We went to see the temples one day and they were absolutely breathe taking. I admit, I do not know too much about the temples at all and haven't done any research on them. As I was exploring them, I could have kicked myself because I wish I would have learned more about them before I came. I spent more time researching other things about Cambodia such as the genocide, their culture, and the language. I didn't really anticipate to even visit the temples, but I am glad I got to.
We stayed in a hotel in Siem Reap and woke up the next morning to go to Angkor Wat. We took a tuk-tuk, which is always fun. I thought that there was just one temple or a few temples and that the whole thing was called "Angkor Wat," but no, this is the name of only one of the temples, the most famous and most visited. We visited about 5 temples. There are about 200. I can't remember the names of all of them, but I do know they were breath taking. These temples were so huge! I cannot fathom how people built these with such intricate detail and architectural work with no modern technology. The temples were so tall, and you could get lost very, very easily. There were tons of hallways and towers and stairwell, and courtyards. There were also many, many, idols. I still get the creeps just thinking about it. I literally cannot describe to you the feeling I get looking into one of the faces of these statues. Though I am not afraid, because I know the demonic spirits actually being worshiped have no power over me, I still can feel such a sense of evil. It makes me very uneasy looking at the statues, especially the larger ones. These people are in such deceit. If there is a type of feeling I could describe about looking at the statues, it is a feeling of mockery and deceit. It makes me angry that these people have been tricked into believing that their religion is true. I haven't really thought about it like this before, but there is a spiritual aspect to their religion. They do experience spiritual encounters or whatever you want to call it, but these spirits are evil, demonic, spirits. That is what freaks me out. We don't often think about that in the U.S.- evil spirits lurking around and possessions, and when we do it is when we watch a scary movie or around Halloween time, but evil is real. There are evil spirits and there is a real, literal, Satan. I am always reminded of this when I read scriptures that talk about how we are fighting things we cannot see and there is a spiritual battle. Its easy to just focus on the good things about Christianity, but we also have to remember that evil is still present and that Satan has dominion on our Earth. Yes, God is still sovereign and in control, but Satan also has power to destroy and corrupt. I hate admitting that, but its not like we can just pretend that there is no evil, no Satan, and no hell, because there is a Hell and lost souls are there and will go there. I hate that. I hate that SO MUCH! As much as I wish it weren't true, it would be hypocritical of me to claim Christ and the Bible and also say, "well, I believe that this part of the Bible is true, but not that part." There are things in the Bible I wish were not there. There are things that upset me and things I don't understand. I have done much, much reading and studying on topics such as these and the only conclusion I can come to is that God's ways are higher than our ways. What we think is justice isn't the same as what God thinks is justice. To compare what we think should happen, to what God has planned and does, is a joke. As if we know best!? He's the King of the Universe, I think He knows what He's doing!
It is an insult to think that these temples and statues are built to glorify evil. I can't stand that! This only gives me a sense of urgency to proclaim the gospel, not only in Cambodia, but here, in my everyday life. We can't just assume that because we live out the gospel with our actions that people will just come up to us and ask us why we are the way we are and you will automatically have an open door to share the gospel. While living out the gospel with actions is essential, it is also essential that we verbally proclaim Christ! That's like a boy in love with a girl who never tells her. Is she just supposed to know by the way he acts around her? No. I mean, we've seen it in all the movies haha. We must proclaim the gospel with EVERY aspect of our lives! I admit, this is SO hard. I admit, I struggle with this almost daily. If we didn't struggle with doing good and living like Christ, then we would be Christ, and we definitely know that's not true. What we must realize is that there is always an open door. There is an open door because Christ opened it. We must take our Christian lives seriously and take the fact that Hell exists and that people's souls will suffer there if they do not know their Savior, seriously. Hell isn't a popular topic to talk about, and especially in church....what's wrong with that picture?....but we can't avoid truth. We can't just avoid something because we don't like it. And, trust me, its very easy to do.
