Dear Friends and Family,
A recent guest was asking me a common question: “Why has your church been so blessed in Cambodia ?” My usual ramblings evaded my petrified mind, and a flash of un-rehearsed revelation came gushing out of my mouth. “We figured out that righteousness is a whole lot more than abstaining from sin!” I actually shocked myself, and then I had to explain what I was talking about, as my inquisitor was looking at me like the hopeless derelict that I am. “Well,” I continued, “Most Christians think that righteousness has to do with observing the “Thou shalt not’s”, but Jesus took care of those on the cross. In fact, He told us that if we are unjustifiably angry with someone, we are guilty of murder, or, if we’ve glanced a lustful peek, we’re guilty of adultery, so, we are all a bunch of hopeless perverts. What we need to concentrate on are the “Thou shalts”, like reconciling the world to God, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and the very specific mandate to care for orphans and widows. We’ve figured that out.” I impressed myself. That’s it! Want a blessed church? Do what Jesus did. He spent very little time chastising sinners, and no time at all prosecuting criminals. How about helping Warm Blankets Orphan Care, or some of our other partners, feed some kids? www.warmblankets.org Rice is three times more expensive than it was a year ago, and the donations are down. Hey! Want to see some interesting video clips? Go to the bottom of the website and click on, “Click here to view other orphan rescue videos” They may be old but they are good.
Some people think we are just lucky. The truth is God does direct our paths (Prov. 3:5-6). A year ago we had some dairy farmers, vineyard owners, and businessmen visit Cambodia . I took them to see our rice mill. They were impressed, and asked what we could do to improve our efficiency? I told them it would be great if we could own our own rice production land. They raised the money for us to buy 250 acres at about $500 per acre. We did not receive all of the crop from the land last fall, as some of it had already been planted when we purchased it, and the harvest went to the original owner, and some was burned in a fire, but we did harvest about 300 tons, of which we have about 200 tons remaining. It, with food donations, will feed our kids, and some hungry parishioners, for the remainder of the year. We have about $100 per ton invested in the production. The rice, at this time is worth about $300,000US (Fifteen times what we invested). If we had to purchase that rice now, we’d die. The land is now worth about $1500 per acre. In addition, about four years ago, I had a group of trained orphan mechanics who couldn’t find jobs. I brought in an old tractor for them to repair. A farmer wanted to purchase it. Last month our tractor factory, which was the brunt of a lot of humorous derision for a couple of years, brought in $120,000. It paid a lot of matching fund expenses, and through the past year, helped us acquire another 200 acres of rice land. The orphans will eat. The rice for 2008 has been mostly planted, and our tractors did a lot of the work. Rains are coming, some rice is already up. Pray for a good crop, you’ll notice our “farmers” did. http://www.missionreports.com/ploughing
Crazy? This guy was the “Howard Hughes” of tractors! I spent the first week of April flying back to the US to attend the largest tractor auction in history. Out in the sand hills of western Nebraska this old boy had accumulated something like 10,000 tractors. Rain, snow, wind, and sleet made the shelter tent far less than warm. In fact, I’ m a n old Minnesota farmer, and I have never had uncontrollable “shivers” until the last night of that auction. But, I came away with 47 tractors, which will make the long swim to Cambodia , beside that, I got to see three of my grandchildren. Those tractors, along with about 40 more Case machines I have scattered around the US , will go a long way towards keeping us solvent. The 47 are currently parked on a corner of one of our good friend’s (Sonny Weimer) hay fields in northern Colorado . Thanks for the trucking Sonny! http://www.missionreports.com/pathom_auction
“Women doing slave labor with the help of a ‘biker dude’ ”, that sounds like the title of a horror flick, but it was a very productive reality in Bantemeanchy , Cambodia in early April. http://www.missionreports.com/bonita_booth_apr08 Remember the pastor and the widow falsely accused of child trafficking by the “Brothel raiding rescue rangers”? Well, the poor old lady (page 4 group photo, right side) that was so distressed she tried to hang herself got a big boost of self esteem when 11 Foursquare leaders showed up from America and helped renovate her church/home. Now, that sounds like something Jesus would do. Thank you!
