New Perspective, Anyone?

The two men in this picture have a long and significant history with each other, although they hadn't seen each other for over two decades when this picture was taken last year. One of them is a Providence Seminary grad, which is how I heard his story.

The man on the left tortured and executed the father of the man on the right. He is one of several military executioners who chopped all of the family members and dropped them into a mass grave with other political prisoners who were resistant to "re-education" during the Khmer Rouge uprising in Cambodia in the late 1970's.

What makes this photo so remarkable is that the young boy, who was left for dead but survived his injuries and later came to Canada and became a follower of Jesus, had sworn years ago to hunt down each of his family's butchers. His original intent had been to torture and kill them, as they had done to he & his family.

This photograph documents the new vow he has made: to hunt down each of his family's killers and forgive them to their faces. This man, his father's executioner, was the first. He continues to seek the others to tell them that he has forgiven them, and that Jesus can forgive them too.

He has begun spending a lot of time in Phnom Phen, where he meets with many people who went through the same turbulent period of Cambodia's history -- killers, torturers, and victims alike -- who are all trying to learn how to reconcile, and are finding that Jesus is the only hope they have for letting go of the cycle of vengeance, and finding healing.

There are times, in the midst of our wrangling and angst over the modern/postmodern question of church and ministry, when a story like this -- sobering & inspiring, humbling & triumphant -- brings some much-needed perspective.