Dear Friends and Family,
“Let them eat cake!” Close to, ‘famous last words’, spoken by Marie Antoinette, shortly before her trip to the guillotine. Somehow, that seems more polite than, “Let them eat dirt”, spoken by an unnamed Cambodian politician a few days ago. Rice prices have gone bonkers! At the time of our Annual Leadership Meeting earlier this month, we were shocked to have a price of $500 per ton quoted to us for rice. Yesterday, in Preah Viehar, Province, the quote was $1500 per ton. Food riots are not healthy, ask Marie. Fortunately, the Prime Minister intervened yesterday and released the government’s strategic rice reserve, banned all rice exports for two months, and threatened to take over any rice mills caught hording rice to drive up the price. Someone said the price had dropped to $800 per ton by this morning. I hope that it lasts, as we have heard of farmers selling their seed. Our seed is purchased, and thankfully with our own reserves, and the expected help from donor partners, we should make it to harvest! Our greatest nightmare is: What do we do when the orphans have food and the church members are hungry? I guess we’d all go on a crash diet together. http://www.missionreports.com/rice_price
It’s not just rice that is the problem. The Thai government banned any exports of L.P. gas to Cambodia . For a bottle that cost us $7.00 a few months ago the price is now $30.00. Military personnel have been deployed at most provincial gas stations to prevent any kind of disturbance. Now realizing that gas is the, “Green” choice for cooking in Phnom Penh , and fully aware that “Destroying the environment” is now a mortal sin, we’ve reluctantly gone “brown” and started cooking with charcoal and wood. I know, “Bad F.C.O.P.!” But, some things are just not affordable. Our new Foursquare Cambodia logo will include a picture of a “chainsaw, bulldozer, dynamite and herbicides”, Hey! Just kidding! I’ll go to confession, and work on my attitude. OK?
We held our Annual Leadership Meeting the last days of February. http://www.missionreports.com/conference_2008 Our legal limit was 450 people. We stretched that a bit and decided to limit numbers by charging for attendance, cutting off registrations at 1500, and demanding a $10.00 late fee for anyone who showed up unexpectedly. This meeting was to be only for our ‘experienced leaders’. Like Rodney Dangerfield, “I get no respect!” We had 2400 show up, and guess what? Most of them did not have the $10.00 to extract. Then, to add insult to injury, I stood up to welcome the crowd, and as I looked them over I recognized less than half of them. “Who are you guys?” I asked. “We’re Foursquare!” Roared a unanimous reply. “What? How many of you are here for your first convention? Stand up!” About 1500 people stood. My jaw dropped. “Ok, everyone sit down. Do you love Jesus?” That was followed by a great shout of approval. “Now”, I continued, “all of you who have not been baptized in water stand up.” More than 500 stood. I didn’t know what to do. The fish pond was 25 feet deep and straight down. And drowning these people, although an admitted temptation, would not have been a proper way to begin the convention. I knew that everyone was given a half liter of water upon arrival, and beside that, I grew up Methodist. So, I gave the instruction for everyone who believed in Jesus Christ, but had not been baptized in water, to remain standing. All 500+ stayed on their feet. I instructed that an experienced pastor to get behind each one of them, open their bottle of water, and in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit pour the entire contents on their head baptizing them in Jesus name; an action which I demonstrated from the platform. That took care of that! Then I asked, “How many of you guys have not yet been baptized in the Holy Spirit?” More than 1000 stood up. We had Pentecost for the next three days. As various people ministered, A 17 year old girl born deaf-mute was healed and began to speak, two men, one 28 years old and the other 17, who were carried into the meeting paralyzed, started walking, three women with diagnosed cancerous tumors were healed, and a good 100 or more other maladies were healed as we celebrated the theme, “In mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Holy Spirit of God I have fully preached the gospel of Christ”, Rom. 15:19. A big thanks to our guests, Sonny Weimer, Bill Norton, David Norton, Don McGregor, George Cline, George Butron, Caleb Goh and Dan Hobbs for their help in kicking off a new round of Holy Spirit powered ministry for Cambodia. Entire congregations have been transformed since the meeting. http://www.missionreports.com/holy_spirit_fall
Peter (our national church president) and I were disturbed. Where were all our experienced leaders? Last year we had 3600 show up, and this year we planned for a mere 1500 of the experienced leaders to return, and only about 900 showed up with 1500 ‘newbees’. Why all these new people? What happened to our “Old Hands”? Peter decided to do an extensive traveling investigation. He fasted for three days, then, took off. I was anxious for the report. Peter’s first words were, ”The ‘Big Man’ went before me.” I said, “What?” He looked at me like I was nuts. “You know, the ‘Big Man’, the Holy Spirit!’ Peter explained, “The reason that none of the old pastors showed up is that they conspired to help the new leaders. They knew you wanted them to come to the meeting, but they prayed, and God said to equip the youngest and newest, so they didn’t listen to you!” So, who wants to listen to a missionary anyway? Praise God for rebellious pastors!
