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CAMBODIA
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Update -- January 2007Dear Friends and Family, “Poor Pa Tom” (That’s me, Ted Olbrich, it means ‘Big Daddy’) Moaney (Chief of Staff for Orphan Care) was talking with the staff, unaware of my presence behind her. My ears perked up. “He’d better start printing his own money”. “Why?” I blurted, unable to contain my curiosity. Red faced, Moaney turned and began to explain. “Well, Pa, you have so many children to get married, you’re going to need a lot of money!” I decided sarcasm might be my only defense. “No Moaney, this is Cambodia . I’ll get all the girls to marry rich guys (the groo m a lways has to buy his bride) and I’ll tell the boys to marry girls from poor families (low bride price). See, I’ve got such beautiful daughters I could get rich on this deal! Moaney laughed, “Pa, you don’t understand, orphan girls in Cambodia will never get a big price, and no girl will marry an orphan boy unless he has lots of money. The only thing you can do is arrange for the orphans to marry orphans, or pastor’s children, and since none of them have any money, guess who pays?” I cringed, “Yikes, maybe I need to find some North Koreans to give me some printing lessons?” Did that really happen? Well, sort of. After we returned from the below pictured wedding, where an orphan girl married a pastors son, and ‘guess who?’ footed most of the bill, Moaney did suggest I start manufacturing money. You see, she did her math, 3500 orphan children, at least 200 per year soon to reach marriageable age. Yup! Pa’s in trouble! http://www.missionreports.com/pa_thom_in_trouble Make sure you click on the wedding photos! The good news is that when the orphans meet and marry, they are almost always are called to ministry. I think it has to do with a common upbringing in the church. For some reason they do very well in ministry. They know what it is like, and have few dreamy expectations. Also, since most of them came from painful backgrounds, they really know how to relate to the difficult circumstances that people face, and thus their ministry is effective. Is there is something “fishy” about this? No! It’s just the smell from the Cham Chao church/home. Pastor Peter, our national leader, came up to me with a concerned look on his face. “Pa, those 20,000 catfish in our pond are eating $15 per day worth of fish food. I know you want to raise them up to feed the convention, but they are big enough already, and I don’t want to buy any more food.” I knew I was being ‘set up’, but took the bait (no pun intended). “Ok Peter, what do you have in mind?” I asked. “I want to drain the pond and make pickled fish (Prahoah, ‘think smell’). We can store it for two years, and it will be ready for the convention in February”. I agreed, and he started pumping the pond. Neither of us had a clue as to what we would find. Tons of fish! It was like the ultimate ‘mud wrestling’ contest with all the orphan boys wallowing in waist deep mud, pulling in over five tons of fish. They chopped, salted, and washed fish for the next three days, with over three tons of finished product. Peter is so pleased he wants to re-stock the pond. Oh, there are probably 500 pounds of sun dried fish heads that they are saving for soup. Yum! http://www.missionreports.com/fish_pond_tc_dec06 Christmas is always a big deal in Cambodia . This year we easily had several hundred Christmas celebrations around the country. The churches begin saving for this through a special offering beginning in August. My guess is that over 100,000 people attended programs in one location or another. http://www.missionreports.com/christmas_province_06 More than 100 large pigs, tons of raisins, rice and vegetables were the base fare for the feast throughout Cambodia . The Cham Chao Church had in excess of 4000 people in attendance, in three services, that lasted from 7:00am, Sun. Dec. 24th to 1:00 am Christmas day. Five hundred of them received Christ. I was surprised to realize how few of the average Cambodians had ‘connected the dots’ relating the Christmas story to God’s plan of redemption. For them Christmas is a neat story about God coming to earth as a baby. So, we threw together a book with some foundation grant money. Next year we will print 250,000 of them. They were a hit. It explains the entire Christmas story as God’s plan for the salvation of man from creation to the resurrection. We printed it in comic book fashion. Of the thousands given out few were discarded. http://www.missionreports.com/christmas_dec06/index0002.htm No one seems to know much about our “Tractor Factory”. Almost two years ago our first graduates came out of the Don Bosco Technical School and had a hard time finding jobs. I had purchased an antique tractor in the States, as it was like the one I learned to farm on 50 years ago, and I figured, I’ll bring it to Cambodia and pay the boys to restore it. Well, they dissembled every bolt and part, put it back together, and it looked like new. I got to looking at the tractor and I realized that the simple technology of it was much more suited to Cambodia than sophisticated modern machines. Then, I noticed an abundance of junked Korean army truck front ends, scrapped out Japanese diesel truck engines, and came up with an idea. I went to Paul Mok, our chief mechanic and church elder, “Do you think we could adapt these diesel engines and put on a 4X4 front end to build a rice tractor?” His eyes lit up and a big grin covered his face. “Sure!” Well, today we are working on our 20th tractor. The boys earn a decent living, and the tractors produce a good income for orphan support. Bob Hollandsworth, of Seeds Ministries, has donated a large steel building that is being erected to house the production. I’ve got another 20 tractors sitting in America waiting to make the trip. If anyone knows of any Case Model 930 tractors sitting around, we give donation credit. (Hint) http://www.missionreports.com/tractors_jan07 Our Training all Pastors program keeps growing. Six months ago we had 83 participants. Last month 190 showed up. These pastors are district and divisional leaders and they go back and train 10-60 more leaders. We had to hire a special assistant just to gather data on what is happening. I feel a little like David counting the children of Israel , but the foundation wants numbers. I hope God’s not mad. http://www.missionreports.com/pastoral_training2006/december We participated in several dramatic rescues of trafficked young people this past month. We give no details, unlike the organizations that make all the noise. Why? We want to be effective! Cambodia is one big construction zone. Brick prices have doubled and re-doubled from one year ago. There are no unemployed brick layers. We are building a Medical Clinic, a Garment Factory Worker’s Dorm for 360 women, a Tractor Factory, 14 Church/Orphan homes, new office facilities, and numerous cafeteria buildings. Plus, with money fro m a loan, and inheritance from my mother, Sou and I are building a home, complete with a small orchard, so I can play farmer in my spare time :>) http://www.missionreports.com/homes_construction_jan07/index.htm Hannah, our youngest daughter, came back from college for Christmas. We shed the usual tears as we thought of our children and grand children left behind, but Sou and I spent the entire month of December in Cambodia . Our staff took much needed breaks with Anna and Emily returning to the States and Jamie going to Israel . They are all back and slaving away. We have several medical and construction teams for January, so it will be an, “All hands on deck” month. Be blessed with a Happy New Year! Ted, Sou and Hannah Olbrich , Anna Blake, Jamie Gonzalez, Emily Plater
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