Oh the places you will go

What if some of the places you go are not pleasant places but the places of much pain and misery? What do these types of places have to tell us about ourselves, our roles as humans on this planet, and our Christian journey? These are the types of places our journey included today.
An escapable part of the Cambodian story is the years of genocide brought about during the regime of Pol Pot. The Dalai Lama has said that the Chinese government response to the Tibetan people brought the people into the understanding of the world. The systematic extermination of the Cambodian people by their own government essentially did the same for Cambodia. Our journey began at breakfast when the sixth member of our team, Sam, joined us. Sam is a Cambodian who survived the extermination and now pastors a UMC in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sam was housed in a camp in the northern part of the country, and literally escaped being killed because his name sounded like an Islamic name, and he was given unpleasant tasks to do. He told us that he became so angered by the actions of his captives that he often incited them to harm him so he would simply die. His anger did not stop there. He became so enraged, that the only thing he wanted to do was to escape, so he could die in another place. Ultimately he and his surviving family made it into Thailand, where journalists and aid workers would not believe the stories of atrocities that he told.
After breakfast we went to the Choeung Ek Genocide Center, which is the area known as the Killing Fields. Located about 30 minutes outside of Phnom Penh it is where the intellectuals and professionals were taken after interrogation and summarily executed. It is estimated that 2 million Cambodians were put to death here. This historical and memorial site is a government supported center, and remains a working recovery site. Remains are still being recovered, and the peoples clothing which was stripped off and buried still makes its way to the surface. The central point of the site is a Stupa, a traditional Buddhist memorial for the head. This beautiful structure has glass walls to permit you to see the horror that is within.
From there we traveled back into Phnom Penh to the Tuoi Sleng camp or S-21. Originally a high school, it was transformed into cells, some individual for torture and interrogation, while others were converted into 10 – 12 small holding cells, while others remained unchanged, but large numbers of people were crammed into them. The rooms have been left as they were, including the metal frame beds and shackles. One holding building was draped with barbed wire so that the desperate would not prematurely end their lives.
I was unable to complete the tour, and joined Sam under a Japroot tree where we talked of deep theological issues. What good could come out of these things? How has God used this to bring the Kingdom of God to Cambodia? What is our responsibility as Christians in the world to not permit this to happen in the future?
Despite the pain. Despite the ugliness.
This is a thin place.