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CAMBODIA
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Update -- April 2007It’s déjà vu all over again! just like Yogi Berra (American Baseball Legend) said. Here it is April, “again”, and I find myself lying in a Bangkok Hospital, “again”, recovering from an operation to remove some calcified scar tissue from my car accident 11 years ago, “again”, and the doctor comes in with this grim look, “again”. “After going over chest x-ray we did before surgery, we think we found seven centimeter aneurysm on your aorta.” I had this big grin come over my face and started to chuckle. The doctor, being Thai, must have thought I didn’t understand her accent.” You don’t understand. You can die suddenly! Very serious! I sobered up for her sake. “Doc, I understand, but the dying part is the least of my worries, it’s what you’re going to do to me to try and fix it that bother’s me. You see, last year, it was my gall bladder that was rupturing, now my aorta. What do you want to do?” “It’s not funny Mr. Theodore!” (That’s the name they put on my door) I think she was ready to transfer me to the psycho-ward. “You need to call your family. We going to do CAT scan right now, and if you have, we do surgery! Never worry, we have world class cardiac unit!” Somehow, I could not help but laugh. The doctor explained the grim details. I picked up my phone and called Sou. Seven dollars a minute, that’s enough to kill anyone. “Honey, the doc says they think they found an aneurysm on my aorta, kind’ a like a bulge on a tire, anyway, they say they can fix it with a graft from my leg, but if it blows out, well, take half your clothes, toast my carcass, and save funeral expenses. Sou was not amused! “Ted Olbrich! Don’t you die on me! I need you! The kids need you! The church needs you!” All of a sudden I felt very selfish. I was looking forward to good rest for a few hundred million years. Ever since that car accident 11 years ago, when I got a glimpse of heaven, I’ve always wanted to go back. I promised to live. Sou calmed down, and then called the whole world to pray. Ever have a CAT scan? They high pressure about a half pint of “nuclear juice” into you and it feels like they’ve lit your body on fire, while they cram you into, what looks like, a giant cigar tube. Good news! Evidently, when I got smooshed by the car, it weakened my stomach and it is pushing up under my left side, collapsing part of my lung, and showing up behind my aorta, looking like an aneurysm. They want to wait until I heal up, and fix it in May. It’s a simple deal. Really! Anyway, sorry to worry everyone! But, thanks for the prayer! Sou’s really happy, she saved half her wardrobe. Man, with all that kindling, I’d have gone up like an A-bomb. Oh well, don’t despair, there’s always next April. Last month we beat up on the rats, this month, they got their revenge. First of all, the paddies around the training center finally all dried up. The local kids found they could make money by digging out rats, whomping them, and selling them at the market (Yup, they eat them here). Guess where the rats decided to flee for refuge? You got it! The Center. I responded with another bucket full of Chinese rat poison. A big one crawled up the inlet duct on the air conditioner of my Toyota and croaked. Emily Plater borrowed the vehicle and came back ready to gag. “There’s this terrible smell in your car!” Then, remember our island in the midst of the “Government Fat Rat Land Grabbing Sea”? Well, it sunk! It is amazing how intimidating a company of armed soldiers can be. Of more than 100 land owners, all but one, (guess who?) “Decided” to sell, cheap! So, we appealed to the governor, but by then, there was so much money flying around, he decided the project was needed to “Beautify Cambodia” Chalk another up for the rats! Just call it “Eminent domain” Cambodian style. Oh well, after 9 years, this is the first land we have lost to Fat Rats, and it was only 140 square meters of swamp land, and because I had not bothered to run the “Plang Reung” (Title deed) on such a small portion, there was not much to be done. Fortunately our larger tracts, with the homes, are protected. Finally, upon a donation of a generous grant for beds, we had one of our orphan micro-enterprises begin building beds, when they completed the first 100, one of our good rats, a “Friend of the church”, decided to volunteer to “Deliver them”. We have not seen them, or him, since. One more for the rats. But, not to worry! We’ll build more beds. We lost about $2500 in material costs, but will make it up to the donor by making the next batch free of labor charge. And, these rats, that cheat orphans, are on a slippery slope! (Exodus 22:22-24) If they show up, don’t sell them any life insurance. About now, you might be thinking, “March was bad news”. Not true! A lot of good happened. We managed to fend off a Fat Land Grabbing Rat up on the Vietnam border and actually wound up with an extra 10,000 square meters. He made so much noise the governor ordered a new survey, Guess what? He was already on our land. His problem? He forgot to include the governor on the grab. You can get too greedy, even in Cambodia. But the real victories were on the spiritual front. The momentum from the convention resulted in hundreds of new salvations and baptisms reported from every district. One girl, paralyzed since January, and given up by doctors, after prayer, started walking in Preh Vihear Province. I started out the month going to Bhutan on a spontaneous invitation form Bill Norton and Sonny Weimer, who spoke at our