Our Perspective
"Two Extremes"
Fred Ngo's Share @ New Hope, August 24, 2008
Intro: What is the Trek?
I said it last year, and I still believe it’s true – the Trek jacks up your life.
Students spend the summer living with an urban poor host family and work with Christian ministries that care for the poorest of the poor in Phnom Penh. As the director, I get to bike around Phnom Penh making sure they’re still alive and still Christians - bringing them Imodium, their $1 a day allowances, someone to talk to in English, and much-needed prayer for their confusing experiences.
_ _ _
Just as my students are rocked in their faith, I also was pushed to extremes this summer – on the one end, looking higher into the injustices in Cambodia at a level I had not really wrapped my head before, and on the other, looking deeper at the brokenness in myself, in a way I had not let myself before.
The brokenness I saw at the highest level of government in and secular infrastructure in Cambodia mirrored the brokenness of my own core.
The CPP
In years previous I would say that I learned most about poverty in Cambodia at a personal level – Rady was poor because his parents made $6 a week and he had no opportunity because he had to work instead of go to school. Om Houn was poor because her husband left her and she has no children. Vy was poor because she had contracted AIDS from a cheating husband. Her children are poor because they now have it too and the medical bills are more than a year’s wages. Those truths and realities are sobering enough, and the stories are countless once you stop and listen to them. I expected to hear more of those stories this summer as I went to Phnom Penh.
But God opened my eyes this time around to see the far-reaching effect of governments and social structures on the livelihood of the poor in a way I had not thought about before – to see the height, the depth of corruption and misgovernance that keep people poor. Sure people make personal decisions – how much money to spend and save, how hard they will work to make it, and whether or not to succumb to addictions and temptations that tear selves and families apart. But those personal decisions are couched in a larger context, where social institutions (the government, the economy, the educational system) are penetrated and governed by evil. As I learned more and more about the political scene in Cambodia, I began to realize how it is the things that we ourselves create keep people poor.
We were there this summer in the month leading up to the election. You could feel the tension and political fervor in the air. Many young and optimistic Khmers talked about Obama-esque hope and change; others believed things would never change, and stopped dreaming. The CPP, Cambodian People’s Party, has been in power for over 20 years, and Hun Sen, its leader, is now the longest ruling elected official in Asia. A former Khmer Rouge leader, he now has held onto power in Cambodia because he controls the military and has scared off or killed off all of his opponents. Some people in Cambodia say, “Pol Pot killed at night; Hun Sen kills during the day.” The CPP has a lot of support because they bribe people. Here’s rice, sarongs, T-shirts, hats, cell phones –vote for CPP and stand in our rallies. Roads are cleaned and paved in the months running up to the election, “Look what we have done for you.” Phnom Penh residents recognize the familiar bribery all too clearly. Cambodia has one of the most corrupt governments in the world and one of the greatest disparities between rich and poor there is.
One morning I was supposed to check-in with my students and I was becoming annoyed because they were late. Worried, I ran out from the alleyway of the Servant’s office to the main road to see, surprise, a rally for the CPP.
It was another caravan of blue cargo trucks loaded with people drinking beers, shouting out campaign slogans, dancing; others looked disinterested, faking smiles and political fervor.
I stood by the side of the road watching it go by. My initial reaction was wanting to flick them off, seriously. But I decided that in my good nature that it would not be appropriate to do so. I also did not want to get detained – there is no freedom of speech in Cambodia.
I waited for them to go by. “Gee, this caravan is a lot longer than normal.”
I waited some more. The traffic kept piling up around the Monivong Bridge roundabout.
I waited some more. Street vendors were harangued by police officers for trying to cut across the street. People waiting to cross the street turned off their engines to conserve gasoline.
I waited. The caravan had now passed by for 30 minutes.
Black Toyota Landcruisers securing CPP party officials cavalcaded by.
Prime Minister Hun Sen flew by in his helicopter in his daily commute to work.
It was seemingly endless. Car after car after car after car, loaded with people trucked in from the provinces to show their strength in numbers. To show that the CPP was large and in charge, and would remain that way.
