She asked if they would be willing to conduct weekly prison visits. “That was God,” Ms. Cescon recalled. “I am a real cynic - but I know that was God. We had both worked in prisons before.”

And thus began Lisa Cescon‘s ministry to dying prisoners in Cambodia. In a country wrought with corruption, poverty and the after effects of the Pol Pot genocide, prisoners in Cambodia face dire conditions. A lack of food and water lead to the rampant spread of disease, including tuberculosis, AIDS and Hepatitis C. When they become severely ill, the prisoners are moved to a decrepit wing of a military hospital, but without access to medicine most die a slow and painful death.

Lisa and other volunteers visit these prisoners regularly, teaching them songs in their native Khmer, including the Lord‘s Prayer and Psalm 121. “They will memorise the songs, and during the week, when they‘re frightened, they‘ll remember the words,” she explains. The songs have a powerful affect on the prisoners. Lisa describes one emaciated AIDS victim who was shaking with intense pain and fear. “We sang to him and God‘s presence came upon him and he visibly changed before our eyes. He relaxed and had peace.”

Ms. Cescon shared some of her experiences at the PFI Convocation in Toronto, referring to her time with these frail prisoners as a “real privilege.” She has been working with PF Cambodia to improve conditions in the deteriorated prison wing of Monivong Hospital, and recently PFI provided a grant to be used for renovation of the currently unusable toilet and sewage system.