Dear Friends and Family,
3:00am February 9, 2006, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
How’d you like to be called “Pastor Tubby”? I
meant to your face? Political correctness is not
a Cambodian concept. Pastor Mop (Tubby) is proof
of that. His real name is Rattanna, but everyone
calls him Mop, “Tubby”. Now, don’t be offended
for him, he kind of likes the name. Why? Well,
being tubby is not looked down on in Cambodia;
in fact, in the Cambodian tradition, being fat
is a sign of health, blessing, and prosperity. I
realize that this assumption is factually wrong,
but that is the way they think after being
starved under the Khmer Rouge, and due to the
fact that the average Cambodian suffers from a
caloric deficit. Just like being a “Nasty woman”
is almost considered a complement by most
Cambodian females. Go figure?
Anyway, I want to talk about Mop, because he is
one ‘pumped up’ pastor. Mop is a product of our
orphan care system, which is producing a crop of
pastors that are doing exceptionally well. I’d
like to brag on him a bit. He was 17 years old
when he came to us in 1999, but he’d been raised
by the local pastor from the age of 15. He was
assisting in the church from the day he arrived;
we put him through our pastoral training for two
years starting in 2002. He began as Senior
Pastor in a strong Muslim area of Cambodia in
2004. His church has grown steadily to over 100,
and he has been responsible for starting four
more churches of more than 25 members each. But,
here’s his newest sermon topic, “Jesus Christ is
living in my country and raising the dead!” Mop
got a call on January 21st from a
member from one of the most remote, new home
groups, that he’s started. A member’s daughter
had died, and they needed a funeral. This place
is hard to get to. You’ve got to cross the Tonlé
Sap River, navigate part of the Great Lake, and
do some driving over very unfriendly roads. Mop
took his assistant and was direct because bodies
do not store well in Cambodia, but not in a
panic, as the girl was dead. Only, when he got
there, the girl was still breathing. “I thought
you told me she was dead?” questioned Mop.
“We’ve taken her to the best children’s
hospital three times. They say she has advanced
Leukemia. There is no hope, and we have no more
money. She cannot live long!” sobbed the
distraught mother. “I know how long it takes to
get here, and I don’t have money to embalm her
body. I want a Christian funeral.”
Mop responded, “I have a great doctor and all He
costs you is your faith!”
“Where can I find this doctor?” asked the woman.
“He is in Cambodia and we can access Him right
now. You know Him. He is Jesus,” explained Mop.
Mop, his assistant, and a few visiting church
members began to pray. After they prayed for
some time to no avail, Mop decided to transport
the girl 20 kilometers to the district hospital.
The doctor was not pleased, as he was familiar
with the girl. “There is nothing we can do for
this girl! She is nearly dead. There is no way
to treat the white blood. All we can do is
continual transfusions and we have only one unit
of blood and you have no money. Let her die,”
Pleaded the doctor.
“No, I can’t do that!” said Pastor Mop. “I will
buy the blood”. The doctor insisted Mop was
throwing his money away, but Mop forked over
more than half his monthly salary, $24.00, for
the blood. They no sooner began the transfusion
than the girl died.
“Now you see!” scolded the doctor. “You’ve lost
your money and the girl is dead!” Mop insisted
that the doctor allow them to pray. The doctor
was disgusted with these Christians, but he
agreed to allow them to pray, if they would be
quick about in and then remove the body. He
began other duties. After several minutes of
prayer the girl opened her eyes, looked at her
mother and said “Mama, I’m hungry.” She walked
out of the doctor’s office and is in perfect
health today, February 9, 2006. “Oh, your God
has big power!” exclaimed the very impressed
doctor.
I know this update is hopelessly late, but
you’re just going to have to excuse me. See,
I’ve been gone since January 18th,
except for 2 nights and a day, and I leave for
Bangkok in four hours, so this is a “quickie”!
My problem is that I’ve been a bad boy. I had
that surgery on Dec. 26th to remove
the bone fragment from a broken pelvic bone
which occurred 9 years ago. Well, I didn’t stay
immobile long enough and broke the stitches.
Thinking it might heal anyway, and being in
Cambodia, I decided to brass it out.
“Stupid!?” Yes, in retrospect, I admit it.
Anyway, for two years I have been putting off
going to Norway to visit a number of churches
there that have sent medical teams, and support,
so six months ago I promised I’d go. “You went
to Norway in January? Now, I know you’re nuts!”
