Dear
Friends and Family,
Easter
was special this year. The orphans at Cham
Chao home put together a
“Resurrection Dance” in classical Cambodian style. They
presented a very realistic reenactment of the crucifixion,
had all the kids, and most of the adults crying, but
countered it with this triumph of joy. Everyone was
cheering when Jesus rose!
http://www.missionreports.com/easter05/index.htm It
is great to see the Cambodian church take Easter
seriously. Christmas has always been their big day. When
we arrived in 1999 Easter was totally ignored. This year
it was a big deal. Yahoo! We
are resurrection people!
Khaaaboom,
AGAIN! A month ago it was landmines (see bottom page two
in above web site) in Balang
and Khampong
Channang, last night, March 30th,
a huge military ammunition depot near
Battambang exploded? It was set off on purpose, but
deliberately aimed and fired? Five rocket grenades landed
near the Chomka
Somraong home blowing out many
of the windows but, fortunately, no one from our home was
hurt. The firing, or explosion, from the depot, occurred
more than a mile from the home, and produced an estimated
50 casualties. No one knows if there was a specific
target. Local scuttlebutt??
The streetwise claim it was meant to delay the Khmer Rouge
trial, which is already only 30 years late. Trust me. It
will never happen, even though the UN raised $56 million
to pull it off. Could I be
wrong? Yup! Now, to get their hands on the $56 million,
avoid a trial, and somehow emerge as victims, that would
be genuinely Cambodian.
Remember
my statement, “Double the government; double the ‘fun’?” I
was wrong. I should have said “Triple”. The Phnom Penh
Post reports:
“With
all the talk about fighting corruption, one bureaucracy
watcher says the inevitable has already happened. With the
addition of so many new Secretaries of State to the
government, the number of forms to get permission to do
anything has started to increase. One source says that it
used to take two forms to register an association but now
it takes six” The guy who said that should
try clearing a container of raisins, sent from America to
feed the orphans, through Cambodian customs. Ly Heng, our
Chief of Staff, took our monthly report to the CDC
(Customs People). They hardly glanced at the report but
wanted to know, “Where’s the envelope?” You figure out
what it means, I have to live here. Besides, they only
make $30.00-$100 per month, never-the-less, It is enough
to drive me over the edge. ‘Not far to go’, some would
say.
About
the time I get upset with Cambodia, our own US Embassy
pulls one off for the record books. Can you believe this?
Pastor Peter, our national president, of both the Church
and NGO (Non-Government-Organization), Foursquare Children
of Promise, was given a personal invitation to attend the
International Convention of the Foursquare Church in
Chicago, to be held at the end of May. He is president of
close to 1300 churches, oversees one of the largest NGO’s
in Cambodia, with an annual budget of about $2.5 million
US dollars,
supervises a total valuation of Church property in excess
of $4,000,000 US,
directs the care of 3000 orphans and widows, has all his
family, including mother, 4 children, and a wife, in
Cambodia, owns his own home, has a round trip ticket, has
this all documented with his visa application, paid a $100
dollar fee for a five minute interview, and the US Embassy
denies him a visa. Their reason?
“You
have not shown that you have a sufficiently strong family,
social, or economic ties to your place of residence to
ensure that your protected stay in the United States will
be temporary.”
At the
same time, I see them grant visas to some of the biggest
con-artists and crooks I have ever met. Go figure!
Anyone
know a Congressman? Senator?
Condi Rice? George Bush? Maybe God?
Of course the fact that my wife, as she was taking some
wealthy donors shopping, observed one of the local US
Embassy employees down at the premiere jewelry shop
purchasing all kinds of flashy stuff, wouldn’t have
anything to do with it! No corruption in the US Embassy!
Anyway, I have probably been placed on the ‘terrorist
watch list’ since I told the brainless embassy employees
what I thought.
Post
convention revival has broken out in
Pursat Province. Services have been maxed out, and
there seems to be a very genuine move of the Holy Spirit.
And there is substantial growth in the north and east.
Very special things are happening, but I don’t dare go
into details. Around Poipet we
still see a lot of church growth. God is good. Sou and Ly
Heng stumbled into, “A city of Ghosts”. Really, it is a
floating city, located at the apex of three provinces on
the Great Lake, the problem being that no one can figure
out what province they live in so, no ID Cards, thus they
don’t exist, also many of them
are of Vietnamese ancestry so they cannot receive
citizenship. Literally, thousands of people wide open to
the Gospel, and no place to go. Great fishing though!
In more ways than one. See:
http://www.missionreports.com/mar05_update/index.htm
So, with all this growth why
don’t we start a Bible School? In a word, “Pride”. Pride
and “face” are impediments to the Gospel. If our pastors
can respond to people on an equal basis, with honesty and
love, we win converts, but people with advanced schooling
find this almost impossible. Pride and “face” always rise
up, and pastors with some kind of ‘advanced degree’ almost
always fail. On the other hand, pastors who start with
nothing but faith are not bound by such feelings, they
work hard, are self taught, or taught through small steps
without fanfare, they work hard and are very successful.
Make sense??
PTSS
(Post Tsunami Stress Syndrome), for me, it looks like
this. Donors decide to give their money to Tsunami
victims, recipient organizations cannot control the flow,
down the old ‘rat hole’ it goes, One large International
NGO, which took in a ton of tsunami money, is all of a
sudden driving new vehicles in Cambodia, and giving their
old ones to the government. That beats an envelope! Two
teams cancel coming to Cambodia to go help restore the
‘beaches of Thailand’. Now you’d have to live here to
catch the irony, but Thailand lost 2000 people to the
tsunami, mostly tourists. Cambodia looses more to malaria
in a month. Thailand is ‘Light Years” ahead of Cambodia
economically. All the commodities we need for building are
being sucked up at exurbanite prices by the tsunami aid.
Prices are 15-25% higher for steel,
cement, roofing material, and floor tile that we need to
finish our projects. We are a couple of thousand dollars
short on finishing off our rice mill, the need is very
real, yet we can’t get a date. It’s just that we opened 18
new orphan homes this year. It is as dry as cracker juice
here. Literally and figuratively! We have homes call in
several times a week with dried up wells. All we have to
respond with is a dried up pocket book. Please pray for
us! Two large congregations near the Thai border are
asking for churches, from the looks of where they meet and
live, they need them. Looks like a poverty tsunami hit
them. (See page two of the above web site) “Never say
whoa in the pull”, we continue to build, dedicate and plan
on 12 new facilities, if I don’t succumb to ‘paper work
fatigue’ before they become reality.
Thank
God, and Thank you, for the help we get! The Hong Kong E.
Free Church sends rice money every month and Glad Tidings
church has secured over 300 tons of rice for us with Warm
Blankets picking up the freight now, if we can just get it
milled?? We had two teams here this month with a major
dental effort in Bantemeanchy
Province, thanks to NW Medical Missions. Check out the
smiles! http://www.missionreports.com/dental_mar05/index.html
That’s a good ending. Keep smiling!
God
Bless!
Ted, Sou
& Hannah Olbrich
Anna Blake & Ryan Taggart
