Dear Friends and Family,
Whack! That big German dairy farmer’s hand met my posterior
end at the base of the stairway to the second floor of our
Illinois farmhouse. I was about 6 years old, and I don’t
remember the specific infraction, but I had been ordered to
bed early. “I won’t go! You can’t make me!” was the response
from my lips that brought the aforementioned action. The
force from the blow hoisted me to the second step. “You
can’t make me cry”, I protested. Whack! One more step. I
repeated that, each step, all the way to my bed. There are
12 steps and a landing in that old farm house. That is a
fact I will not forget. What’s the point? I don’t cry
easily. It’s not a trait I am particularly proud of, just a
fact. That’s why I was so shocked at my response to the
outpouring of giving in support of the ministry here, and
specifically the recent medical clinic. Last week, when I
was talking with Craig Mueller, president of Warm Blankets,
and he was telling me of the support, I thought of all of
you who never get to see the goodness that comes from your
sacrifice. You just give and I get the blessing of seeing
what happens. As I was thinking of all of you, I was shocked
at my response. Tears were rolling down my cheeks. I
couldn’t help but wonder if I could be as faithful as all of
you have been without witnessing first hand the miracle of
the church in Cambodia?? Strange, what Dad couldn’t
accomplish with 13 blows you have done through your
kindness.
The big event of the month has been The Church On The Way
Medical Mission to Anlong Veng, Cambodia. I believe the
total to be 14,032 people treated, and 10,404 who received
the Lord. The team treated everything from elephantitis to
toothaches. Forty-eight foreign staff came to assist us from
the US, Nigeria, Thailand and Holland. You really need to
see these pictures:
http://www.missionreports.com/wt_medical2004/. This was
the fourth such Medical Mission by Church On The Way, but it
was uniquely different. Anlong Veng is a province in North
central Cambodia that was under Khmer Rouge control until
1999, and is governed today by former members of the Khmer
Rouge (part of the peace deal). It is the province where Pol
Pot died of natural causes in 1998, and where Ta Mok (number
two leader of the Khmer rouge) had his stronghold surrounded
by a man made lake less than a mile from the church where
the clinic was held. These people never surrendered, they
were assimilated. They maintained their values and still
possess their weapons. It is not unusual to see a 12 year
old out in the woods hunting with an AK-47. Significant
areas of the province are still plagued with land mines and
people are injured several times per week by explosions. The
fact that struck me, even though we’ve had a church facility
in the province since 2000, was the lack of Buddhist
presence. There are no Buddhist Temples, and no one wore
Buddhist symbols. No Buddhist Monks came seeking medical
help, as there were none. The people lived in a spiritual
vacuum, they were/are communist atheists, and when they were
confronted with the Gospel they took it in like dry sponges.
We did not count small children in our response figures, and
that’s primarily why the number is set at 10,404, but
virtually all received in the positive.
It was a tough site to prepare. About eight trips with our 5
ton truck were needed to haul materials from Phnom Penh and
Siem Reap. The last 100 miles were on a road that was
horrible. It resembled what could be best described as a
“wet moon” with one crater full of water after another and
most of the bridges destroyed. It rained and the road got
worse, our main tent collapsed. Since we’d sent our
evangelistic team (primarily orphans from several of our
church/homes) up about ten days early to prepare, I asked
them to pray for the rain to stop. They did and it dried up.
Problem! Our well could not handle the water requirement for
thousands of people, so we built a 30,000 liter cistern to
collect rain water, but no rain to fill it. I asked the kids
if they were still praying? “Sure, you asked us to”, they
chimed. “Well, stop! We need rain to fill the cistern”. It
didn’t rain for about five days, so I asked again, “Are you
still praying for no rain?” Sure, you asked us to”. I
couldn’t help but laugh. I said look you need to pray a
‘Camelot prayer’. “What’s that?? They asked with a puzzled
look. Well, you pray for sunshine during the day and rain at
night. Believe it or not, that is virtually they way it went
for the rest of the clinic, rain almost every night and the
days were mostly dry. I accused the kids of having a
telephone with God’s number. On our convoy of 15 vehicles to
and from the site we had a total of six breakdowns, broken
springs, stabilizers, shot diesel pump, and blown clutch
among the casualties.
