FCOP Update -- August 2005

Dear Friends and Family,

So, what’s happened this past month? Remember a year ago last January when Peter and I got our rears pounded raw traversing through an uncharted stretch of jungle in Northern Cambodia? Well, on that painful trek we invited a few people to come to a church function. Guess what? They showed up! Now, there is a massive revival in that area. Thousands of residents are coming to Christ and we don’t even have a facility yet. All over Cambodia we are training pastors like crazy! Sixty supervisors are holding classes in each province, thanks to a Foursquare Foundation grant. See: http://www.missionreports.com/leadership_conference_2005 Churches continue to be planted and new facilities are under construction. In one town it appears most of the community will be part of the church before their building is completed, and strangely, the pastor was converted less that two years ago because someone who had accepted Christ invited him to church because they didn’t know how to explain Christianity. Sou led a training program for all the church/home directors on the Heart Call to build a nation. It seems to have hit a nerve, for the good!

We dedicated two new facilities in July and have completed four more. Chheang Ka’s wife is sitting up and feeding herself. (Thanks for your prayers!) Our orphans keep getting married, and go off to pastor, just as they said they would. Eighty seven students attended our musical and computer training. Since we only have thirteen computers and were only able to purchase 25 musical keyboards, (our grant money is still in the mail) we had to break them into three study shifts. The church/homes continue to expand our swine production since the ‘Bird Flu’ has put our quail project on permanent hold. Hogs need energy. Our rice mill is cranking out rice bran as a byproduct from the rice we mill for the kids. But it is inadequate to meet the needs, so some homes have started raising corn (I know some things about that). Some of the orphans have gone into the business of manufacturing farrowing crates (special pens for pigs to give birth). The rice mill got a L.P. Gas powered tractor, imported from America to power the unit, and the parking lot a coating of large rock to keep the truck from sinking out of sight with the 20 ton loads it hauls out on a regular basis. Food shipments continue to arrive from America. Distribution to the church/homes is never ending. The churches are also sharing surplus local production with other locations. The ‘tractor factory’ has produced several new products for the US market. Wells and water seepage ponds are being built. Who said this would not be a lasting enterprise? http://www.missionreports.com/cambodia_events

A funny thing happened---Friends received requests for information regarding my background and character from a major donor contributing to our construction. Then I was requested to come for a “face to face” meeting regarding our vision and goals. Finally, a representative showed up for a spot check on our facilities. I don’t mind any of these things, but this was weird! Lo and behold, a woman who should know better, wanted support from donors that were being solicited by this group. She’d already gotten $122,000 from them to build an orphan home for 28 kids (a little American college campus that will totally spoil those children.) She later decided to build a church (she got that backwards) and wanted more money. We got a request to check out the possibility of working with her. She didn’t like that idea, so she went to our oldest church/home in the province and took a picture of some of the bunk beds stacked on bricks and mentioned that the walls were dirty and finger stained. This home built in 1999 for $18,000, houses a congregation of around 90, has started dozens of daughter churches, and the wooden beds had the legs eaten by termites. We don’t have money to replace them (most Cambodians don’t even have beds.) Then she went to the District Headquarters Church and took a picture of twenty tons of rice stacked in the sanctuary. These pictures were sent to our donor organization with the implication that we ran a sloppy, non-functioning operation. Well, it just so happens that this district church has close to 200 members and the district pastor has started over 150 churches in the past 4 years. It happened to be distribution time when she took the picture. We accumulate the monthly supplies, rice and food items at the district church; then the divisional church/homes come and pick up the commodities. She came a day or two before distribution. Anyway, here’s the deal: One, we always start with a church. Two, our $18,000 dollar unit has housed 50 kids for six years and a congregation that has grown and multiplied. Three, we never want our kids to live like kings and queens. They are Cambodians, and our desire is that they are prepared to go to the most rural location to build the church in Cambodia. Four, we want our kids, healthy, loved, educated, and in love with the Lord. Five, we have around 1500 churches, 700 home groups, about 300,000 adherents and 3,400 orphans and widows. She has 28 spoiled orphans. You compare the fruit. Anyway, the representative of our donor organization, on his fact finding mission, stopped unaccompanied at this older home. As a nine year old boy was showing him around, the boy stopped and asked the man, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” He left the country affirmed in the support of our model. Where’s a lightning bolt when you need it?

