Monday, October 5, 2015

Conference on Forgiveness & Reconciliation in Cambodia

Wayne and I spent nearly a week in Cambodia, including three days of the Mekong Mission Forum Joint Theological Consultation on the topic of Reconciliation and Forgiveness.


Out and about in Phnom Penh:





Mekong Mission Forum "Joint Theological Consultation" on Forgiveness and Reconciliation:

Large group and small group discussions:
The conference folks took a field trip to the S-21 Toul Sleng Genocide Museum and the "Killing Fields. Just overwhelmed again by the horror that took place in this beautiful country:





For many of the conference participants, even those from the Mekong countries, and even one or two from Cambodia itself, it was the first time to go to the Genocide Museum and Killing Fields. It was a moving experience. How is forgiveness and reconciliation possible, in a land which has undergone this kind of horror? How can we speak about this history, and how can we speak about God who Himself underwent and still undergoes the worst of human nature, the worst of human violence?


And yet we end on a life-giving note...


Cambodian children, Cambodian "Life with Dignity" ministry, Cambodian family ministry. 






17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 
-- II Corinthians 5: 17-19