New Times - September 2007 - Uniting Church in Australia

M A G A Z I N E
12 New Times
Emerging church in Cambodia
Rev John Barr
Phnom Penh’s railway station
is a grand old colonial building
that has seen better days. Like
much of the city, the facades
of the station tell a story of
past splendour, violated by
violence and war.
These days the few trains
that leave Phnom Penh are
slow and dilapidated. Yet the
grand old station is gaining
a new lease of life from
a growing community of
squatters.
many are rural people
looking for work, while others
include orphans and people
suffering from tuberculosis and
hIV/AIDs. These people are
Phnom Penh’s outcasts.
Cambodia is a beautiful
country with a rich tradition
and a remarkable history
dating back to the Angkor
Kingdom. Yet modern
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7
Cambodia is overshadowed
by its recent past. Pol Pot’s
infamous ‘killing fields’ haunt
the population. no one remains
untouched by this brutal
period.
Between 1.5 and 2 million
people or a quarter of the
population died as a result
of starvation, disease, forced
labour and execution when
the Khmer Rouge ruthlessly
restructured society.
The consequences were
both terrifying and disastrous.
Phnom Penh’s Tuol sleng
Torture museum and Choeung
ek extermination Camp bear
witness to this.
These days around 85 per
cent of Cambodia’s population
are poor farmers who live off
the land, suffering regular
floods and famine. many
desperate country folk move to
the cities looking for work.
These children are squatters in a railway yard in Phnom Penh,
Cambodia, recently visited by Rev John Barr from Uniting International
Mission.
Dr Sem Sitha treats people from the squatter community in his railway station clinic in Cambodia’s capital,
Phnom Penh.
one result of this is the
small ‘city’ of makeshift timber
buildings next to Phnom Penh
station. The railway yards
double as a place for children
to play, for people to meet and
for communities to hang out
their washing. Government
officials simply look the other
way.
one man who hasn’t looked
away is Dr sem sitha. he
survived the Pol Pot era but
lost his entire family during
the Khmer Rouge rule. he was
raised an orphan but received
a good education with support
from a number of international
welfare organisations.
While attending medical
school, Dr sitha became a
Christian. Dr sitha believes he
owes everything to the grace
and mercy of God. he is certain
God has given him life to help
others.
Dr sitha’s has established
a clinic in the squatter
community near the station
offering basic services to
people who otherwise would
have no medical care.
he has also established a
small congregation which
gathers for worship on
sundays and meets for Bible
study during the week.
Dr sitha believes his
commitment to the squatter
community is a logical
outworking of his new found
faith in Christ.
During the Khmer Rouge
rule religion was outlawed.
But in the post-Pol Pot period
faith is being re-established
from the grassroots. A
fresh, indigenous form of
Christianity is emerging in
many places, including the
Phnom Penh railway station.
Dr sitha’s small congregation
bears the name ‘The Light
of Life Church’. It is a fragile
community with members who
carry trauma from the past and
struggle with unemployment,
homelessness and illness.
The Uniting Church in
Australia is committed to
working with the poorest of
the poor and to supporting
local, Indigenous expressions
of church. We also want to
encourage these communities
to participate in the wider life
and the witness of our global
ecumenical networks.
The church is emerging
again in Cambodia, offering
important opportunities for us
to share in its growing witness.
• Rev John Barr is the
executive secretary – Asia with
Uniting International Mission.
He recently spent time with Dr
Sitha in Cambodia.