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CAMBODIA
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Update -- May 2007Dear Friends and Family, This is proverb month. My first: “Beware itinerant peddlers, from Islamic countries, riding bicycles, (mostly Pakistan ) selling electronic goods at 50% more than the market price.” I’ve noticed them for years, and have always been curious as to why they went from house to house trying to sell their wares, CD players, radios, etc., at double the local market value. I never saw them make a sale, but whenever they saw me they asked the locals lots of questions. ”Where’s he from?” “What’s he doing here?” They are not well liked, but tolerated. Why? In 2001, after Sept 11th, the Cambodian government rounded up the foreign teachers from five Islamic jihad schools, extradited the teachers and closed the schools. There was an Islamic plan to take over Cambodia in five years at that time. It has not happened, most of the schools still remain closed, but now we have “traveling salesmen”. What are they up to? We found out. They look for the young men, poverty stricken, disenfranchised, orphaned youth. They meet them at their schools, on the streets, away from any of their family, and tell them of free education, good jobs, and a wonderful future if they immigrate to Malaysia ; no passports needed, no permits required, it is all taken care of. They managed to abduct Sammy’s brother (Sammy is on staff with us) about two years ago. He has since received a secretly delivered letter from his brother in which he details his ordeal. The first day they were all circumcised. Then, they were transported to the, porous, Thai border and whisked into the Muslim region, then, across the border again into Malaysia where they are enrolled in jihad schools. They are more like prisons, gated, guarded, with machine gun towers on each corner, they are kept there until their indoctrination is complete. Most likely to return to Cambodia and stir up the same type of trouble Thailand is experiencing in the south. Sammy’s brother is, ‘going along with the program’ awaiting an opportunity to escape. Please keep him in your prayers. The first week of April, the seventh of a series of young men at the Krava Church/Home failed to return home from school. In checking out his whereabouts, several residents saw him going with the ‘traveling salesman’. He has not been seen again. What do we do? Well, we found out that, though these ‘salesmen” pose as poor itinerants, they have access to unlimited funds, and authorities are paid off at every level of government (Fat Rats). We were told in ‘no uncertain terms’ that if we want to remain in operation we should ‘forget’ the matter. What about the US Embassy? Well, they’d just go through the Cambodian authorities, the locals would be, ‘called on carpet’, a ‘sacrificial goat’ would be identified, and the US Embassy would feel like justice had been served. As soon as the dust cleared, permits would be hard to renew, unending violations of ordinances would materialize, and basically we’d be out of business in that region. The moral? Another proverb: “A bull dog can beat a skunk any day, but sometimes the results aren’t worth it!” Our best solution is to pray. Pray that these kids remember their Christian training and that they actually infiltrate the Muslims with the Gospel. In the mean time, we are providing training in all our homes to, ‘beware of the peddlers’. Here is a new one for you: “People who live in straw houses should refrain from playing with cigarette lighters.” http://www.missionreports.com/tc_fire We really should have seen this coming! In late February we finished up our pastor’s conference, 3800 pastors and leaders attended, and it was extremely successful. We had been very cautious regarding the scope and impact of this conference, in terms of stirring up the imps of hell, and spent weeks with our kids praying for it prior to commencing. I guess we just got complacent. Our anticipated attendance at the “Cambodian Orphan Baptism Retreat”, sponsored by “Warm Blankets Orphan Care Int’l”, and a great team of volunteers, http://www.missionreports.com/baptism_wb07 was to number about 2000 kids. After the pastors and leaders, this was to be ‘a piece of cake’. I was so wrong! The grand finale came when the workers were taking down the 100 rented tents. Rather than untie the plastic twine that suspended the lights they decided to burn the twine with cigarette lighters, thus my new proverb. The thatch roof ignited and our entire stage area burned along with sound equipment. That was just the end of a very long five days. Our first blunder? We’d designated it “Friends Trip”. Each orphan attending was asked to bring an ‘un-churched’ friend. Now this is wonderful, but, our naiveté was only exceeded by the problems that ensued. What follows is our condensed tale of “woe”: We decided to hold the event immediately after Cambodian New Year, in order not to interfere with school, as the children were on holiday. This was a mistake. Transportation prices doubled, food prices were also greatly inflated. Due to the holiday, the crew at the power station was reduced, power outages were common. Our generator decided to ‘give up the ghost’. Then the surging current caused our aging 24 channel sound board to go “Poof!”, and that was the end of that. Instead of 2000 children arriving as expected, homes started showing up with 60% more than registered, final count was 3,212. We did not have food, clothing or sleeping mats for them. I’d just returned from my surgery in Bangkok , and my tired old carcass decided to have an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. I took an adrenaline shot, and spent the next ten days on steroids to keep from scratching my skin off. I’m half nuts, and hyper, when I’m normal, but this pushed me over the edge. I wound up yelling at Anna, Jamie, and a number of our Cambodian staff. (It’s ok! They gave me a pass for temporary insanity.) The family of the director of our tractor factory, Paul Mok, was returning to Phnom Penh when some kids put sharp rocks on the road to “watch the tires blow”. The car overturned three times, leaving his sister-in law paralyzed