Malaria is epidemic in the region, about 700-800 people were
treated, and it is the worst form. Children have been known
to go from first symptoms to death in 24 hours. So far, six
of our staff have come down with malaria and at least three
of the foreign staff. Not good! One of our pastors has
typhoid fever. No question this site was hard on man and
machine. We have spent about $3000 for vehicle repair and
maintenance. But! “All’s well that ends well!”, and even
though a 38 year old woman, with a bad heart, died on the
first day, she received the Lord before she passed away.
Pastor Peter spent most of the first day comforting the
family and helping with the funeral. We now count them among
our newest church members. I personally spent most of the
clinic time away from the site looking for a missing team
member, (He got violently sick in Bangkok and was returned
to Africa too ill to let anyone know. He is recovering) lost
luggage, and securing medications. The clinic was overall a
great success. Thanks to all who made it possible!
We did not link medical care to any kind of reception of the
gospel, and it was not just a mass emotional appeal that
produced this response. Most of it happened after the people
had received treatment. Each person sat down with a
Cambodian pastor, who reviewed the medical prescriptions to
make sure they were understood, we had 80 pastors helping,
and then they went through a small booklet, simply entitled
“God” (furnished by Foursquare Missions Press). They prayed
with them and made arrangements for them to get in touch
with one of our local pastors. There were some genuine
miracles. One woman came in blind, after being examined by
the doctor and told there was nothing that could be done,
the doctor prayed for her. With understandable excitement,
the woman proclaimed, “I can see!” Naturally, everyone
wanted to confirm this by holding up fingers and asking her
to count etc, but the fact was, she could see. Just as we
finished the clinic I received a gift from the Hong Kong E.
Free Church for $8,000 worth of new Bibles. Nice
coincidence, huh?
We are building our second church/home in that area (see
photo). That province has been very difficult for us to
work. The leaders are suspicious of outsiders, especially
suspecting churches of political indoctrination. For years
they have learned that religion was a weakness used by
governments to control people. Unbeknown to us, on the first
day, several high government officials came through the
clinic posing as sick. When they saw that we took the
sickest people first, that there was no political or
religious pressure put on people, and that treatment was
given without charge, they called our President and Ma Sou
to a meeting on day three. They told them that they had been
reluctant to grant us permits for churches in the past, but
since they now saw our hearts, and that they knew we were
helping the people, they would no longer oppose any new
churches form our denomination in the province. PTL! It was
a nice, but totally unexpected benefit.
The “daily grind” work goes on despite big events, and
yesterday I went to Battambang to secure land for our rice
bin and some new churches. The district supervisor met us
and handed me a paper. He had all the churches in the
province listed, 106! I had thought there were about 60. He
explained, “We’ve started 36 new churches since February”.
It is truly amazing. I did manage to find some land large
enough to accommodate our rice bin and mill near a main
power line and a good road, but I still need to find $10,000
for the land and another $7,000 for the rice mill. By buying
up rice at harvest, and storing it, we would greatly reduce
the cost of orphan support, plus we would gain the valuable
rice bran for live stock feed. The bin holds about 400 tons
of rice, and it is ready to be built. We also have a steel
building which has been donated to house the mill, so if
you’re looking for a project to fund?? Hint! We are about
$17,000 short. There is much more to say, but I’ll let the
pictures do the talking. Thanks for your faithfulness. May
you have a great month!
BTW, Hannah’s back from the US. She spent her summer on camp
staff in Illinois. She’s already started her junior year in
high school.
God’s Blessings upon you!
Ted, Sou and Hannah,
Cambodia