I left Cambodia before February ended on a trip to Bhutan . Security was tight as it was just before their first elections, and Bhutan ’s $200 per day visa fees, and active police surveillance, keeps visitors to a minimum, especially religious ones. I went with a group that had ministered here in Cambodia , and guess what? The ‘Big Man’ went before us. I can’t be too specific, but there is a powerful emerging church in Bhutan . I was back in Cambodia for a week, frantically finishing up Foursquare Foundation grant requests, and then off to Vietnam for meetings with another powerful and effective group. http://www.missionreports.com/visit I went back home to enjoy a week with my daughter Chanta , her husband Phil, and two of my grandchildren. Now, I leave for the US today, to speak at two churches, and hopefully buy a “boatload” of tractors at a huge auction in Nebraska .
With Easter celebrations, water baptisms, weddings, new construction projects and opening 5 new orphan homes, it has been a busy month. We are installing and building playgrounds! Thanks to Bob and Christal Hollandsworth! http://www.missionreports.com/march08_activities
We had a talented medical team from Horizon’s church minister in the Northern Province of Stung Treng. A lot of Laotian speaking people attended. More than 900 people came through for treatment and all were prayed with, about 600 for the first time. There is a clothing factory that is located across from the church and last Sunday many of the factory girls came to church. They wanted to know more about this ‘God who cares for the poor’. http://www.missionreports.com/medical_damreiphong_mar08/index.html Joe Wainer, from the Foursquare Foundation, was able to visit and see it in action.
I’ll end with a great story. Ever been down on your luck? Well, Pawn is the fourth of eight orphaned children. He came to us in abject poverty, close to death. Pawn spent five years growing up in our home, studied ‘welding and sheet metal’ at Don Bosco Technical School, worked in the ‘trades’ for a couple of years, and last year decided to get married. In Cambodia you ‘buy’ your bride, so, at the urging of his future wife, he negotiated the price and paid her family the $1200 fee. They had a great wedding, but the bride skipped the honeymoon, took up with another guy, and kept Pawn’s life’s savings. He was close to suicidal and the laughing stock of the community. To help him escape his torments and get a new perspective Peter, Sou and I decided to employ him in Balang, at our rice mill. That was late last summer.
During harvest all hands at the rice mill were pressed into service, along with all the able bodied members of the local church to bring in the orphan’s rice crop. Pawn noticed that the pastor’s daughter was following him out to one of the harvest fields. He asked her, ”Why are you following me?” Her answer was a simple, “Because I want to be with you.” That was in January. In early March we get this depressed, but insistent phone call resignation from the pastor of the Balang church. Peter couldn’t figure it out, so he went to see him. The pastor was distressed and felt unworthy to be a pastor because his family was “out of order”. Peter pressed him for details, and it turned out that his daughter had decided to get married, without the groom asking him, the father, for permission, and his daughter wouldn’t even tell him who it was. He felt he’d been disgraced. Peter did a little checking and found out that it was Pawn whom the daughter had decided to marry. The daughter loved him, and didn’t care about the ‘bride price’, but was afraid her father would never give her permission to marry Pawn because Pawn had nothing. The truth is that the pastor had admired Pawn’s work ethic, and was so pleased to find out that his daughter loved a Christian man, that he thought highly of, that he gave Pawn five hectares of rice land, five cows, and land to build a house as a wedding present, along with his blessing and a big wedding. Plus, he stayed in the ministry. Pawn, the orphan boy, went from the ‘guy who’d lost everything’ to ‘richest kid in town’ in a matter of minutes.
Now, that’s a good way to end a month!
Be blessed!
Pa Thom (Me, Ted)
And those still do’in all the work,
The Cambodian FCOP Team,
Ma Sou,
Emily Plater
Josh Ferguson
Kris Warner
Tabea Shaller
Bob and Christal Hollandsworth
