Hello!! Sorry haven't posted in awhile cos I've absolutely didn't have time and had camp in skool for the past 3 days. I migrated in and out of the camp to go for some worship retreat courses though. Just came back. I tell you, my sec 1 juniors are.. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNN FRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGIIIIIIIIINNNNNNN' CUUUUUUUUUUTEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!
I just wanna pinch their chubby and cute cheeks!!! Especially this guy called Ming Shien. The sec-3 Vice-President and I were fighting over who'd sleep beside him and who could have him more!!!! ahha... Though they are quite irritating at times their cuteness n cuddliness is enuff for forgiveness.. To sum them up in a word: Chipmunks.
So anyway, lotsa things happened since my last post but too much to jot down. Like the funfair where I walked around under the blistering merciless sun steaming like a char-siew-pau in the extra thick mascot suit, getting loads of kicks and punches for idiots but taking lotsa pictures with cute kids.
Was reading a book recently on the life journey of this man who survived Cambodia's killing fields. What happened was that when communist overthrew the capitalist government in 1975 they sorta transported all the ppl in cities to work in the countryside to 'liberate' them. Now this guy was from the city and was sent at gunpoint to work in the countryside. To cut a long story short, his family and him were transported from place to place before they were taken deep into the jungle to be executed as they viewed all who lived in the city as ppl. who might start an uprising. Only he survived. Here's a vivid description of the execution of his family. [Warning! Not for the faint hearted.]
"My father turned to a
chlop(communist rebel) and asked, "Mith(comrade), can I have a cigarette before I die?" The chlop took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered one to my father;(he was bound at this point) I took it and put it into his mouth, and lit it for him.
After my father had finished his cigarette, he asked for one more. The chlop gave him one, but it dropped from his mouth. The chlop picked it up, stuffed it into his mouth, kicked my father's stomach and said, "We gain nothing if we keep ypu, so we're going to kill you now. You're worth nothing to us."
I wondered why they were taking so long to dig the grave, and wished they would hurry up. If I was going to be killed, I wanted to get it over with. My father knelt with us and said, "I wanted to tell you somthing." What he said next was like a poem he composed in his mind:
There is a wind of change for sure, but we can't live until it arrives. One day, it will come, but it will be too late for us. I'm sorry I can't be with you to the end, but I want all of you to know that I love you. We came together and we'll go together. We lived and we'll die together. We are a family...
He had scarcely finished speaking when the chlops came and pushed us forward towards the killing place; it was an old well which had been enlarged to make a mass grave. I choked out,"Goodbye, papa! I love you." He nodded to me, then he called back, " It's time for us to die. I love all of you!" My younger sister began to scream. "Papa, pleaase help me! I'm scared papa." My father didn't answer; he was a helpless man about to be killed. I reached out and held her tightly against my side.
My father was standing and facing the grave. They kicked his legs from behind so he fell to his knees; as he turned his head to look at me I saw them club him with a hoe. He fell forward into the grave with a scream. I was screaming too, a pointless futile scream, "Help us, God, help us."
Then one of the chlops jumped into the grave and turned him over to finish him. I didn't want to watch, but I couldn't turn away: I saw what they did to my father. What I saw filled me with such helpless rage, I thought I would suffocate and die before they hit me.
Professor So soeun screamed loudly and tried to run away; he got about ten yards before three chlops tripped him and axed his head about five times. His children were screaming "Papa! Papa!" as they looked on. After awhile his arms and legs stopped moving and they threw him into the grave.
Then it was our turn. They made us kneel in front of the grave, and as I knelt I felt a blow on my neck and i fell into the grave on top of my father. he was still alive, and I heard his last few breaths. Then there was nothing. My younger brothers and sisters and the other children tumbled into the grave too, on top of me. Finally, they clubbed my baby brother. The first three times they clubbed him he screamed loudly, then they clubbed him one more time and I didn't hear him again. I was still conscious but I couldn't move. I knew the other children were not yet dead, for the chlops jumped into the grave to finsih everybody off. There was a sound of hacking blades, and I felt their warm blood pour over my body. Some of the chlops were cheering on in victory.
When they'd finished butchering, slashing and axing, they climbed out of the grave. I heard one of them say, "I think that one's not dead yet." One chlop jumped down into the grave again and pulled a body off me, and hi me with the hoe one more time. It was a heavy blow, but not hard enough to end my life. I knew enough then to lie still. If I'd move at all, they would have finished me off. Someone began to throw soil on top of us, but then I heard a voice say, "Don't bury them yet: we've still got somemore khmangs(people) to be destroyed." They left the gave open and went off to find other victims..."
After this the book goes on to tell how he survived all the hardship and agony of living in the jungle and when later he went to Canada to seek out and study about God. As I read through the book, The Tears of My Soul, I could feel tears welling up in my eyes for it really is saddening if you put yourself in his shoes. I cam across some quotes that I really liked, and I hope you will too. Here they are:
"Tears are not a sign of weakness, but of healing; crying releases emotional tension."
"For me, the cross is a symbol of pain, a trophy which signifies Christ's glorious victory over death. We can share in that victory, but our Christian life will also give us a share of the pain. Peter encourages us.. (1 Peter 4:12-13)"
SOKREAKSA S. HIMM
There is a Power beyond our power,
A hand that clasps our hand,
There is a strenght beyond our strenght,
A heart that understands.
There is a smile that warms our souls,
A calm assuring peace,
And at the mercy seat of God
There's a grace that cannot cease.
So in your wary trying days
May it comfort you to know
The father guards your life with love
And never leaves his own.
-Judith Gooding
