FCOP Update -- July 2005

Dear Friends and Family,

“I feel like a faithless chicken. Thank God that the Spirit within is a lot greater than the man He walks around in!”, I confessed to Peter, our national church leader, as he told me that Pastor Chheang Ka’s wife was taking food and speaking. “I have got to quit doubting the power of prayer! Thank God the orphans have some faith”, I mumbled as I dropped my head in self-induced shame.

Pastor Chheang Ka, our Divisional Supervisor in a remote, former Khmer Rouge stronghold, also pastors one of our Church/homes. On this particular morning it was his wife’s duty to go to the local market to buy some new shoes for the orphans in the home. She was on the way to the market on a motorbike when she was ‘rear-ended’ by a 30-ton dump truck. The call came for prayer, but the doctors at the clinic (no hospitals within 80 miles) said there was absolutely no hope. Peter and I prayed anyway, she was too young and too valuable to just let go without a fight, but then I saw the pictures. I have never seen such a mutilated body still breathing. (I do not suggest you look at these pictures unless you really have a strong constitution, just read. I know, I know, it’s kind of like a ‘wet paint’ sign, but remember you were warned!) http://www.missionreports.com/pak_sinat/index.html I had planned to call the church in the U.S. which sponsors the home for prayer, but at that sight, I stalled out. I felt any faith for her survival take flight. “I’ll just pray in the Spirit”, I offered in retreat. The next morning I was honestly shocked to learn she was still alive. “How can that be? She’s not even in a decent hospital.” My staff just gave me that, “I thought you believed in God?” look. It has now been more than a month and she is speaking normally, eating and can move her limbs. I have witnessed people raised from the dead, fire from the sky, and about every miracle in the Bible, but I never thought this could happen.

“That is not the way it works! I can’t believe it!” What do you do when the reality of your experience doesn’t fit your faith? It’s both refreshing and challenging. Much of my Cambodian experience has been well outside the orthodox Christian mold. When I think of the sanitized services we offer our American parishioners, lest we offend a “seeker”, I can only shake my head at the stark contrast. Since the Christian experience is new to the Cambodians, they have not picked up the stereotypes or the offenses. To them, everything about Christ is new and refreshing.

As we were bumping down a road one day last month I asked Peter, “When is the first time you heard someone speak in a tongue with interpretation?” His answer changed my life. I will never question the validity of tongues with interpretation again. Speaking in tongues is certainly not one of the most popular Christian distinctives, in fact, even in many Pentecostal churches in the Western world, the practice is discouraged, most certainly because of the abuses. People observe a Spiritual manifestation and then think, “If I can do that I will be validated spiritually”. That’s where it all goes wrong. We force spirituality with the flesh, people are offended, the church goes to great lengths to stop the abuses, which, in return, stifles the genuine. Though Cambodian church members pray in the Spirit constantly, we almost never see a service interrupted with a tongue and interpretation. Why? I don’t know. Maybe that is the way God wants it? But, I have deliberately never pushed for any manifestations, as I have wanted to see what the Holy Spirit develops. Anyway, here is what Peter said:

“It was in 1975, just after Pol Pot evacuated Phnom Penh. He separated men from women, husbands from wives, children from parents. There were about 400 people in our church movement at that time, but by 1979 only eight were left alive. We were sent to a camp about 150 kilometers from Phnom Penh. I was only eleven, so I was put with the children. The youth from our church were sent to the same camp. We didn’t yet know the total brutality of the Khmer Rouge at that time, so we would sneak off into the jungle with the youth every night for a prayer meeting. One night a youth spoke in a loud tongue, none of us had ever heard that before, and we thought he’d gone crazy, but then another youth brought the interpretation with great authority. He said, ’I am the Lord your God and I want you to know that tomorrow I will gather your souls. Do not be afraid! You will be with Me in heaven.’ The next day all of the youth were killed.”

We received help from some generous people in order to finish six new church homes. We are in the process of getting them dedicated. Our major construction partner, International Cooperating Ministries, has agreed to fund twelve new church/homes, which will bring us to 84, with a total capacity for 4000+ orphans, and we are beginning construction of those, but completing this last batch was torture. We had no government, then twice the government (as the deal to form a coalition was to give both parties government jobs), steel prices tripled, fuel prices doubled, the tsunami inflated construction material prices, and budgets were agreed upon before all this happened. Anyway, they are finally being completed, and we pray for some stability for the next batch.

