Merry Christmas Friends and Family!
For pictures:
http://www.missionreports.com/rice_mill/
http://www.missionreports.com/update_dec04/
http://www.missionreports.com/christmas2004/
http://www.missionreports.com/cambodia_christmas/
Well, it happened, AGAIN! We received fire from
heaven, for the third time that I know of, in
Cambodia during the past 30 years. When I heard
about it, I was naturally excited to see the power
of God still being manifested in such a spectacular
way, but a little jealous that I was busy building a
rice storage bin. However, I immediately rejoiced
that the event involved another “Barrang” (which
means ‘Frenchman’, which means all white skinned
foreigners, including moi (me) in Cambodia. Clear?).
As I know, had I been the featured attraction, my
credibility would have been completely shot with
another, “Whopper” of such proportions. I assume
most of you recall the account of the fire that fell
on Toule Dam Na in January of 2000? (If not,
click here) As it turns out, that was the second
such event involving Foursquare Cambodia, even
though the first occurred 24 years before our
arrival.
Pastor Peter Unchhayvara, President of the Cambodian
Foursquare Church, recalls his first encounter with
this miraculous power of God, in Phnom Penh,
occurring early in 1975, just before the tragic
arrival of Pol Pot, and the beginning of the four
year reign of terror under the Khmer Rouge.
“I
was playing soccer with my friends on a Sunday
afternoon, at the school field, about three blocks
from my home; all of a sudden my friends started
pointing towards my house and yelling, ‘Peter! Look!
Your house is on fire!’ I started running home as
fast as I could, when a fire truck passed me with
the siren screaming. When I got home both the fire
department, and the neighbor who had called in the
fire, were surprised to find that there was no fire
at all. The smoke was coming from a Spirit filled
prayer meeting being led by my parents.”
So, this is number three. Here is what happened.
There was a lot going on in early December, I flew
in from the States on December 1st,
meeting a construction team led by the Blake (Anna
our team leaders’) family so, she left with them
immediately for Poipet. I was home two nights, and
felt compelled by the drought devastated rice
harvest, to leave for rice bin construction.
Problem! Rene and Kristi Charest, from Valley
Christian Center, were arriving the day I decided to
leave. Rene, being a successful building contractor,
businessman, and leader of the central California
men’s groups for Foursquare, was coming to “Scout
the land” for possible district level support of the
work in Cambodia, and I was anxious that both he and
Kristi to have a positive experience. I remember
praying, “God, please give our guests a true and
revealing time with us”, and I was frustrated by the
pressure I felt to get some rice purchased. (It’s
already up to $400 per ton in Phnom Penh) Sou was
tied up with our daughter Hannah, who was
experiencing some health problems (doing better,
thank you!), and still in school as well. I was
leaving, Anna was gone, Ryan Taggart, newly arrived
staff member, was in need of some orientation
himself. Rene and Kristi were arriving, and in five
days Greg Dable, of Kids for the Kingdom and Jim
Lowan, of Teen Challenge, were coming for visits.
What to do? Thank God for faithful, well trained,
staff! Ly Heng, one of first, and oldest orphan
boys, delivered of three evil spirits, fluent
English speaker, and now chief of our “data uptake”
(website maintenance) staff was tapped to lead the
Charests’ on a trip to Rattanakirri (Northeast
Cambodia), and Vichea, our legal counsel, American
trained lawyer, would meet both Greg Dable, and Jim
Lowan. I instructed Ly Heng to make sure they
visited the site of our newest Church Home in the
area to check on the final stages of construction.
This is his account:
“Pastor Mot, District Supervisor for Rattanakirri,
(man pictured in military uniform) met us and showed
us around the province. We visited the orphans at
his church, and the Crater Lake, on the first day.
On the second day, we traveled by truck and boat to
the newest churches. It was December 6th,
and we were traveling to some of the tribal areas,
each of the two locations spoke different languages,
both more closely related to Lao than Cambodian,
there are twelve different languages spoken in that
region. The second church we visited was just
finishing construction on their new building, in the
area known as Phnom Kok Lak and the church (Dam Na
Thamei). The women smoke pipes, and when no
foreigners are around, don’t wear clothing above the
waist. Rene and Kristi attracted a lot of attention
so, a small crowd of fifteen or twenty villagers
followed them to the church, but stopped at the edge
of the church property, more than 100 meters from
the building, not being believers in the “New God”.
About a dozen local church members and few nearby
pastors gathered in the new church building to greet
them. It was about 3:00 pm. The Charists’ had spent
about 15 minutes inspecting the new building and
then entered into prayer for from five to ten
minutes, some were praying in their natural language
and some were praying in the Spirit (tongues). The
number of people standing at the gate began to grow
as neighbors were curious about the “Barrangs” (Rene
and Kristi) and wanted to see them, but some other
excitement was causing people to rush to the scene.
