Day 1- Why Cambodia

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40 ESV

The above verse compels us to do justice on behalf of the oppressed. Cambodia is a country filled with beauty, brokenness and passion. This is why Cambodia is the focus of this year’s October Justice Awareness event. Here is some information about the Kingdom of Cambodia.

• Cambodia has a population of 14.6 million people, half of those are under the age of 20. This is due to the genocide that took place between 1975-1979 under the dictatorship of Pol Pot where 1/3 of the population was murdered and died
• The life expectancy for males in Cambodia is 60 years old and for women it is 65
• The literacy rate is 73.6%
• 35% lack access to clean drinking water, this is mainly those living in the Provinces, the extremely poor
• 72% don’t have access to proper sanitation
• 30% of children are malnourished
• 20% live below the poverty line
• Today there are approximately 50,000 sex slaves in Cambodia

Steps of Justice has been working in Cambodia for the past 5 years. We have developed a deep love for the people, culture and ministries that are working there. This is why we are spending the month of October learning about areas of poverty  and the result of poverty in Cambodia and around the world. Some of these areas that we will be looking at are:

• slavery
• lack of education
• sex trafficking
• preventative disease
• corruption

Starting today, October  1, we stand on the ground in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and will be posting for the next 11 days from Cambodia. All the stories you hear will be from Cambodia and the interviews and videos we post will be within days of shooting them.

We invite you to join with us in prayer and action on behalf of the oppressed of Cambodia. All of these injustices happen not only in Cambodia, but around the world. As we look at specific injustices each day we will say a prayer for God to bring justice, learn more about the specific injustice that day  through media, blogs, music and film, then take practical steps that take us from awareness to action.

Jesus, teach us over these next 30 days how to respond to your call on our lives to do justice. Give us a deep heart for Cambodia and the world.

**Stats taken from UofN Battambang

Photo by Vanessa Hadford