I began to feel despair while waiting by the roadside for the parade to end, which, as it turns out, was 45 minutes later. I felt despair because this mile-long parade symbolized the extent of corruption and greed that traps Cambodia from progress. I felt despair because all the work that was being done to help the poor looked like it could never overcome this endless onslaught of power. I felt despair because poverty lives at the bottom but starts at the top. I felt despair because it made my accomplishments and my fight seem weak. We can try and do this and that – bandage a wound, give a donation here or there, teach – the endless parade and march forward of injustice makes it seem pointless, like our meager attempts at justice will be crushed anyways.
I am not saying this to discourage you, but to invte you to think about what this means for our work and ministry, to make it matter all the more. It doesn’t make me want to stop – it makes me want to fight and pray harder.
Potty
While God was pushing me to see the causes of poverty in Cambodia in a different, deeper way, he was simultaneously pushing me to see my own brokenness in greater depth.
One thing I really appreciate about living simply in Cambodia is having to use what we on the Trek call the squatty potty – there are very few sit-down toilets, and logically so: squatting feels natural, like we were made to do it that way, and it makes for a quick drop and go – no time wasted reading and contemplating on the toilet. But I always dread the clean-up. You see, there is no tp, just water and your left hand. You just have to wipe and scrub your hands hard with soap (if there is any). Sadly, no matter how intent you are on cleaning, you always remember the feeling of ghost poo. It lingers with your throughout the day, like someone always wanting to hold your hand.
Yes, even on the squatty potty, I had a moment of understanding. In Cambodia, in living simply, in pursuing the work of justice, you are literally, forced to deal with your own s-h-i-t. You just have to touch it, you just have to go there.
My job on the Trek is to get students to see the poverty in the world, and see the work of justice as integral to the work of bringing about God’s kingdom here on Earth. Many of them who grow up in churches are focused on a Christian discipline of looking inward, at our sin and brokenness. I often tell them that they have neglected the whole picture of the gospel. The gospel is not just that YOU are saved, but it is bigger than that – that WE are saved, as a family, as a community, as a nation, as a world. That we as people in God’s kingdom are about the work of restoring what is not in right relationship with God – to bring about justice to our communities, our businesses, our governments. They are all out of sync and need to be realigned. It’s ironic that while I challenged them to get their minds to stop focusing on personal wholeness only, God was calling me to it, and calling me now to a season of personal wholeness.
I think being here at New Hope and doing the Trek had pushed me to one extreme – to see the work of justice as the core response to my faith. I’m teaching in the inner city, I spend the summer working for justice in the third world, I’m on the JJAM core – I’m looking pretty good by our Bay Area/Intervarsity/Liberal/Progressive/ Facebook standards. I’ve been go-go-going under the guise that personal wholeness is secondary to the greater fight for the kingdom.
How far from the truth. I have been hiding behind my social justice credentials.
I was forced to start looking again at myself this summer, and what I saw was sobering. As I saw on a grand scale, the core issues that plague the poor – crooked and corrupt governments, economic policies that benefit only the wealthy, public institutions that serve no one – I began to see my core issues in the same light – my work- and future- orientation, my sidelining of relationships, my snobbery, my addictions, my selfishness, my rationalizing of everything, my indulgences – my very own CPP parade... They, much like the corruption and greed that impede Cambodia’s progress, impede my own.
If we want to live in a world where things are right, there must be healing and wholeness at both extremes. We cannot focus on one and neglect the other.
Closing
I’ve come to see this summer that the work of God’s kingdom is grand, more grand that I thought it was. It forces us to look at the structures we live in and under – our school districts, our healthcare systems, our governments, our economies – look, and see the ways they are not aligned with the tenets of God’s kingdom. Similarly it forces us to look deep into ourselves – they ways we distrust God, the ways we treat each other, the deepest darkest things no one knows – look and see the ways we are not aligned with God’s kingdom.
The work of God’s kingdom is to see this grand spectrum and how far it is from what God wants, and to push it, push all of it, to reconciliation and realignment with the Kingdom. It is to scrutinize the highest levels of governance and the spiritual forces that entrap them with kingdom eyes, to scrutinize the darkest parts of our hearts with kingdom eyes; to push and pull those things back under the authority of God. This is the whole gospel.
It seemed God was pulling me in two directions, outward and inward – I see now they are actually one and the same – towards wholeness, towards Him.