As the prayer was ongoing, the people in the village
saw a whirlwind of fire over the church building,
and were running to get a closer look. The group had
grown to more than 30 villagers. Afraid of the
‘Power’ behind the fire they would not enter the
property. The people praying were unaware of the
reason for the excitement. When the prayer concluded
the fire disappeared, and as the church members
emerged from the building, the people in the crowd
called out to the local pastor, Sorn (Pictured with
mustache), “Where did the fire come from? Why was
the fire swirling while you were praying?” The
pastor was surprised, but the whole group insisted
that they all saw it, so he acknowledged that it was
written in the Bible, and taught them out of Acts,
Chapter 2. The people all acknowledged that this God
had, “Big power!” and the church grew in number that
day.”
That one a little too ‘spiritual’ for you? Can’t say
I blame you for being skeptical, so let me give you
a glimpse of the ‘carnal’ side of missions’ work in
Cambodia. I gotta be nuts to put this in writing! I
had about 10 guys helping me build the rice storage
bin. Every night I’d go in to the nearest town of
consequence, Bantemeanchy, 55 potholed kilometers
away, and buy supplies. Since there was no market,
no well, no bathroom, and only a scum covered ditch
full of water in front of the rice mill property, I
bought the daily needs, which always included about
20 liters of water. On day three, for some
unbeknownst, but stupid, reason I forgot the water,
on the SAME DAY that the fire fell. At about
10:00am we had consumed the six liters that were
available at the local store (6’ x 10’ bamboo shack
along the dusty road with a total inventory of about
30 items) along with three cans of warm Coke, and
two cans of coconut juice. The Cambodian’s said,
“Not to worry! We have the ditch.” They found some
kind of dried leaves, and began to boil up a batch
of “Tea??” But, I saw what the little girl did in
that ditch, that morning, and I was not about to
drink it, boiled or not! Peter wasn’t too crazy
about the idea either. I made a last trip to the
store. “Do you have anything else to drink”, I
asked? The little old lady spat out a chaw of beetle
nut, and with grunt, pointed out a half case of
warm, dust covered, “Jade” beer. Dehydration is bad
news. I was desperate, so was Peter, but 98 degree,
six month old, ‘weird’, beer was too much for Peter.
He said, “This tastes like horse piss!” (Hey! I told
you this was the carnal side, right? Besides, it’s a
Biblical term check out 2 Kings 18:27). Peter went
back for some ‘ditch tea’. Not me. I had five cans
that day. I haven’t had so much to drink since I was
a backslidden pig farmer. And, I don’t know if it
is just weak beer, or I consumed so many calories
that the alcohol didn’t affect me, or God protected
me from becoming the “Drunken Missionary” but, I was
sober as a judge. Honest! Hick! But, I don’t care
if I never see another can of Jade Beer as long as I
live.
There you have it. Both sides of the pendulum. Am I
a saint or a devil? Life goes on in Cambodia. So,
how do we get the Cambodian Church financially
independent? Gospel lift! Yohan, the building
contractor, is the biggest giver to the Cambodian
Church. When we met him he was a welder, making a
dollar per day, working for a crooked contractor who
took off with the last payment of a two-thirds
finished building. As I was inspecting the mess at
hand, scratching my head trying to figure out what
to do, he volunteered, “I can finish it!” He did,
and so I asked, “Do want to build another?” He’s now
built over 20 of our church buildings, including our
Training Center, is an elder in the church, and a
strong teacher in the benefit of the tithe. We’ve
got another bunch of formerly unemployed, under the
direction of Paul Mok, mechanic and elder, making
fenders for antique tractors. The first container
full is about to leave for America. Another group of
church women are weaving cloth making, “Doll faced
hand towels”. They can’t keep up with demand. Our
first orphan boy just graduated from “Automotive
Computer Analysis School” and we are hoping he will
teach many more. We are awaiting a professionally
developed business plan for the, “Orphans Theatrical
and Restaurant Arts Training Center”, I believe it
has the potential to make the homes self supporting.
Pray it becomes a reality in 2005.
Christmas is the biggest day in the Cambodian Church
year. Every church saves for months for a big
celebration and feast, then schedule them on almost
every day imaginable, so they can all go to each
other’s event. More parties that way! They have not
gotten into the habit of giving gifts to each other,
and thus Christmas is not commercialized, which is
kind of refreshing, and a whole lot cheaper! Robbie
Booth and Warm Blankets have teamed up to provide a
gift for each orphan and care giver. Thanks to all
of you who gave for this! The gifts will be much
appreciated, for many it will be the first they have
ever received.
Good stuff and bad stuff. Normal. We dedicated a
couple of new Church/homes this month. We received
news today of a pastor who’s six month old baby,
pictured with mom above, died in her sleep, with no
apparent symptoms of any disease. We finished our
first, week long, training session for District
Supervisors. We’ve seen an important church leader’s
marriage restored this month, had great visits form
our major partner at Kid’s for the Kingdom, Greg
Dable, and a potential new partner in working with
the “Glue Sniffing Street Kids” in Teen Challenge.
Which brings me to my major point, “Thank you!” To
each an every one of you who have made this mission
so successful. On behalf of Sou, Hannah, our
Cambodian staff, Anna Blake, Ryan Taggart, and
myself, “Have a Very Merry Christmas and a most
blessed and happy New Year!"
Ted Olbrich,
Cambodia
