Dear
Friends and Family,
For
all the pictures go to:
http://www.missionreports.com/nov2004/
Pastor Peter, our national church president, says, “Two
tigers could eat me and there’d still be some left”.
Actually, he’s not that heavy, about 170 pounds, 5’-10”
tall, but compared to the 125 pounds he was 5 years ago,
he’s grown a bit. I say he needed it to contain all the
responsibility he’s taken on. Actually, it is indicative
of the ‘gospel lift’ that we see when a community comes
to the Lord, they just seem to start to prosper, get
healthier, work harder and be more content. I am sure
you can site all kinds of sociological reasons for this,
but I think it is spiritual. The key is “Hope!” There is
no substitution for it. Can you imagine being
responsible for 1103+ churches with most of your pastors
only a couple of years old in the Lord?? With this many
churches you always have problems. Last month was a hand
wringer, and a heart breaker for us. We had to let a
former General Supervisor and a Divisional
Superintendent go over morals and corruption issues, and
that is never fun.
Anyway, Peter (Petros in Cambodian) is a special guy!
Sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide (Hey! I greased the skids on my
soapbox so, it comes out of the closet easier) I gotta
climb up on this thing. It’s getting more difficult with
my 58 year old knees. Ready? Here we go! “About three
years ago I wrote a paper, to get out of meeting with
some people, regarding factors I saw as significant to
our success in Cambodia. I’ve decided I missed a major,
if not the primary, point. You’ve got to sort through a
few Sauls to find your David. See, I’ve got a big
problem. I like to judge things by what I see, feel and
hear. I am convinced that 99.99999 percent of all
missionaries have the same problem. Given a choice we
will always pick a Saul over a David. Saul’s look like
leaders, act like leaders, talk like leaders, move like
leaders, and always turn out to be self centered glory
seekers. We went through two Sauls before we found our
David, and you know what? He was there all the time, in
the background, killing lions, tending sheep, keeping
quiet, doing his thing. Saul, he’s out there being a
“KING”. Read your Bible, it is not easy to rid yourself
of a Saul, but it is essential. It was costly for us
each time. We lost three church facilities, three
vehicles and a lot of time and money invested in
development. Was it worth it? In a hot second! Would I
want to go through it again? Not in this life! At the
departure of Saul #1 we had about 30 churches. He was
pretty obvious. His departure was messy, but manageable.
Saul #2 took us to about 200 churches, but a good number
of the pastors he attracted were of a kindred spirit, in
it for the money and looking for personal benefit. That
one was messy! The two major disciplines we had to
administer this month still date back to his leadership
flaws and my poor choices.
So, can you avoid the trap?? Knowing human nature, I’d
say chances are slim. The real question is: will you
have the intestinal fortitude to deal with Saul when he
surfaces?? It took prophetic guidance, a minor war with
my wife, (BTW always listen to your wife!) and a
confrontational nightmare, to deal with the second mess.
What is really hard on the ego is that I had no one to
blame but myself, I’d invested so much of my time and
effort into developing him it was emotionally more
painful than an amputation. He’s still out there, being
a great Saul, razzel-dazzeling the unsuspecting
foreigners, soliciting all kinds of well intentioned
money, and building a personal empire. But, I wouldn’t
want to be in his shoes. The proof is in the fruit. He
has a collection of few, if any, functional churches;
goes around passing out free rice, attracting big crowds
to impress gullible foreign guests, and in reality does
the Kingdom of God more harm than good. Peter just keeps
slogging along virtually giving away anything he has to
enhance the church. The result? 1103++ churches with
more coming on board almost every week. We have leaders
who are young and untrained, but committed to the cause
of Christ, and a spirit of unity and purpose beyond
valuation.
How do you spot the David’s? Well, I’ve got bad news,
you won’t notice them, they will never try to impress
you, they are usually quiet, maybe not the greatest
preachers, they will not seek you out, and they will not
tell you how wonderful you are. They may come, very
humbly, and offer to help solve a problem, or even
meekly correct you, but they will always be pouring
themselves into building the church, and asking for
nothing more than a chance to serve. They are not
vindictive, prefer to forgive and let the Absaloms live,
and always seek to restore and build rather than
destroy. Outside leaders, Sauls, will look down on them,
call your David incompetent, stupid, condescend to him,
and feel superior. The thing is, he (David) doesn’t get
upset. Never mind the critics! Stick with your David.
They are rare! When, if, you find him, he will die for
you. He will never betray you, and you can trust your
life with him. I can say it is true. There are those
that are closer than a brother. Find your David, even if
his name is Peter, and pour your life into him. You will
never regret it.” Sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide, it’s back in
the closet. I’m done. Thank you very much!