from the waist down, and his infant daughter, dedicated to the Lord Easter Sunday, on life support, with the doctors telling him there was ‘no hope’. Then, scheduled boats on the Mekong River were late, and some rented busses in our fleet of 48 broke down. As we finally managed to get everyone headed for the ocean the “Fat Rats” decided to grab the beach front property we had rented for the baptism, just two hours before our planned event. We had to move the program 20 kilometers during the last minutes. It was a rough week, but Peter, the Apostle, only baptized 3000 on the day of Pentecost, and we beat that by 212! http://www.missionreports.com/baptism_apr07 The kids were so excited they came back from the beach, after rising at 4:00am, and prayed until 10:00pm for their friends and families to come to Christ and for healing for the accident victims. When the doctors unplugged Paul Mok’s infant daughter she came to life, and the girl with the broken back started moving her legs. Reports are arriving of new converts coming to the churches through the kids that were baptized. God is good! The kids at the Cham Chao Home, too small to go on the trip, got ‘bribed’ into giving up their space with a trip to the water park. http://www.missionreports.com/kids_water_park My last proverb! Read my lips! “God does not need ‘Super Stars’ just faithful servants”. Or maybe: “Slime always floats to the surface”. A word about some “slimy rats”, Cambodian pastors (not ours thank God!) who are panting after an American, “Super Star” preacher, to rake in over $1,000,000 in spoils. Word on the street is that they plan to pocket a healthy cut. What’s their gig? A ‘brilliant’ idea to bring in an American preacher, who is so impressed with her own publicity, she is willing to spend $1,000,000 plus to promote this scam. (The rats will set this up for a fraction of what she pays. One is reported to be planning on retiring to New Zealand after this one big score) I understand she has already been making appeals to her followers to raise funds for this “crusade”. The “Rats” are fighting amongst themselves as to who gets what. She cannot speak a word of Cambodian, but she’s coming to teach the Gospel to the ‘ignorant’. The poor ‘misguided’ thing is subtly making three big mis-statements in order to stoke her ego:
Only white skinned
foreigners can truly bring the ‘enlightened’ word of God to Cambodia
. While she’s been talking about raising the dead, and healing the sick, Cambodian pastors have been doing it. Here is the funny part. The ‘slimy rats’ wanted a good ‘American speaking’ female translator for her tapes. Guess who they found? Ironically, a woman who translates American pornographic movies into Cambodian. (Somehow, that seems appropriate) I have no idea how they will get anyone to cross the street to experience this “Height of American Arrogance”, but I’m sure the press releases have already been written. In July she will, “Save Cambodia”, just wait and see. All I can do is pray she really does hear from God, and stays home! Trust me, it is all about money! Construction wise, April is a “write-off” month. With the elections the first week and everyone having to return to their home district to vote, not much happened. Then Cambodian New Year takes a two week hole out of the middle of the month. Still we dedicated a new church home at Kong Pisay and the new home on the Vietnam Border FINALLY got underway. The clinic, women’s dorm, new offices, and tractor factory fitfully proceeded. We did receive a very encouraging report back from our Bhutan visit, tractors are selling faster than we can rebuild them, and we are buying some rice land due to a generous gift from some dairy farmers, vineyard owners and businessmen who visited earlier in the year. Some of our rice is planted and growing, rains have started. Several teams visited, including the advance team for the largest medical mission we have ever done, with over 40 medical professionals. http://www.missionreports.com/medical_scout_apr07 This is a team led by the New Life Church in Everett , WA and joined by Church on the Way in Van Nuys , CA . We anticipate over 20,000 people treated in 7 days of clinic. Valley Community church came to inspect a church they are considering sponsoring. http://www.missionreports.com/vcc_borey_bo_april07 Life goes on. My final proverb for the month got zapped by my family and a grizzly old prophet named “Norton”. That is: “Never say whoa in the pull!” But, I am capable of listening, so, I sent this out a couple of weeks ago, and I go for surgery this Saturday: Dear Friends, At breakfast this morning I received an overseas phone call from a very highly respected prophet. He had been fasting and praying for me and has been accurate in guidance for me in the past. I did not solicit this advice or prayer. I have been warned medically and now prophetically, to cancel all the events I am participating in for the next two months in Cambodia . I do not do this whimsically, but feel in my spirit the wisdom of this advice. I am preparing for a major surgery to repair my diaphragm and separate some internal organs that have moved up behind my heart and left lung. The surgery will be in May and requires a six week recovery period. Although my medical condition is not life threatening or debilitating, and my general health is good, it has the potential to develop serious problems in the future, and the recommendation is that I have it corrected while my health is good and I am strong enough to endure the surgery and recover quickly. Therefore please do not be offended with me, but I must cancel all the visits and events planned for the May-June period of time. Please do not ask that staff members cover these events in my absence. We are undergoing a number of transitions, our office facility is being moved, three of our expatriate staff have been here less than six months, and Anna is preparing to leave in August. Sou cannot have this burden upon her and at the same time be concerned about my recovery. Thank you for your understanding! Be blessed and thank you for your prayers.
Ted Olbrich,
Have a great month!
May God bless you richly!
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