Like I said, I’m not the brightest bulb in the
chandelier. Anyway, it gets worse. The day I am
to leave for Norway I develop an infection. Self
medicator that I am, I decided to continue
practicing medicine without a license, and
pulled some Cipro off the pharmacy shelf, and
left for Norway. Well, I’m glad I went, because
it looks like we were able to get several homes
sponsored but, much as I loved Norway, (It’s so
cold you don’t get colds there) I was in pain
most of the time, and very happy to get to
Bangkok.
I said, “Sew me back up doc!”
He was angry, “I can’t sew you up until I deal
with this infection. I need to clean it out!”
“We’ll clean it out then!” I snapped back. (My
wound is in a rather delicate spot.)
“Without any anesthetic?” asked the surprised
doctor. I nodded the affirmative. Actually, I
think he enjoyed punishing me. I have to admit
it made my eyes water. “Now I need to put you on
a new course of antibiotics and admit you for a
few days”, continued the doc.
“Doc! No! I have to go to America. I’ve got five
meetings scheduled, and a clinic for the orphans
riding on this! Show me what to do. I’ll behave.
I promise!” Against his better judgment he
proceeded to give me instructions on wound care,
a regime of antibiotics, and off I went. The
trip was successful with a couple more
church/homes sponsored’, and the clinic deal all
but confirmed. So, today I go back to Bangkok,
as promised, to get sewn up. I hope! After
living in Cambodia, two weeks in Norway, a day
in Bangkok, another in Phnom Penh, 6 days in the
US, back in Phnom Penh yesterday, and off to
Bangkok this morning, I am a chronological mess.
That’s why you get Updates written at 3:00am.
It’s just good that the Cambodian church does
well without me. Our national convention is in
ten days and we expect over 2000 pastors and
cell leaders. Our challenge is, we always exceed
expectations, and where we will put everyone is
a real question. New churches are starting
daily, and even though we are trying to combine
churches to put gifted pastors over the people
rather than church planters, the church planters
just go somewhere else and start another more.
http://www.foursquareorphans.org/jan_update06
We’ve bought up all the Bibles we can find in
Phnom Penh and continue with our construction
projects.
By the way, Spud, our dog, and chief of
security, is actually getting fat. He’s been
skinny all his life, maybe we’ll call him “Mop”.
It seems killing rats has given him a new
purpose in life, and since our ‘rat invasion’
last month he’s personally knocked off at least
a dozen. Three yesterday, and he’s looking for
one in our pharmacy right now.
We have continued with our Foursquare Foundation
grants in training all pastors, with 63 groups
all over the country, and our program of
saturation evangelism is the theme of this
year’s convention, “Behold the harvest is ripe
and ready for harvest”, as we encourage pastors
to engage every believer in reaching out to non
Christian people. We have been blessed with some
financial help for the convention, and our food
production and the shipments of aid really have
helped us. A team from the Central San Joaquin
District of Foursquare churches was here and did
some much needed work up in the Rattanakiri
district, and really blessed us in so many ways.
They are a fun bunch, and had a great time,
except for their leader, who thinks he is Steve
McQueen in the “Great Escape” when it
comes to motorcycles, he messed up his pelvic,
hip socket, seems to be about as bright as I am?
Just kidding Rene!! Honest! I know you will
behave. I am glad to report that he is doing
well. Thanks guys!
http://www.foursquareorphans.org/music_jan06
By the way, just take a second and pray for two
staff women in Rattankiri who will die of breast
cancer unless God intervenes. Thanks!
There was a great team from Northwest Medical
Missions here at the beginning of the month.
They were fantastically efficient and did the
most thorough job of dental care to date. They
saw a lot of kids and staff whom had never been
to a dentist. One of the worst cases was our
pastor from Steng Some Roun. He was in the chair
for hours, but for the first time in his memory,
his health is good and he feels great.
http://www.foursquareorphans.org/dental_2006
We are busy transforming our four, forty foot,
shipping containers into cold storage units, as
we have received so many great food items and
medications, from our American partners which
have limited shelf life in this heat. One unit
will be used for medications. The tractor
factory was in overdrive producing a shipment of
re-manufactured antique tractors and several
tons of parts for shipment to the States. They
are in the water. The rice mill storage is
filled to capacity with new crop rice, now if I
could just figure out how to pay for it??? All
to say, life here is hectic, and desperate,
which is to say, “Normal”.
We love you guys. Pray for us. We really do pray
and bless God for each of you!
Thanks and Blessings!
Ted, Sou & Hannah Olbrich,
Anna Blake, Ryan Taggart, Wendy Hicks, And the
Cambodian Crew
