Road-side stands offering roasted (or live) tarantulas, roasted crickets, and stuffed frogs (thankfully headless), bag of 20 freshly caught snakes soon to be supper, and children who hunt rats to help supplement the family dinner. I thought I had seen it all.

Cambodia. Another country full of surprises.

Most of the rest is the same: crazy traffic, crazier drivers, ancient temples, corruption, contradiction, the horrors of war and a nation’s damaged soul. Every country has its strangeness – the things that tell good stories. Every country has its history – the things that define, surprise, and confuse.

The real story of any country, including Cambodia, is her children. Over 50% of Cambodia’s population is under 15. Many of today’s poor countries share that statistic, but Cambodia’s children groan under the weight and responsibility of being this country’s hope.

Here, the cliché is reality. With many of their parents lost in the horrors of the Killing Fields, this country’s hope for a new soul truly does depend on how her children will be raised. Where Buddhism and a very real belief in Spiritism grips the nation, only the children with the Holy Spirit can make a way through the darkness. Where fear, death, and hatred is the legacy, only the children can lead them out. This is not overstating the case. Our partners who work with the children are staking it all on turning the hearts of the children.

Mission of Mercy and our ministry partners are true leaders in the revival of a nation. There are places where 15 years ago you couldn’t find a single Christian, and now there are literally thousands. Children have been growing up in schools and churches, becoming believers and spreading out in the workforce and universities, taking their faith with them. Formerly shy and hopeless children are leaving our projects with confidence and a belief that they can follow a dream and fill the void left by the past they inherited.