Almost There

We're in Korea as I type, so it won't be long now b/4 we're back in town.

Our last day in Cambo was riddled w/ power outages, so the blog entry I tried to send couldn't make it out. Oh well, here it is now....I hope. :o)

See you real soon!
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Today being Sunday, it is a holy day for buddhists. Everywhere we went today, people were begging for money to repair or maintain pagodas, temples & shrines. They were also trying to sell flowers, incense & the like which are offered to idols.

We toured a couple of buddhist landmarks. The first place included walking stone steps up a mountain. Our guides (more about them in a minute) told us how many steps there were, but I don't remember the exact number. Somewhere around 509 or 609. After the first 200 or so I was too hot & tired to take in the more trivial facts such as this.
Upon our arrival at this religious hotspot two young men, 14 & 17 years-old, began to give us a history lesson about the place. We weren't more than a few steps up stone stairway when I realized they expected to give us the whole tour & receive a generous donation in return. They seemed to have their script down pat & they assured us the money would be put toward teacher fees so they could attend english class in the evenings. Evidentally the first thing the english teacher teaches them is a lovely history script to present to tourists such as ourselves. Apparently it's working for them & it sure beats begging as many of the other children do.

In between rehearsed snippets of history & trivia I was able to engage my guide, the younger of the two, in personal conversation. He plans to attend school a few more years, then become a monk to continue his education in english.. He said that all monks receive an excellent education. A sort of scholarship here. Of course, he'll have to do some hard work, to beg & to live a lot less comfortably than he does now. It's worth it to him to learn english well enough to get a good job.

It was very difficult to speak to them about Jesus, but I think Isaac planted a couple of seeds. At the first of several places where shoes were to be removed, I asked why we were supposed to do this. The boys realized we are christians & offered to let us keep our shoes on, but Isaac explained that we would gladly take our shoes off out of respect for them even if we did not believe in their gods. That impressed the boys as their idea of Christianity, like most non-believers, is one of arrogant intolerance of other religions.

The next seed Isaac planted was in a special temple where our tuk-tuk driver told Isaac it was OK to for him to pray to Buddha even though he did not pay a donation or make an offering. Isaac explained that he could not bow to any god but Jesus. The tuk-tuk driver, in turn, explained that Buddha accepted all religions, so Isaac could go ahead & worship him. I nearly laughed out loud at the man trying to convice Isaac that Buddha wouldn't mind if he were a christian. Isaac simply told the man again that we believe only Jesus is God, but that he was happy to wait for the driver to bow on the mat provided.

We admired exquisite architecture, wondered at the beautiful creation provided on & around the mountain, planted a couple of gospel seeds & got a great calf & thigh workout. Not a bad take-away considering the whole thing was centered around false gods, idols & dead people.

Postscript: If you're wondering, yes, it did feel kind of icky to see such warped worship. More than loathing it tho, I pitied it. It was a good culture lesson tho.