The King Father

This past week, Cambodia’s King Father passed away. It was a significant death for all Cambodians as he was king for many decades and is seen as divine. The King Father had been living in China receiving medical care while his son acted as king in Cambodia. Last Monday, on the day of the King Father’s death, Alan was out in the city and saw crowds already gathering in prayer at the palace. Last Wednesday, the King Father's body was brought back to Phnom Penh, and most of the city greeted his body at the airport. We decided not to brave the crowds with our little one but instead walked to a family run “coffee shop” down the street and watched the footage on the TV there. Two nights ago, many Cambodians said they saw the face of the king in the moon. 

Songs from the musical Evita have been swirling through my head as I see several parallels with her story. As an American, it is hard to understand the devotion and worship that citizens of other countries have for their leaders.  Although I am far from the hubbub of the presidential campaign, I imagine that crowds aren’t teeming to pray to Obama or Romney—maybe for them, but not to them.  It has been an interesting and significant time to be living in Cambodia.

For more information on the King Father and the fascinating person that he was, go to:

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/14/world/asia/cambodia-king-obit/index.html?iref=allsearch

For pictures, go to:

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/17/asia/gallery/cambodia-mourns-king/index.html?hpt=ias_mid

 

-Katy

Stop and pray for Cambodia right now!

Cambodia needs your prayers right now. We are currently in the middle of the biggest Buddhist holiday in Cambodia called Pchum Ben. Cambodians believe that the “gates of hell” open up during this holiday, and they need to appease their ancestors by bringing food and worshiping at the pagodas. It is a time when everyone returns to their homeland and visits the pagodas of their ancestors. They believe that  bringing food for their dead ancestors will somehow protect them from evil spirits. Some people will bring rice to the gates of the pagodas and throw the rice in the pagodas before dawn because they are afraid of the really bad spirits.

Since everyone goes to their homeland, it’s interesting to be in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, during this holiday because everything shuts down and the city of 2 million people becomes a ghost town for about 4 days. It’s almost eerie because of the silence and lack of traffic on the city streets.

Pchum Ben is a very spiritual holiday, and the people of Cambodia need God to enter their lives. Please pray that people would start to hear the one true God calling out to them and that Cambodian Christians would stay firm in their faith in God and not conform to the patterns of the world. Pray that CGI staff, participants, friends and family would all return safely to us once this holiday is over next week.