Construction and medical teams keep us maintained. We average two to three per month. The construction teams keep our buildings functional, in good repair, and provide the needed cafeterias and sewage systems our early construction failed to include. The medical teams keep our teeth and bodies chugging along. Ryan Taggart just hosted a team of fourth year dental students from Ireland through Northwest Medical Missions. Despite all the “dentist jokes” nothing makes friends for the church faster than helping a person with infected teeth find a little relief, and believe me, with the vast majority of Cambodians never having visited a dentist, the demand is huge! http://www..missionreports.com/dublin_dental/index.htm

Sosinet, our District Supervisor from the extreme Northwest area of the country, was feeling a little neglected. The road to his church/home was so lousy no one would go there, and he’d been feeding his kids in a bamboo and thatch arrangement for years. No more! Thanks to a construction team made up of five churches led by Pastor Dan Boyd of Santa Rosa, CA, and hosted by Anna Blake they have a shiny new cafeteria. Hurray for teams! http://www.missionreports.com/hope_chapel2005/index.html

The entrepreneurial spirit among the orphans is strong! Kids are raising and selling vegetables, rice, rabbits, pigs, fish, repairing motorbikes, producing tractor parts, repairing jewelry, weaving cloth, making clothing and towels, even putting on minstrel shows to raise money for their support. They still need more help, but they are learning life skills that will produce the nation changers we want them to become. http://www.missionreports.com/micro_enterprises/index.html

The Foursquare Foundation approved four grants for the Cambodian Church. They are for training our pastors, training musical skills, funding medical and dental teams and promoting lay led relational evangelism. Though we have not yet received the funding, the “Check is in the mail” so, typical of most of our Cambodian adventures, we launched in faith. We already have 63 supervisors training as trainers of the pastoral development program, twenty-five new students arrive to begin training on the keyboards this week, dental and medical supplies are being inventoried and stockpiled, and pastors are teaching their flocks that the work of spiritual reproduction is theirs. New baptisms have occurred in every location where water can be found. We really expect great things. Thank you Foursquare Foundation!

http://www.missionreports.com/pastoral_training/index.html

Every month for the past six plus years we have looked at what lies ahead with no idea of how our needs will be met. (How would you like to have 3000 kids??) Amazingly, we have never missed a meal. It is through your faithful response to the nudge of God that we keep on. It’s not just orphans, more importantly, it’s about 250,000+ people in 1300+ churches that follow Christ. Cambodia is coming to Jesus, and, guess what? You get the credit! This month we received 9 containers (those are 40 foot long steel boxes 8 feet high and 8 feet wide) full of rice, dried fruit, soup mix, pasta, nutrition bars, vegetable seeds, paint, and various and sundry other articles. http://www.missionreports.com/food_distribution/index.html Thanks! Especially, thanks to our sponsors. These kids, that you are bringing up, are truly changing the future of their country.

Please, stop right now and pray for complete healing for my friend Paulus in Indonesia. He heads the “Disciple Makers Ministry” and has been stricken with cancer of the sinus. Paulus and his wife have established 23 schools for training Christian pastors in that Muslim nation. I serve on his board of directors and he is an important asset in the evangelization of that nation. They have adopted the Cambodian church/home model for orphan care, and work closely with both Warm Blankets and I.C.M.

Oh, I almost forgot, Sou, Hannah and I spent most of June in the US. It is hard on the ego when things run so smoothly while you are gone, but I salute the staff, they really can handle the load. We got to spend a week with family and grandchildren, spoke in four churches, and managed to arrive in Illinois the day my 90 year old mother fell and broke her right arm. I spent the next 10 days installing a bathroom in the main floor of her old farm house, as her stair climbing days are behind her for a while. Hannah stayed on as a staff member at Camp Hickory in Illinois, Sou and I returned to Cambodia on July 8th. Good to be home! http://www..missionreports.com/furlough2005/index.html

Have a great month! We plan to.

Blessings!

Ted, Sou and Hannah Olbrich

Anna Blake

Ryan Taggart

Archive:

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