convention. http://www.foursquareorphans.org/trip_to_bhutan As Sonny put it, “It’s powerful when the prophetic and the apostolic gifts combine” Bhutan is a closed country, Tibetan Buddhism rules; visa’s cost $200 per day, which must be purchased through an approved travel agent. Any Christian meetings are held in secret, voices muted, Bibles hidden under clothing. Our contact, which has a true apostolic call, set up four days of meetings in two locations in different areas of the country. Spies, or government informants, were expected everywhere and even meal time conversations had to be guarded and framed in a tourist context. Up to 120 people would cram into a small house, eager for the gospel. God did not disappoint them. Well over 100 people were baptized in the Holy Spirit, and numerous healings and deliverances occurred. In one location, we drove for five hours and, due to security, had one hour for the entire meeting. In that time, most attending, around 80 received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, healings, prophecies, and deliverance. It was a supernatural hour! A room, behind the area where we were speaking, full of children between 6 and 12 years old, were transformed when the power of God fell. At the end of our time we went in to check on them and they were all sitting with their hands extended to heaven praying fervently in the Spirit with tears streaming down their cheeks. I cannot show pictures of the participants. Bhutan is a beautiful, but bound, nation that is experiencing the birth of revival. We had a great visit from a group of Foursquare Women led by Bonita Booth. http://www.foursquareorphans.org/fs_women_mar07 They traveled relentlessly taking in much of the work here; leaving behind new uniforms, fish fingerlings, paint and getting a general feel for the manner in which church/orphan homes became a catalysis for nation change. I had the privilege of meeting with them in Siem Reap for Sunday services on my way to Thailand. They have the potential to really help us sponsor the orphans who remain, “Left Behind” in Cambodia. If the Foursquare Women get behind caring for the 99% of orphans who never get adopted, in a synergistic relationship with Warm Blankets Orphan Care, Int., it will not only radically increase the expansion the work of God in nations like Cambodia, it will bring such a blessing to the Foursquare Church they will not be able to calculate the impact. Why? God is prejudice for orphans and widows. (Jas 1:27) Hey! Pastor Dan Carroll, Water of Life Church, his son Dan (Shane) and a church member named Dan, came to set up several teams for the coming year and look at sponsoring a home. It was the easiest group I ever led. I only had to remember one name! We finally decided on Danny, Dan and Shane. It worked. Good News! We are not poisoning the kids. About four years ago we noticed some peculiar symptoms in some of the kids at a particular home. We consulted with our friend Dr. Mickey Sampson, hydrologist, who offered to check for arsenic poisoning. Sure enough, we had very high arsenic content, 50 times the legal US limit. So, we closed the well for consumption and drilled a new one on the other side of our property, it was clean. Ever since then we have wanted to test all wells, but lacked the technology. This month, Lukas, water scientist from Switzerland came and checked our suspect wells, only small traces of arsenic in some. He left us with testing equipment and a simple technique for using lime juice to acidify the arsenic into a chemically less harmless form. Tabea, Dr Lena, and Naret are all now trained water technicians. http://www.missionreports.com/arsenic_test Wells are a real problem. For some reason an unusually high number have gone dry this year. We have a grant proposal into the Foursquare Foundation for wells, and other enterprises. We are praying. If you feel as though we’ve dropped off the earth, you are not totally given to hallucination. I really should not have taken the ten days in Bhutan, gotten sick, and moved the office in one month. After six years in the same office we are moving about 12 kilometers from the downtown area. Rising rents, shoehorning vehicles into parking spots, and quadrupling traffic congestion all propelled the decision. On the negative side were having to move from fiber optic communication connections, and land line phone and fax, to totally wireless systems. We are just settling in and encountering a serious learning curve. http://www.foursquareorphans.org/new_office Be patient with us. Right now, I have to write this “Update” at one place and then transport it to another location for sending. I know we owe people hundreds of emails! Sorry, we will get to you, soon! Now, let me get those fingers un-crossed. Construction projects chug along. All but one of the current 14 Church/home projects are completed, and that one would have been done if the Register of Deeds had not up and died on us just five months before elections. Everything came to a screeching halt. The elections were yesterday. PTL! We can start moving again. The Women’s Garment Factory Workers Dorm and the Wentz Medical Clinic continue to rise. Most of our tractors look like they are sold, and with the newest vehicle in our fleet of more than 30 (mostly trucks) being a 1996, we welcome our first ever, new 2005 Ford Everest, as Ma Sou’s set of wheels. Ma’s went to Peter, Mine is going to Emily, and Peter’s is going to me (Once I get all the rat chunks extracted). http://www.foursquareorphans.org/cambodia_mar07 Have a great
month! May God bless you richly!
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