Dear Friends and Family,
Ten days of hell, possibly my worst time during almost ten years in Cambodia, we were emotionally wiped out, but saved by a motor-bike taxi driver and good police work, who will share a $1000 reward. On Saturday, February 16, four beautiful orphan girls, from the Serei Saophoan Church/home http://homes.warmblankets.org/sereisaophoan/ in Bantemeanchy went to school with 24 of their “Brothers and Sisters”, but failed to return to the Church that afternoon. The pastor and staff went looking for them, but found nothing. Aged 11 to 13 they were prime targets for trafficking, and since the home was near the Thai border, everyone feared the worst. On Sunday morning the pastor informed the police, but their office was closed, and there was a national holiday Monday, they didn’t start to investigate until Tuesday. Never-the-less our pastors went to work circulating photos along the border, and one District Supervisor, a former colonel in the Khmer Rouge, traveled to every border crossing to Thailand putting up pictures and notices. We offered a $1000 dollar reward for information leading to their return. Things were bad, but they got worse.
The darlings of NGO and missions giving, “Human Rights and Anti-trafficking organizations”, got hold of the story, they accused the pastor of selling the girls, called for an investigation of the home, and made accusatory remarks about the widow, who had served as chief care giver for more than six years. The poor widow was so distraught she tried to hang herself. Some staff in the home found her, and rescued her, before she was able to tip the stool. The pastor, who has done a great job, with both the church and home, begged to resign. The Cambodian Church rallied to their support, sent help, put 3000 orphans to prayer for their “sisters” and waited. Our annual meeting was due to start Monday, Feb. 25th and there was a pall over the event. Not one of us could get our minds off the fate of the girls, we called a special prayer meeting, but when Monday, Feb 25th morning dawned, we’d still heard nothing. Grim would be too positive a description of our demeanor.
Pastor Peter’s (our national Church President’s) phone rang at 7:00 AM. It was the pastor from the Seri Saophoan home, a motor-bike taxi driver saw the pictures, and came to the Church/Home. He said he thought he’d seen the girls walking into a village about 40 kilometers from the Church. The pastor called the police to investigate. He called back at 8:30AM. All four girls were safe! It was like a bag of cement was lifted from my back, my neck was stiff and numb with tension, and it suddenly released. We hung our heads and thanked God. Here is what happened.
About seven years ago three of these four girls, from two different families, had been brought to the church/home as orphans, by local government officials, fro m a village not far from where they were found. At that time there were no jobs in Cambodia , and the parents abandoned the children to go find work in Thailand , they instructed the girls to say they were fro m a family which had recently lost their parents to disease. Neighbors backed up the lie, and the officials brought the children to the Church/home. The children grew and prospered in the home, and never mentioned their parents. Then, recently word was sent to the children, via a currier at school that the parents had returned to Cambodia . There were jobs here now. They were afraid to tell the pastor, as they knew they had lied, so the oldest girl plotted their escape with a fourth friend, not thinking of the distress it would cause the pastor whom they truly love. When he found the girls all the pastor could do is cry and hug them. The children had told their parents about Jesus and the parents apologized and prayed to receive Christ. They are living with relatives just down the road from the Church/Home near our rice mill.
“All’s well that ends well”, but I was upset with the “Trafficking Vigilantes”. They do nothing to help feed a child, cloth a child, or care for a sick child, yet they were so quick to accuse, they almost cost the life of a dedicated care giver. The worst part is that they are the latest craze, and hot topic, for the CNN’s, newspapers, and tabloids of the word, pulling in millions of dollars in donations as they tug on heart strings. This, while Warm Blankets Orphan Care Int., an organization which actually DOES SOMETHING to prevent trafficking, feed, clothe and care for children, tells me their giving is down $150,000 so far in 2008. This is not right! www.warmblankets.org Now, a lot of pastors receive this, my own denomination just sponsored a youth rally that featured “Rescue” as the “New abolition”, some of your churches are giving to these groups, and they contributed nothing but grief in this “rescue”. The police and the pastors did their job, they deserve to be applauded.
The word “Religion” appears five times in the Bible, and only once as a positive admonition of practice, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world”. Jas 1:27 NKJ. Now, I have a question. “What part of this do you not understand? If your church is not helping orphans and widows, what kind of religion are you practicing? Impure and defiled?” Anyway, I need to quit this while I still have a few friends. Rejoice with me. The lost is found!