Speaking of “Brothel Raiders”, this article was in yesterday’s paper. http://www.missionreports.com/brothel_raiders The article puts the responsibility for this mess upon the US Embassy, but the US Embassy doesn’t raid brothels. They have funded a lot of “Human Rights” N.G.O.’s that do, unfortunately, some are Christian. Don’t misunderstand me. I am not in favor of brothels! But, I am REALLY against the church getting involved in prosecuting prostitutes. Again, “How many brothels did Jesus raid?” Wasn’t He the friend of prostitutes and sinners? Trust me, this is not the way to win a nation to Christ, and, in my opinion, much of this is driven by a lot of dramatic, sensationalistic, heart rending publicity that has produced a bunch of “James Bond wannabes”, who somehow believe this is the work of God. If the ‘human rights heroes’ want to do something, why didn’t they even bother to show up when 600 families were burned out of their homes in early April? http://www.missionreports.com/fire_600homes/index0002.html Some panicked home owners offered the fire department up to $2000 to protect their homes, the fire fighters demanded $5000 and let them burn. Some government “Fat rats”, who are reportedly selling the resident’s land to a foreign investment company for more than $100 million dollars, have graciously offered the victims less than three million in compensation. This disaster didn’t even make CNN, yet they do one hour specials on ‘brothel raids’. Can you imagine 600 homes being burned out in Los Angeles , and nothing being said? Some ‘Rats’ are too big to fry, and these super hero, ‘protectors of rights’ have scattered like mice. Our church members lost some homes and we are helping, but where are the “Rescue Rangers”?
The food crisis is very real, and donations of food stuffs from Gleanings for the Hungry, Children’s Hunger Fund, Glad Tidings Church , and Feed My Starving Children have done wonders. Even the boxes come in handy as one of our Christmas pageants demonstrated. http://www.missionreports.com/food_donation_apr08 Panic and hording have almost become worse than the reality. Rice prices hover around $1500 per ton, but as I travel the country there are still large stocks visible at the rice mills. There is something a little “goofy” about the whole deal. If I were back in my “grain trading” days, I’d be a seller. But, missionaries don’t do that, and if the crop gets in trouble this year, the problems will be severe. So, we will pray, wait, and see.
We have seven new church/home projects under construction, thanks to ICM, which is quite a miracle in itself, since the oppression of the Christian church began about nine months ago. Somehow, even with two Muslims and a Buddhist as the heads of the ‘Ministry of Cults and Religions’ we have found favor. The new clinic donated by Dr. Wentz and Children’s Hunger Fund is finished and waiting to be equipped. There are two container loads of medical supplies on the way from Swiss Warm Blankets which will be a big help. We still need another dental chair, and lab equipment, but have a good man working on that. The factory worker’s dorm is awaiting the fourth floor roof, and has several hundred young women anxiously awaiting its completion. Tractors undergo renovation at our factory which is operating under full speed, and cannot meet demand. http://www.missionreports.com/building_progress_apr08
On top of all this, and despite a week long Cambodian New Year celebration, which virtually shuts the county down, we still managed to do missionary stuff. Miracle healings are still being frequently reported out of Preh Viehea Province . These pictures don’t show much, http://www.missionreports.com/healing_preah_vihear but most of these people were brought to the church in a critical state, either by the local hospital or spirit practitioner. Each one was healed, one was supposedly dead on arrival, one was paralyzed, and one had some kind of large worm protrude out of her stomach after being prayed for, which was removed. We sent a couple of supervisors up to check out the stories and they came back amazed. Pastor Some Adt has a healing gift and his church is known as a “Hospital for the hopeless”. It is really special because he has no formal education. In addition April saw new churches started, Pastors trained, hundreds of people come to Christ, and plenty of bad stuff come our way to keep us humble. It was a normal month. http://www.missionreports.com/pastoral_training_apr08 One bit of Good news, Josh Ferguson went back to America to get married and bring his bride back to lend a hand. They plan to lead a construction team for their honeymoon. Hmmm? Should be very interesting!
Have a great May!
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
