Dear
Friends and family,
Soapbox
time! Giddy-up Spud! I harnessed my dog to the box. “Drag
it out here! Good boy! OK, up we go”!
“Why
don’t you do something about child trafficking and sexual
exploitation in Cambodia?” I get asked this frequently.
The short answer is, “We are, in fact, with over 3000
separated children in church/homes, we are probably the
most successful group in the country!” I usually get this
look of total unbelief followed by this question, “Well,
how come I never heard about it?” I’ve got a short answer
for that one too, “It’s because we really want to
DO
something about it.” Times and seasons,
nothing is more luring in the NGO
(Non-Government-Organization) community that the latest
‘hot item’. Right now ‘child trafficking’ is sizzling; it
is where all the money is, NGO word processors are in
overdrive! Organizations that never even thought of
children before are coming up with new programs, putting
on new spins, like port prostitutes flocking to an
arriving ship, they run for the money. I have a personal
theory, the genuine affect an organization has in
resolving this malignancy is directly related to their
core values and inversely proportional to the hype and
blow spewing from their mouths. We work daily rescuing
children, but we don’t talk about it. Why? Because we want
to be effective! If you do not understand why, you do not
understand Cambodia. And since we choose to continue to do
something about this problem that is all I have to say
about child trafficking in Cambodia. What is going to
change this nation is ONLY a fundamental shift in values.
That means Christ, and almost every grant out there
prohibits religious conversions, yet Christian
organizations seek after them like thirsty men for water.
They wind up with a self inflicted case of paralysis.
Personally, I’d rather die of thirst. “Back Spud”, I’m
done.
Last
year there were huge accolades over a book written about a
small child prostitute rescue effort in
Cambodia.
The author was the darling of talk show circuits and
churches in America for months. It involved between 12-18
girls, no one knows their outcome. Street talk is that
after some “token justice” most criminals were released,
and the girls were caught and returned, most beaten, some
killed. I don’t know the truth, but the book came across
like this effort was the salvation of Cambodia, that the
“sexual tourism industry was shut down”. This perception
is simply false, but it sold books and made money. What
really happened was more like a cyst was lanced and the
infection scattered all over the body. What is the truth?
Well, yesterday, the year after this ‘hyped up’ effort
took place, and the results of a larger raid were
revealed, the US State Department downgraded Cambodia from
tier two to tier three (the lowest you can go) on its
annual global anti-trafficking list. If you want to read
about it tap onto:
http://www.missionreports.com/human_trafficking
Food
distribution is controversial, the old “Teach a hungry man
how to fish thing”, but if people are really hungry they
don’t wan to sit along side the river bank dangling their
line in the water, they want to eat. So, we do both, with
emphasis on training and micro-enterprise development. But
take a look at this distribution of raisins in a poor
slum.
http://www.missionreports.com/raisins_2005/ The
interesting thing about this particular event is that
several mothers offered to sell us their children and at
least one “nice lady” approached the “Westerners” and
wanted to know if we wanted sex with a five-year-old?
It makes me sick, but as I said before, the answer is not
in criminal prosecution, but in “Gospel Lift”. We have
seen the economic and social atmosphere rise in every
community where a church is planted. It drives humanists
crazy, but it is still the truth.
The
former “hot item”, now fallen from the pedestal, was
women’s rights. Well were still working on that one too.
The general view of Cambodian men is that wives are ‘baby
factories’ who take care of the home. After mom has six
kids she decides, ‘no more’, and that means no
‘you-know-what’. Also, when mom is pregnant, about 50% of
her early married years, there is no ‘you-know-what’, as
that may harm the baby. Husbands get frustrated, abuse
their wives, go down to the local ‘institution’, and bring
home H.I.V. to the entire family. This is not immune to
the Christian community. The problem is that in Cambodia
no one, especially women, want to talk about
‘you-know-what’, so the cycle continues. Passing out
condoms is the world’s solution. We’ll “Ma
Sou”, my wife, is not shy
about such things, and she started with the District
Supervisors wives, and it has taken hold, already seminars
are taking place throughout the provinces as wives realize
that rather than being victims of abuse, that they can be
proactive, and like most relational problems, we are all
co-conspirators. Through humorous drama, lively
discussion, and some sobbing testimony these women learned
that they can do something about this.
http://www.missionreports.com/womans_conference2005/index.html
Peter
and I attended The International Convention of the
Foursquare Church in Chicago, Illinois, USA. This was
Peter’s first trip to America. He met global church
leaders, visited my family farm, met my Mom and two sons,
their wives and two of my grandchildren, saw pigs and
dairy cows being raised commercially, and thoroughly
enjoyed the rural Midwest. Chicago was a bit overwhelming
for him, and he missed Asian food. After 12 days he was
“homesick” http://www.missionreports.com/chicago_convention05/index.html
Foursquare Cambodia received a pleasant surprise from the
Foursquare Foundation in having four of our five grant
requests approved. This will really help propel the church
to further growth. Thank you!
Rains
are still slow getting going on a consistent basis.
Please! Take a second
right now and pray for adequate rain for a good
crop in Cambodia. Thank you! We’ve had a lot of help from
Glad Tidings Church, The Butte County, CA, Rice Growers
Asc., Gleanings for the
Hungry, and the National Raisin Board. We’ve received 8
containers of rice, soup mix, dried fruit and raisins.
http://www.missionreports.com/rice_donation05/index.html
also see: http://www.missionreports.com/soup/
The rice
mill is humming away, spewing forth 9-10 tons a day of
milled rice. It is a life saver, as most of our homes have
been “borrowing rice” from local merchants, at exorbitant
rates, this is payback time. The big expense is diesel
fuel as it costs us about $80 per day. The good news is
that LP gas is ˝ the price of diesel. The bad news is that
there are no industrial size LP Gas engines available in
Cambodia. So, when Peter and I went convention, we bought
a 100hp LP Gas tractor for $2800, a 1000 gallon LP gas
tank, and have them in the water and on the way. See
pictures in Convention site above.
Teams
continue to contribute to the development of the church.
Northwest Medical Mission sent a medical team to
Poipet (the Sodom of
Cambodia). Ryan Taggart hosted them and they saw about
1200 people in 5 &1/2 days. “There were a lot of HIV/AIDS
patients, TB, and general infections along with
dehydration and malnutrition”, according to Ryan. Thank
you NW Medical Teams!
http://www.missionreports.com/nw_medical_poipet/
Anna
Blake hosted a construction group from Household of faith
Community Church to refurbish our first Church/Orphan home
built in 1999. http://www.missionreports.com/talam_may05/
They worked hard on rebuilding the cafeteria building,
painting and building a fence. These projects are in high
demand and any church group can participate in one. They
preach louder than any sermon! If your church is
interested contact
Anna.fmi@online.com.kh
Lots of
pictures this month! We’ll stop with the words. If you
want a general website for the work here:
http://www.missionreports.com/cambodia
Blessings!
Ted, Sou and Hannah Olbrich,
Anna Blake and Ryan Taggart
Cambodia
