Dear Friends and Family,
Easter was special this year. The orphans at Cham Chao home put together a
"Resurrection Dance" in classical
Cambodian style. They presented a
very realistic reenactment of the
crucifixion, had all the kids, and
most of the adults crying, but
countered it with this triumph of
joy. Everyone was cheering when
Jesus rose!
http://www.missionreports.com/easter05/index.htm
It is great to see the Cambodian
church take Easter seriously.
Christmas has always been their big
day. When we arrived in 1999 Easter
was totally ignored. This year it
was a big deal. Yahoo! We are
resurrection people!
Khaaaboom, AGAIN! A month ago
it was landmines (see bottom page
two in above web site) in Balang and
Khampong Channang, last night, March
30th, a huge military ammunition
depot near Battambang exploded? It
was set off on purpose, but
deliberately aimed and fired? Five
rocket grenades landed near the
Chomka Somraong home blowing out
many of the windows but,
fortunately, no one from our home
was hurt. The firing, or explosion,
from the depot, occurred more than a
mile from the home, and produced an
estimated 50 casualties. No one
knows if there was a specific
target. Local scuttlebutt?? The
streetwise claim it was meant to
delay the Khmer Rouge trial, which
is already only 30 years late. Trust
me. It will never happen, even
though the UN raised $56 million to
pull it off. Could I be wrong? Yup!
Now, to get their hands on the $56
million, avoid a trial, and somehow
emerge as victims, that would be
genuinely Cambodian.
Remember my statement, "Double the government; double the 'fun'?" I was
wrong. I should have said "Triple".
The Phnom Penh Post reports: "With
all the talk about fighting
corruption, one bureaucracy watcher
says the inevitable has already
happened. With the addition of so
many new Secretaries of State to the
government, the number of forms to
get permission to do anything has
started to increase. One source says
that it used to take two forms to
register an association but now it
takes six" The guy who said that
should try clearing a container of
raisins, sent from America to feed
the orphans, through Cambodian
customs. Ly Heng, our Chief of
Staff, took our monthly report to
the CDC (Customs People). They
hardly glanced at the report but
wanted to know, "Where's the
envelope?" You figure out what it
means, I have to live here. Besides,
they only make $30.00-$100 per
month, never-the-less, It is enough
to drive me over the edge. 'Not far
to go', some would say.
About the time I get upset with Cambodia, our own US Embassy pulls one off
for the record books. Can you
believe this? Pastor Peter, our
national president, of both the
Church and NGO
(Non-Government-Organization),
Foursquare Children of Promise, was
given a personal invitation to
attend the International Convention
of the Foursquare Church in Chicago,
to be held at the end of May. He is
president of close to 1300 churches,
oversees one of the largest NGO's in
Cambodia, with an annual budget of
about $2.5 million US dollars,
supervises a total valuation of
Church property in excess of
$4,000,000 US, directs the care of
3000 orphans and widows, has all his
family, including mother, 4
children, and a wife, in Cambodia,
owns his own home, has a round trip
ticket, has this all documented with
his visa application, paid a $100
dollar fee for a five minute
interview, and the US Embassy denies
him a visa. Their reason? "You have
not shown that you have a
sufficiently strong family, social,
or economic ties to your place of
residence to ensure that your
protected stay in the United States
will be temporary." At the same
time, I see them grant visas to some
of the biggest con-artists and
crooks I have ever met. Go figure!
Anyone know a Congressman? Senator?
Condi Rice? George Bush? Maybe God?
Of course the fact that my wife, as
she was taking some wealthy donors
shopping, observed one of the local
US Embassy employees down at the
premiere jewelry shop purchasing all
kinds of flashy stuff, wouldn't have
anything to do with it! No
corruption in the US Embassy!
Anyway, I have probably been placed
on the 'terrorist watch list' since
I told the brainless embassy
employees what I thought.
Post convention revival has broken out in Pursat Province. Services have
been maxed out, and there seems to
be a very genuine move of the Holy
Spirit. And there is substantial
growth in the north and east. Very
special things are happening, but I
don't dare go into details. Around
Poipet we still see a lot of church
growth. God is good. Sou and Ly Heng
stumbled into, "A city of Ghosts".
Really, it is a floating city,
located at the apex of three
provinces on the Great Lake, the
problem being that no one can figure
out what province they live in so,
no ID Cards, thus they don't exist,
also many of them are of Vietnamese
ancestry so they cannot receive
citizenship. Literally, thousands of
people wide open to the Gospel, and
no place to go. Great fishing
though! In more ways than one.
See:
http://www.missionreports.com/mar05_update/index.htm
So, with all this growth why
don't we start a Bible School? In a
word, "Pride". Pride and "face" are
impediments to the Gospel. If our
pastors can respond to people on an
equal basis, with honesty and love,
we win converts, but people with
advanced schooling find this almost
impossible. Pride and "face" always
rise up, and pastors with some kind
of 'advanced degree' almost always
fail. On the other hand, pastors who
start with nothing but faith are not
bound by such feelings, they work
hard, are self taught, or taught
through small steps without fanfare,
they work hard and are very
successful. Make sense??
PTSS (Post Tsunami Stress Syndrome), for me, it looks like this. Donors
decide to give their money to
Tsunami victims, recipient
organizations cannot control the
flow, down the old 'rat hole' it
goes, One large International NGO,
which took in a ton of tsunami
money, is all of a sudden driving
new vehicles in Cambodia, and giving
their old ones to the government.
That beats an envelope! Two teams
cancel coming to Cambodia to go help
restore the 'beaches of Thailand'.
Now you'd have to live here to catch
the irony, but Thailand lost 2000
people to the tsunami, mostly
tourists. Cambodia looses more to
malaria in a month. Thailand is
'Light Years" ahead of Cambodia
economically. All the commodities we
need for building are being sucked
up at exurbanite prices by the
tsunami aid. Prices are 15-25%
higher for steel, cement, roofing
material, and floor tile that we
need to finish our projects. We are
a couple of thousand dollars short
on finishing off our rice mill, the
need is very real, yet we can't get
a date. It's just that we opened 18
new orphan homes this year. It is as
dry as cracker juice here. Literally
and figuratively! We have homes call
in several times a week with dried
up wells. All we have to respond
with is a dried up pocket book.
Please pray for us! Two large
congregations near the Thai border
are asking for churches, from the
looks of where they meet and live,
they need them. Looks like a poverty
tsunami hit them. (See page two of
the above web site) "Never say
whoa in the pull", we continue to
build, dedicate and plan on 12 new
facilities, if I don't succumb to
'paper work fatigue' before they
become reality.
Thank God, and Thank you, for the help we get! The Hong Kong E. Free
Church sends rice money every month
and Glad Tidings church has secured
over 300 tons of rice for us with
Warm Blankets picking up the freight
now, if we can just get it milled??
We had two teams here this month
with a major dental effort in
Bantemeanchy Province, thanks to NW
Medical Missions. Check out the
smiles
http://www.missionreports.com/dental_mar05/index.html
That's a good ending. Keep smiling!
God Bless!
Ted, Sou & Hannah Olbrich
Anna Blake
Ryan Taggart
