Our first day in Cambodia was a visit to the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide. In 1976 the Khmer Rouge turned what was once a children’s school into S-21 Prison, a place of torture, interrogation, and execution. Only 7 survived of the 14,000 who entered S-21 prison and I could feel the heaviness that lived inside those walls. Stepping into a room surrounded by bulletin boards covered with headshot photos of the young and old men who were tortured broke my heart. One wall in particular showed photos of their bodies the very moment they died. Seeing the mangled bodies, with blood, stains, and chains, necks sliced and bones sticking through their chests from starvation, seeing those images caused tears to roll down my eyes. While struggling to wipe the tears that came so suddenly and unexpectedly, all I could think about was “How could someone do these things to another person?” As a nurse I’m used to seeing death when it’s at it’s end, when a patient is surrounded by their family and a sense of understanding or acceptance of the inevitable outcome of old age. But these men and young boys had no reason to die, had no reason to be tortured. It was unnatural seeing something so horrible done to a human being. Where was the compassion? Where was the humanity? It was a clear image of the effects of evil, of the result of sin, and my heart felt heavy knowing how lost these people were and how desperately they needed to know Jesus. Leaving the museum I asked myself, “Who else might be hidden within my own life that desperately needs God?”
Reference = http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/s21-victims.html
