My family’s cycle of redemption in SE Asia (Pt. 2)

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.

The stories that they and their teammates tell never cease to amaze me.