A great friend of ours, Chris Taylor , was here with his daughter, and a team from the Household of Faith Community Church, and some other groups from near Portland , OR . They did slave service for ten days, and left Cambodia much prettier than when they came. Bless you guys! http://www.missionreports.com/mohapal_construction/Mohapal%20Construction%20Website.html
Hey! We survived a Cambodian Department of Customs (CDC) proctoscope. http://www.missionreports.com/ministers_inspect We received a grant from the Foursquare Foundation to import some playground equipment for our Church/homes. This is great, but another NGO received permission to bring in playground equipment for a school, and sold it. CDC decided to investigate, and discovered that we, Foursquare Children of Promise (FCOP) brought in more tonnage of resources than any other NGO in Cambodia in 2007. (With 3800 orphans and widows to feed, and a tractor factory to boot, what did they expect?) They froze all our shipments, and asked for a spot inspection by four agencies of the Cambodian government. We had to pay the expenses. It took them three days and they picked the spots. They went to the tractor factory, rice mill, food storage depository, three different orphan homes, the new medical clinic, and factory workers dorm. We passed with rave reviews. They gave us blanket approval for all food and tractor shipments but, no playgrounds. They want us to build them in Cambodia , so I’ve contracted with a welding company to build 20 sets. They have the first three almost completed. We did get the three sets we’d ordered from China released, but only after paying $7000 in “Duty”. One container was in “storage for over a year before we received it. http://www.missionreports.com/donation_vcc
Our first sponsor of Church/Homes in Cambodia , Steve and Judy Billington, went to visit their homes. We had a great time. They got bounced over six hours of the worst roads in Cambodia , got car sick, and greatly blessed, all in one shot. Since they started sponsoring a home their business has set new records each month, so they went to two homes, somewhere in this time Steve was completely healed of a degenerative, inoperable, back ailment. He was taking handfuls of powerful painkillers to cope, and could barely walk. Now he plays two hours of tennis daily and has zero pain. Just a coincidence? Sure!
Pok Sakome, a woman who is a former Khmer Rouge commander, one of our District Supervisors, led the wife of an important businessman to the Lord, her husband was not pleased, but since he had made some money, decided to ignore his emotions and bought his wife a nice used motorbike. She was showing the bike to Pok Sakome when Pok Sakome’s oldest daughter announced she was going to walk to the market, several kilometers, and buy some supplies. The woman with the new bike insisted that she take the motorcycle. As she was driving back from the market a car hit the bike. No one was hurt, but the turn signal lens was cracked and there was a scratch on the handle bar. When the husband found out, he went ballistic. He insisted that Pok Sakome buy the motorcycle for $1,100. She had no money, and was totally distraught as the husband threatened to take her to court. She called us. We were planning to purchase a motorbike for her district anyway, so, we told her we’d wire the money. She was both relieved and excited, but called back about an hour later even more excited. A church member had sold a small piece of land for $11,000 and brought the tithe over to Pok Sakhome explaining that the Lord had instructed her to give it to Pok Sakhome since she “needed” it. We didn’t wire the money.
Dr. Dale Canfield has been on six dental missions to Cambodia . He is one of our greatest advocates and a dear friend. I only wish I could have videotaped his comment. He sits on the Board of Medical Teams International and at the farewell dinner said, “I’ve been here six times and I a m a lways impressed with how happy and well adjusted the children are. Whatever you are doing; it works!” Thanks Doc! So do you, and your teams! http://www.missionreports.com/pursat_dental_08/Pursat%20Dental%20Clinic.html
Remember the “Fat Rats”? The three big shots that stole a strip of land from our Church/Orphan home in Khampong Channang last year? Well, the moral of the story is: Don’t steal from orphans. They were all cruising down the highway in their shiny black Land Cruiser when they collided with a fuel truck. All three burned to death in a fiery explosion late last month. Ex 22:22-24. Crispy Critters! Honest! I don’t hire hit-men. I may have thought about it, but for a lousy $2000 strip of dirt? I’m not that mean!
The Annual Pastor’s Convention is in full swing. Since our permit is for 400, and I’d rather ask for forgiveness than permission, I’ll tell you about it next month. Besides, I leave for Bhutan for a week of ministry on Friday and that’s when it ends. Otherwise all the normal stuff keeps chugging on. http://www.missionreports.com/feb08_activities Have a great month. We hope to have a better one in March!
Blessings!
The Cambodian FCOP Team,
Pa Thom (Me, Ted)
Still do’in all the work,
The Cambodian Staff
Ma Sou,
Emily Plater
Josh Ferguson
Kris Warner
Tabea Shaller
Bob and Krystal Hollandsworth
