Poipet is a city at a crossroads both geographically and spiritually. Geographically it is on the border with Thailand and is a major trade route between Thailand and Cambodia. You can see a map and read a little wiki about it HERE.
There is a very long land border with Thailand and Poipet is one of the cities on the border. There are no temple or Wat's in Poipet to fight over like there are in some other areas along the Cambodia - Thailand border. Poipet is the only city with a major Highway that runs from Phnom Phen, the capital, up through to Thailand. This is also the location of the railroad terminus. The border between Cambodia and Thailand is largely undeveloped and sparsely populated with small villages of a hundred people or more. These villagers are subsistence farmers primarily depending on agriculture for survival. Most are not educated and the government schools are so far away that they cannot afford to send their children to school. Many around Poipet are also former Khmer Rouge villages so they also carry the stigma that comes from association with the civil war. In addition to the social stigma they also have the land mines and deforestation, poisoned ground water
In the city of Poipet, which is right on the border in , the Thai government purchased a 1/2 mile wide "Duty Free" strip of land from Cambodia. Thai investors have erected 10 Super Casinos on this property. You see it is illegal to gamble in Thailand so they can come to this "Duty Free" zone to gamble without having to go through immigration or customs. Of course this only adds to the problems for Poipet and does nothing for the local economy as all the goods to run the casinos are brought in from Thailand. The local Cambodians are not well enough educated to work at the casinos. The casinos pay no taxes of any kind to the City Poipet or the Cambodian government.
Thousands of people ferry goods across the border and into the Duty Free zone. These worker rent carts to carry the goods and after long hours, if they are lucky, they may actually earn a little money for themselves. It costs allot to take a car across the border so these human mules transport the goods back and forth creating a little commerce. There are many other things that go back and forth across the border in Poipet; human cargo that is unregulated. When children or other slaves get caught in Thailand and are found to be undocumented they are often brought to Poipet, regardless of where in Cambodia they came from, and dumped. They are left to die or for the Cambodian Police to find. The Cambodian Police take the children to the Government Social Services and they ultimately place them with Cambodia Hope Organization as CHO will not turn them away.
Spiritually Poipet is also at a crossroads. The Khmer Rouge didn't discriminate when it came to religion. They didn't want any religious ideology so they drove everyone out. It is estimated that there were as many as 80,000 Buddhist Monks in Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge only a few thousand afterwards. The monks were either driven out or killed. The spiritual vacuum continues and the monks have never rebounded to the place of prominence in Cambodian culture that they once had either in number or position. You can read the wiki on it HERE. On our last trip we were shocked to see the monks at this local temple standing round smoking:
Buddhist Monks are held to be a kind of superman or perfect people; they are looking pretty normal here. There was a time in Cambodia when you took your problems to the temple and to the Monks for help, Monks perform wedding and funerals, help with difficulties in marriage, problems with the farm or disputes in the community. All of these were taken the local temple or Monastery. Our hosts said that the monks do not have the place of respect in the community that they once held. The culture is still holds to be Buddhist in name but that identity doesn't have the hold on the people that it once did.
What does this mean? An open door has been presented for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Cambodia Hope Organization works in Poipet and in the remote villages along the "long border" with clean water, education, agriculture helping the villages to survive. CHO brings the glass of cold water given in the name of Jesus. When Chomno In and the CHO staff are approached for help the response is that we must pray. Prayers are often answered and when the help comes the villagers want to know why? CHO answers that it is because we love Jesus and he has sent us to help you. The villagers want to know more about this Jesus, a God that cares about them.
This is happening over and over again. 45 Church's are planted along the "long border" and in the villages where CHO is working the majority are now worshiping Jesus. These communities flourish and the word spreads.
Poipet is a city at a crossroads and the Gospel is coming in.
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