Continued from My family’s cycle of redemption in SE Asia
One of the
most heart-rending side effects of the war was the genocide that subsequently
occurred in Cambodia, where nearly 2 million
people died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.
In 1980, not quite graduated from Wheaton College, yet seized by the same desire to
help in the face of calamity that had possessed my father, I traveled to a
Cambodian refugee camp.
For three
months, I wrestled to show love in a tangible way to the survivors of that
horror through pig and chicken projects.
All of which
brings us to today and the completion of this cycle of redemption. Talia has been on the World Race for nine
months.
Karen and I flew out to debrief
her team in Thailand a few weeks ago. We had the
privilege to see the incredible life change that this ministry is
producing.
Having left everything that
was familiar and comfortable in their lives for a year, these young people are
being transformed into radicals.
What a
great adventure it was to travel by boat to the island of Koh Samet to the debrief! What a privilege to help them work through
how they are going to continue to walk out what they’ve experienced for the rest
of their lives.
And today, I talked to Talia from Cambodia where
she and her team are working with local missionaries. Simultaneously, Seth Jr. is working in Thailand with his team at their
ministry site. When I checked it out on
the map, I was shocked to see that he’s in a village just a few miles from
the refugee camp where I served 27 years ago!
The capstone
to this story is that this week my parents traveled to Viet Nam for
what will probably be the last time. Who
could have known that they’d all converge on the same part of the world right
now?
Maybe I’m too mystical, but I can’t
help marveling at the way in which God seems to be weaving the theme of healing
in SE Asia through our family’s
history.
And in this
day and age of high tech communications, we get to participate in the ministry
and life change our kids and their teammates are experiencing on a daily basis
through their blogs.
Many parents and
supporters can’t go through a day without reading all the new blogs, and usually
there are dozens of them.
You can follow
Seth and Talia through their blogs by logging onto www.theWorldRace.org. The stories that they
and their teammates tell never cease to amaze me.
Seth Barnes
I'm motivated to join God in his global reclamation project. He's on the move, setting his sons and daughters free from their places of captivity. And he's partnering with those of us who have been freed to go and free others.