The “Royal Flush”: Almost all Cambodians have only known
one King, Sihanouk, crowned in 1939 he led the country
to independence from France in 1953 and then ran the
country as Prime Minister from 1953 to 1970 during the
golden days known as the “Sihanouk era”. Deposed to
China via a coup-d’e’ta in 1970, returned to the throne
by the Vietnamese in 1979, he is both loved and hated by
Cambodians, but always respected. He has been diagnosed
with cancer, and in failing health abdicated the throne
early this month. The one son, that most Cambodian’s
wanted to succeed him, is making too much money as boss
of a political party. To be king would significantly
lower his financial expectations. Thus, the new King, a
son who studied ballet in France, and spent a lot of
time in North Korea, has unenthusiastically been
selected to the throne. The big problem for us is that
this whole mess has thrown the whole question of
religion to the forefront. All new permits for churches
have been either cancelled or put on hold. One
denomination even offered a “fee” of $2200 for a permit
for a single church and was turned down. Since we have
several new construction facilities still awaiting final
permits we need your prayers for favor. Several
construction projects are on hold. The situation is very
fluid. This could turn out to be a serious challenge.
We got it! I couldn’t believe my eyes as I read the
email. The day after I sent the last update appealing
for a rice mill, a pastor whom had only met me a couple
of times, wrote and said that the Lord told him to do
it. First, he came to visit, after one look at our
purchased site, in the heart of rice country. His
congregation backed him and they sent $21,000 for the
purchase of the mill within a week, then they also
sponsored a church/home and built a cafeteria building.
The next problem was an affordable rice mill. I’d been
told we could find a used one for $17-18,000. That was
very optimistic! We’d checked everywhere and it was not
looking good, $25,000+ for a decent used mill, Yikes!
Then, out of the blue, we get a call from a miller about
20 miles from the site we’d purchased. He’d built a new
mill six months ago, contacted a disease (I think AIDS),
needed money fast, his wife was divorcing him, and he’d
sell for a fraction of his cost. The price for the mill,
which included sewing and bagging equipment, a scale, a
piece of land which we could use for a church, and a
beat up building was more money than we had. We made an
offer of $21,000. After some haggling they took it.
Anyway, the whole thing is miraculous. We are building
like crazy to beat the harvest. We could still use some
money for a generator ($5000) and concrete ($10,000).
Somehow, I feel like one of you guys will bless us with
that, and we will soon be milling our own rice thus,
reducing our orphan food cost by a good 30 percent. PTL!
God is good! Any takers???
What have I been doing? Well I made two whirlwind trips
to the States this last month, one for four days, and
another for eight. I think I have entered a state of
permanent jet lag. I spoke in seven churches and
probably more than ten services, hopefully picking up
several church/home sponsors. This is my greatest need.
If you, your church, your business, or district, or
whatever can find 10 people to give $150 per month, or
150 to give $10 per month, you can sponsor a home.
Thanksgiving and Christmas are great times to do this. I
know one large church that asked 500 families to give up
Sunday night pizza for one night per year. That raised
the $18,000 in one shot, which is the amount needed to
fund a home (40-50 children, 10 staff, and a pastor) for
a year. This covers the expense of food, clothing,
medical, dental, shelter, staff, and education for an
entire year (everything). A group of dedicated
individuals can do this; a district of churches can do
this, as well as a single wealthy individual.
Please ask God about it. Check out:
http://www.warmblankets.org or
http://www.foursquareorphans.org/
The
big challenge before us this next year is this: We have
more than 1200
church planters
(we call them pastors), they know how to pray, they know
how to led someone to Christ, but probably 70-80 percent
don’t really know how to capture the heart of God and
express it in the form of a message or, if I may be
religious, a sermon. I realize that teaching is a gift,
an impartation, but it can also be
taught to a certain extent,
and everyone can improve their communication skills. We
must produce more pastors from our crop of church
planters without destroying their zeal. The fact is,
that right now, if our church were a river, we’d be a
mile wide and an inch deep. Personally, I am glad it is
that way, but this next year our course is clear. We
must dredge the waters. We must train, teach, instruct
and impart the ability to lead our people into a deeper
relationship with the Lord. It is no small task. Time
and resources are our enemies, but God is our strength
and help. Some of you have asked for prayer topics. Put
this at the top of your list.
Anna
Blake (our missions team leader) has been a very busy
young woman. We’ve had several teams here from
Switzerland, Northwest Medical Missions, Moline, IL
(pictures above) as well as the usual church growth
stuff. I thought you’d enjoy seeing how we send a new
pastor into an un-churched community. The pictures
on
the web site show how we take care of housing needs and
the resulting home group. Life is never dull for us,
sometime we wish it could slow down a bit, but this is
Cambodia’s time. Please continue to pray for us and have
a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Ted,
Sou and Hannah,
Cambodia