I Am From . . . by Russell Jeung
I am from the televised 70s
From Frito’s and the 49ers
I am from the San Francisco Richmond
Foghorns, seal barks, and the 38 Geary
I am from eucalyptus, iceplants, and Redwoods
Towering in steep, fern-lined ravines
I’m from Sunday Chinese dinners and ocean cruises
From Bobo and Jeung Sam Mui
I’m from the cheeky
And the droll
From “draw the drapes” and
“you’re going to go to boarding school…”
I’m from a bible church
Where we had jook after Christmas caroling
I’m from San Francisco and Zhongshan
Crab and Roast Pork for Thanksgiving
From the great grandfather who fished in Monterey
The mother who raised ten kids besides her own
12th Avenue, Stanyan Street, Oak Park
I’m from the working class and the academy
Husband of Joan, Daddy of Matthew
Child of God
An Easter to Remember by Russ Yee
Reflections on Easter 2004 @ New Hope
It looked like the end. Arriving at New Hope this past Easter morning, we took a stroll along E. 16th St. and met:
The Disciple (Bill Squires) out buying Passover bread and distressed about Jesus’ puzzling words about coming to Jerusalem--to die. “Does this Passover seem different to you? Do you feel the tension in the air?”
The Crossmaker (Sam Shin) putting together another cross for another criminal and thinking out loud about human sin and guilt. “When it gets right down to it everyone is pretty self-centered, don't you think? Everybody has things to hide. Would you want me to hear all your thoughts? Would you want to hear all of mine?”
The Roman Soldier’s Son (Shawn Tan) holding the signboard that had been over Jesus and confused about what it meant that Jesus was a king who got killed, a king that claimed to be God. “We Romans have a lot of gods but Jews only have one God, so I think we’re better. How many gods do you have?”
The Mourner (Mao-Mei Liu) on the way to the grave of her dear friend Jesus, showing us how to prepare a body for burial. “This is how you take water and gently wash the body . . . and here are the spices, it’s very important to have enough…”
Back at New Hope we gathered for what seemed to be a Memorial Service: somber words and hushed tones about the sudden and tragic death of Jesus of Nazareth. But into the room burst the Witnesses (Thea Sit and the baptismal candidates) with the Good News: Jesus is alive, back from the dead!
We got Jesus in the house,
he’s the man o’ the hour
Now, death is pretty strong,
but my Man has got the power
To die and to get buried
--wow that looked like the end!--
But he put death to death
and he rose again!
Easter Worship in the New Hope backyard started under cloudy skies but during opening prayer the sun broke through. With the newly “resurrected” Oak Park apartments as a backdrop, ten women and men ( Ney Norn, Ras Chan, Keo Kong, Sophal Chouen, Sunlarry Heng, Thea Sit, Savorn Proctor, Bunthy Prum, Sokun Sit, and Sien) each stood to share about Jesus’ unshakable love for them and their response of faith and obedience, now leading them to the waters of Christian baptism.
Got some people getting wet today
--now what’s that all about?
It’s their way of saying,
“I gave Jesus a shout;
He forgives all my sins
puts new hope in my heart
Gives me reasons to live and a fresh new start!
With their sponsors standing beside them, with trembling, confidence, tears, and songs, these dear ones shared about Jesus giving them hope, peace, forgiveness, strength, and purpose for living. They shared about the darkest seasons of life and God’s faithfulness through people in settings such as Harbor House and New Hope to not give up on them no matter what.
The water was cold but all our hearts were joyful. Life from death, peace from fear, light from darkness—we were so thankful for this water, these precious lives, and God’s pleasure in giving New Hope such an Easter to remember.
So I say,
Jesus is alive! Say it! (Jesus is alive!)
Jesus is alive! Shout it! (Jesus is alive!)
Jesus is alive! Tell it! (Jesus is alive!)
Jesus is alive! Live it! (Jesus is alive!)
Yesu rooah! [Cambodian for] Jesus is alive!
Now cherishing the memory of all these baptisms alongside Tracy Saephan’s Easter 2003 baptism, we watch and pray as God’s plans for New Hope continue to unfold. It looked like the end--but it was the beginning!
“I thank my God every time I remember you. . . . being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philip. 1:3-6)
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