My wife Noit, along with all the other people who were living in the capital city Phnom Penh were considered worthless city people. The Khmer Rouge leadership had determined that all the nations problems could be traced to the city people. They were viewed as oppressors because they were rich and they acted like it.…
By Steve and Noit Hyde After completing the Freedom Walk honoring Noit together we have had many meaningful conversations together since then. Last night as Noit and I talked of how Jesus has transformed our hearts and grew His love in us, then, Noit commented on the condition of her heart immediately after the Khmer…
As Paul and I were walking that last hour of our Freedom Walk through the city, we knew it was an easy walk of only a few miles. After walking 150km on dirt and gravel, walking on paved roads was easy. The only difficulty would be the amount of traffic in Phnom Penh. As we…
By Noit Hyde (Translated by Steve) When Steve wanted to go on this walk remembering the walk that I had made with my sister more than thirty years ago, I didn’t want him to do it. I knew it was a difficult journey and I thought since I already went through great difficulty, why should…
As I prepared mentally and physically for the Freedom Walk, I was anticipating a difficult walk. As a Boy Scout decades ago, I had completed many long hikes and loved camping out-of-doors, so a little hiking and sleeping in random villages was nothing which bothered me. The biggest difficultly I thought about was the sheer…
When we hear the word “traitor” we think of someone stealing state secrets on military weapons design, or some classified aircraft part. In Cambodia, under the Khmer Rouge a traitor was anyone who stole from “Ongka”. Ongka was what the Khmer Rouge called themselves. It is a word which just means “organization”. Everything, literally, was…
Automatically, when we hear the words “A savior is born” we think about Jesus Christ being born into the world. His miraculous birth led the way for his eternal salvation from sins. However, this story is about a little nameless baby that was born in a roadside hut in Bakan district, Pursat province in Cambodia…
By Paul Hyde Here’s what I learned: Walking 140km+ in the heat with 20kg on your back isn’t easy; but possible. When my dad and I walked we heard some pretty amazing and disturbing stories; usually both amazing and disturbing hand in hand. Even though those stories would scar most people just listening about…
Today, Sunday, is a day of rest for my son and I. It is the sixth day of our Freedom Walk and a much-needed break for our weary legs and bodies. Having walked nearly 150km our bodies are spent. Emotionally it has been a difficult journey for my son and me as we hear the…
Walking the Freedom Walk, by re-tracing the route that my wife walked on her journey to freedom from the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, has opened up so many emotions to my son and I which we could not have expected. While I have heard the stories of atrocities from my wife and others about…