victory

Today is Victory Day.

On January 7, 1979, Cambodia celebrated as the Vietnamese overthrew the Khmer Rouge. This was the end of nearly four years of starvation, torture, and genocide. Nearly two million people were killed in violent, unspeakable ways during those years. People were forced from their homes. They were forced to labor in fields of which they were never able to eat the fruit. They were beaten with sticks and garden hoes. They were poisoned. They were tortured. Children were brainwashed and told to kill their families. They were thrown into mass graves.

And, much of the world was silent, unaware, deaf to the cries of the Khmer people.

But, January 7, 1979, that was a day of victory. Regardless of the disputes Cambodia may have with Vietnam and the battles that have continued between the neighbors, Vietnam helped Cambodia find a glimmer of hope that day.

Cambodia's history is ravaged with war, with poverty, with hopelessness, with fire, but somehow she is rising from the ashes. If ever there was a day to celebrate the truth of that, January 7 is it.

Revelation 12: 11 says, "And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die." I pray that one day the whole of Cambodia will realize true victory in Christ Jesus. They already have an amazing testimony if only they would accept the blood of the Lamb...