Ryan Taggart, our medical director, has worked hard inventorying our medical supplies and placing the perishable items in an insulated, cooled, container. Last year we had valuable dental supplies spoil and we are in the process of working to prevent that. Two of our orphans will begin dental training this fall. We have decided that, as the popular book “The Earth is Flat” maintains, Cambodian orphans are in a unique position to enter the global market, with their intense drive to succeed, coupled with computer training and some advanced English language ability, they can accomplish much. Wendy Hicks, a school teacher from the US, has joined the team here with her special ESL skills. We’ve already had one offer for our older kids to assist a US based business, and though we still lack the technical infrastructure to pull it off, like the sunrise, it will come. Anna Blake went back to America for a much deserved R&R. And, we have a special guest from Kids for the Kingdom, Emmanuel Praveen, who is working on video production.

We seem to live in quiet desperation: desperate for sponsors, desperate for school uniforms ($21,000 by next month), and desperate for repairs. It’s a good place to be. Desperation keeps me focused on the Lord and active in prayer. If I weren’t desperate, I’d be desperate to be desperate. It appears we are going to have to build a designated H.I.V. home due to the number of kids that we have coming in with positive tests and the capacity of our partner organization, Sisters of Charity, to absorb more children. I just lived out an all too oft recurring nightmare. One of our nine year old HIV positive orphan girls came down with full blown AIDS. She sweetly told her older sister and younger brother not to worry, that she was going to be with Jesus. She said it with such powerful assurance that I cried when I heard her say it, but decided that I would try to delay the fulfillment of her prophesy. Even though our staff had been turned down in obtaining a spot for her at Sisters of Charity, I placed a personal appeal with Mother Superior and got her accepted. I am hoping with the AIDS cocktail she will soon be back to health.

I went back to America, again, this time to be with my daughter Hannah for a series of medical exams. She’s fine, thank you! But, I did manage to sneak in speaking at two churches (I hope both Districts sponsor homes!). And, I rounded up and shipped another eight old tractors for the micro-enterprise tractor factory. My son, Emil, an active member of the Flat Irons Church in Lafayette, CO, brought a team and helped renovate Toule Dam Na, the church home where the fire fell in January, 2000. I didn’t even get to see Emil, we passed in the air. I am proud of them, our staff, and all of you who send teams and support Church/Homes. See: http://www.missionreports.com/flat_iron .. I observed something amazing on this trip to the US: the pressure and choices put upon churches, and individual believers, to fund various mission’s efforts. I came away convinced of this. It is not necessarily the most productive that receive the most dollars. In fact, from my perspective, it seems like it’s often the best funded, less deserving organizations, that attract sincere, yet unaware, believers to finance the unfruitful. Somehow, for the sake of the Kingdom, that needs to change. Here is a Cambodian fantasy, not too far from the truth:

Today we are going to take you into the mind of ‘General Fatcat’ (the name has been changed to protect the guilty, however he could be one of dozens in this glorious land). “Ryan (our Medical Director), where’s our proctoscope, errr, uhh , I mean brain scan device? Ok, hook up the General. Let’s see what he’s thinking. Throw the switch.” Buzz-Zap!

