Today I had an opportunity to visit two significant places in the city of Phnom Penh and see the aftermath of the wicked Pol Pot regime from the late 70's. This morning I spent a couple of hours wandering through the Genocide Museum listening to our guide as she shared the atrocities from that period of time. Pol Pot tortured and ruthlessly slaughtered approximately 3 million of his own people during a period of 4-5 years.

The death toll was staggering. Approximately 40% of the Cambodian population (i.e. 3 million men, women and children) lost their lives under the tyrannical rule of this evil man. Hard to fathom how one man could best evil. What a privilege it was to meet a prison survivor from that period of time. Only two remain alive today to tell their story. The lady who served as our guide was 17 when Pol Pot began to arrest, torture and kill his own people. She managed to escape Phnom Penh but many of her own family were taken and she has never seen them again.

This afternoon our group travelled to the outskirts of the city and visited the 'Killing Fields.' I assumed this was the main location were many people were killed and buried but learnt today that there are 343 killing sites around Cambodia. It seemed rather surreal to wander through this location today as I felt like I was watching some fantasy from Hollywood. Around 20,000 people were taken to this location and basically butchered to death. This happened less than 40 years ago and today there were still bone and clothing fragments on the ground in different places. It was quite raw and very disturbing to think that each of these items had a particularly gruesome story to tell. While many of the graves have been untouched around 9,000 skeletal remains have been placed in a stupa and are clearly visible for all to see.

Today has been a sobering reminder of how evil man can be. In one sense it has been a picture of what we become when we turn our backs on God and allow our sinful nature to rule and reign. How this must break the heart of our Creator God.