I was not anticipating to get on this rant, but all of this is not to say that we should focus on Satan, and evil, and Hell, but to let the fact that it is real, fuel our eagerness to want to live like Christ and show His love in action and in word. And, this is DEFINITELY not to say that we should preach a "Turn or Burn" mindset or preach about the realities of Hell to "scare people into Heaven." This is not the Gospel, and if we are "saved" because we are afraid of Hell, our salvation is void. But, instead, we must focus on the goodness of Christ and the satisfaction He brings to our lives. He is the Living Water and our souls are forever thirsty for Him! Think about it this way, if Christ weren't in Heaven, would you still want to be there?
Anyways, the temples were really cool and we even got to go in the one where they filmed the movie Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie. It was an awesome experience. One thing that was difficult for me was the fact that some of the temples had extremely, long, high, steep stair cases. I have a fear of heights and this was very, very hard for me to deal with. At first, I just wasn't going to go up into the other parts of the temple, but just because I am afraid of something, doesn't mean I won't do it. I was shaking the whole time and clinging to the side of the thin rail all the way up. I admit, I felt accomplished when I got up to the top of the first stair case. I didn't think about the fact that I had to go down. I really couldn't even enjoy the time I had at the top because I was dreading the way back down those stairs. I have pictures, and I will post them, because this was NOT your average staircase! When it was time to go down, I literally thought I was going to throw up. I didn't which was good. The way down was worse than the way up. I felt like I was going to fall at any moment. I thought I was going to have a panic attack, but luckily did not. When I finally got off of the stairwell from my nightmares, I felt so dizzy, and just sat down and closed my eyes and then the tears started to come. We sat for about ten minutes and then moved on to the next temples. I had no idea that there were many more stairs like these, and that they were steeper, higher, and scarier! When we came to the next temple and I saw the stairs, I almost didn't go, but I decided to anyways, heck, I did it once, I can do it again. I thought it wouldn't be as hard since I had done it already....but no, it was just as scary, and I freaked out just as much. The steepest and longest one was at a smaller temple but one that was very, very, high. I did manage to climb up and down it, but again, it was still horrible. My heart was beating so fast, before, during, and after the climb. I am proud that I did it, but I still don't know if it was worth going through that over and over haha. I admit, I am a total scardy cat! I get very afraid of little things, but still always do them. It's kind of ironic actually haha.
After a few temples, we ate lunch and took a little break. It was then that we made a definite decision about the elephants. Yes, elephants, and whether to ride one or not. I know that Ginny had heard about it and really wanted to do it, but I was still on the fence. When we saw the elephants though, I knew that I just had to do it! I mean, who can say that they've ridden an elephant before? This is a once in a life time opportunity. As like before with the stairs, I was a little afraid of this. Our elephant's name was Sophie. She was about 40 years old, and beautiful. There is a huge platform you have to walk up in order to climb onto the elephant. The elephant has a cloth over her back, and attached is a wooden seat supported by wooden stilts that nicely fit her back. Ginny, Yong, and I all rode together. It was unreal. I kept thinking to myself, is this real? Am I literally riding an elephant in Cambodia right now? We rode for about 20 minutes around the temples and when we got off we were able to pet Sophie. She was so sweet. They are truly smart animals. Her eyes were beautiful. Just looking into them I swear I could see her soul. I don't know if animals have souls or if they go to Heaven, but I'd like to think so. And, if they do, I know Sophie will be there. I mean...think about it....it was the Fall of Man not the fall of the animals too?! Right??? This may be a stretch, but hey, Jesus does comes back on a horse so there's still hope! Haha
By the end of the day we were all pretty tired and were craving some American food. Luckily, Siem Reap is a touristy town and there were tons of white people there. It was more common to see a white person on the street than a Cambodian. Because of this, there were lots of restaurants with western food. We decided on Mexican....kind of ironic that we classify that as American haha. It was really good. I had already gotten in the mind set of coming home, and I could tell I was truly tired of Khmer food. Though the Khmer food was delicious, it always seemed to make my stomach a little upset. It was pretty much like this the entire trip every other day. The other girls experienced a little bit of it too. The funny thing was though, the night I was the sickest, was the night we had pizza and french fries with salad and coke in Phnom Phen. How ironic!? I think it was because I was so used to eating fresh, non chemical, organic meats and vegetables that something the slightest processed just through me off.
I'll finish up with the end of the trip in my next post.
Love,
Laura
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