“Oh, I am such a wise and witty fellow! I have a fleet of Land Cruisers, my wife has a new Mercedes, and my kids all have Humvees. I own 28 villas in Phnom Penh, which I rent to foreigners at exurbanite prices. I have thousands of hectares (rural land) for which I managed to get a legal deed when those stupid peasants just had hand written notes. Yes, I am a wise and witty fellow! I have used my troops to harvest many trees. Each truck load is worth more than $20,000. When I don’t need the troops, I retire them, The UN gives me big money for demobilization, but of course I keep their names on the pay role and collect their salaries. After all, you never know when we may have a national emergency, right? I am a wise and witty fellow! My steady, bread and butter income, comes from collecting fees for ‘protecting’ vehicles and brothels from all sorts of evil. I set up road blocks to extract the fees for the good of the drivers, and my officers visit the brothels daily to collect fees to protect them. I am such a wise and witty fellow! But alas! Some people call me corrupt. Can you imagine?? However, good fortune has come my way. I must have been a wonderful person in my former life! A ‘Justice Mission’ has come to rescue prostitutes. Of course, I have no money for such ventures, so I must solicit their funds, and I would never bother my fellow ‘Fatcats’, but there are many upstarts, and people who belong to the wrong political party, and those that have ‘ticked me off’. Ahh…yes! They must be raided! Oh! I am such a wise and witty fellow! I put my competition out of business; I am called a ‘Hero of Justice’! The U.S. Embassy loves me! The Justice Mission is hailed as a ‘Hero’ in America and collects millions. I get to see my enemies put in jail. Then I hire the best girls to work for me at less money (as soon as the Justice Mission leaves town). Yes, life is good! I am such a wise and witty fellow!

----“Ryan! Unplug him, I’ve heard enough! Let’s hook up TANGO” (Typical American Non Government Organization) Buzz-Zap!

“Yes we must find funding! We have villas to rent, new vehicles to buy, salaries to pay---the pool needs a new filter! What are the latest hot spots for funding?? Hmmm? Children and trafficking? But kids cost money! I mean you’ve got to feed them for 15 to 20 years! YIKES!! That will never do! It builds dependency! It requires responsibility, and long term commitment. No, No, No! Americans want quick pay back! Invest now and get full results in six months. Yes, that’s the ticket! You can get ‘faith based’ money?? Good! Oh, I see! You can have a faith, you just can’t share it. But you get money, right? OK! I’ve got it! We’ll put on seminars! Yes, a seminar on “How to care for the trafficked child”, “How to spot the trafficked Child”, “How to train the trafficked child”. There is no end to it! This is wonderful! We can use the “Teach a Man to Fish” theme. All we have to do is talk! Yes! We get money for overhead, support, and salaries! Wonderful! And, we never have to touch a child! All we do is talk, talk, talk, pass out papers, and call ourselves experts! Never mind that we’ll never actually care for a child. US AID will buy it! Ahh, life is good!

---“Ryan! Unplug him too. I can’t take anymore!”

Far fetched? Cynical? Sorry. Try honest and realistic. Seriously, allow me to ask some questions. How many brothels did Jesus raid? Hmmm?? (And don’t tell me it was because Romans didn’t have sex with underage girls and boys!) How many of these 20 some Cambodian prostitutes that have been ‘rescued’ have come to Christ? Judging from where they are placed, I’d say the answer is the same as that for the above question. What’s my point? I’ve had at least four requests to attend seminars, allow surveys, etc. regarding trafficked children in the past month. Few of these guys actually DO anything in Cambodia regarding the care of children. None of them dare mention Christ in their seminars. It’s all psycho-babble. How did the world survive before modern psychiatry? Let’s see….since then we’ve had two world wars, numerous regional conflicts, several genocides, and the atomic bomb. Pretty good, huh? I turned most of their requests down. Why? What’s wrong with Love, Acceptance, Forgiveness, and the teaching of, and admonition of the Lord? The thing is…the only way to change Cambodia is to change the value system---that means Christ.

I need to quit!

Have a great month!

Blessings!

Ted, Sou & Hannah Olbrich, Ryan Taggart, Anna Blake.

Archive:

See July 2005 update

See June 2005 update

See May 2005 update

See April 2005 update

See March 2005 update

See February 2005 update

See January 2005 Update

See December 2004 Update

See November 2004 Update

See October 2004 Update

See September 2004 Update

See August 2004 Update

See March 2004 Update

See July 2004 Update