Living fields again

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Poverty

By Joel Stewart ⋅ July 2, 2006 ⋅

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Sarrut rises early to the sound of the first roosters crowing. The clear skies in the east promise that it will be another hot, muggy day. The ground on the trail through the sugar cane field is hard and cracked. There will be no rain today. This is the Cambodian dry season. Sarrut lifts the timber from the entrance to the cow shed and begins to get the thin cows ready for another day in search of enough forage to fill their stomachs. It is a relentless search until the first rains bring fresh, new blades of grass shooting up through the parched earth.

Sarrut’s wife, Heng, tends to the chickens before cutting a few dozen withered sugar cane stalks to crush into juice at their roadside stand. It is amazing how she is able to feed all 6 people in their house for just under 6000 Cambodian riels per day (about $1.50). She has learned to make do with little. She learned this during the horrible years under the Khmer Rouge, and in the lean years after the war when her husband was gone.

After surviving the genocide during Pol Pot’s communist “experiment” and the Khmer Rouge regime, Sarrut spent more than 10 years in the jungles near the borders of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, leading small groups of soldiers who were resisting the Communist Vietnamese government who occupied Cambodia. During this time he could not visit his home in the northern province of Preah Vihear, where his wife and 4 children lived. But Heng, being a resourceful woman, not only managed to raise their children, but was able to save up wood for building a house… all through selling a few vegetables, planting crops or working in the fields of others.

In 1991 Sarrut was finally able to come home. He joined the government forces and continued serving as a soldier. Sarrut was amazed his wife had not only survived, but had kept the children in school. During his time in the jungles, he had encountered another force which he felt had protected and watched over him, keeping him safe from incoming shells, landmines and dangerous wild animals in the jungle. Someone had given him a French New Testament, and he spent much of his time thinking about and praying to the God who he did not yet know. In 2003 Sarrut finally found what he was searching for the past 20 years. Sarrut embraced the Gospel with as much enthusiasm as he displayed leading his men during his time as a soldier. Now he wants to make up for lost time, and has a great burden to help those within the family of God in Preah Vihear, as well as to preach the Gospel to those who haven’t yet had the chance to hear. “We must find ways to spread the Word of God and teach our own people and plant churches without any outside assistance. We must become the leaders of the church.”, Sarrut explained.

Today Sarrut’s vision of raising and lending cows and using agriculture as a way to practically help his fellow Cambodians in this remote rural area is creating a “path in the jungle” to start Bible Studies in the areas he takes his agricultural program to. He gets no remuneration for the many hours each day he puts in. They live on what his wife makes at her juice stand, while the $30/month salary he receives as a military leader goes to support his children, now in college. Sarrut’s philosophy of hard work, simple living and resourcefulness is an example to many of the people around him who seem to have given up, become apathetic or turned to alcohol to dull the sense of hopelessness they feel. As the Gospel penetrates these remote corners of the dark land of Cambodia, what were once Killing Fields are now Living Fields, full of a harvest of people who are learning to trust again.

As Sarrut drives the cows along the dusty road, the countryside is already full of activity around him. The rains will come soon, with a promise of refreshment and vigorous growth. And Sarrut will be there, praying for a good harvest.

by Joel Stewart, serving with World Team in Cambodia.