FCOP Update -- November 2006

Dear Friends and Family,

I was hoping to ignore it; one of life’s annoying speed-bumps, the big 60! In one millisecond, on the 10^th of October, I went from ‘middle aged’ to OLD. My ‘former’ friend, Big Steve, brought me huge box, I took one look, (Hey! It really was the right size) and couldn’t help but ask, “Does she have her clothes on?” Just kidding! Come on! Really! Don’t worry! It wasn’t a girl, but a wheel chair! (That’s reason I’m not speaking to him :>) http://www.missionreports.com/pathom_bday   My daughter Chanta started a conspiracy against me by soliciting about 200 birthday emails, my physical mail box is still crammed with cards, and the orphans interrupted our pastoral training with an early surprise birthday party. I am humbled by how many people cared about something I’m trying to forget. Thank you! Fortunately, our value as humans is not totally based on chronology.

 Not surprisingly, our pastors did stay focused on their monthly training. The numbers keep growing. We are putting the official number of churches at 1832, with additional hundreds of small groups that will most likely grow into churches (A church is defined as a group with 20 or more adults meeting on a weekly basis). The number of leaders being trained in the T.A.P. (Training All Pastors) program keeps growing. Currently 123 are meeting as the first tier of trainers. They then go to the provinces and teach another 15-20 more pastors what they have learned. http://www.missionreports.com/pastoral_training2006/october/index.htm   

There were so many pastors this past month that it drew the attention of a local street gang. They would get high on drugs and shout over the wall, “We’re going to kill you!” No one took them seriously, that is until about 8:30 on the third night, I received an urgent call for prayer. “Pray for Pastor Phun, his head is split open and we fear he may not live!”

The next evening, speaking through clenched teeth and thinking of Acts 12:17-24, I glared at Ly Heng, our procurements director, and growled. “I can think of a lot better ways to leave this world than being lunchmeat for a bucket of worms!” I was probably as angry as I have ever been in my life! All rationality had left. Actually, I was not ‘dressing down’ Ly Heng, but a police colonel in absentia. Ly Heng, acting as a go-between, had given me an ultimatum from the colonel threatening to close down our church and orphan ministry unless we lifted a warrant issued for the arrest of his son. The young man and two of his gang members had tried to murder one of our pastors. I was so angry I was trembling, “God will be his enemy, because there are two things you can’t destroy and get away with, one is God’s church, and the other is orphans and widows. He’s trying to do both!” I grabbed my cell phone and called our lawyer. “If I get kicked out of the country, I don’t care how much it costs; can you guarantee me an exit interview with the Prime Minister?” I held the phone up toward Ly Heng as he heard an affirmative answer.  I turned back to Ly Heng and continued my rant. “You go tell him he’d better kill me first, because, if he doesn’t, I will spend the rest of my life, every resource I have, to make sure he spends the rest of his days scooping dog _ _ _ _ (you know what) off the streets of Phnom Penh!” I had lost it. God is compassionate and forgiving, but I have a character flaw; I’m not there yet!  I continued, “Read him Exodus 22:22-24. He may not be afraid of what I can do, but he’d better fear God! He’d be better off to go hang himself!” Poor Ly Heng, his face was drained of blood as he made for the door. This, the loving voice of the compassionate missionary?? Yup, that’s me, a real gem, huh? It was certainly not one of my finer moments.

I lay in bed that night and dreamt of my time in Laos during the Vietnam War. In my dream I took a sawed off 12 ga. Shotgun, with a strange funnel like barrel, which was kept at one of stations back in Laos, and I was going after the guys who tried to kill the pastor, fortunately I woke up before I blasted them. All righteousness had departed. I was not alone, the incident happened about 8:00pm just outside the gates of our national training center, our night security guard, another ‘fine Christian’ as benevolent as myself, was reporting for duty when he came upon the assailants, he saw them strike the pastor, but realized, though he always carried a gun, he had ‘accidentally’ forgotten it. “Had I brought it with me I’d have shot them all”, he recounted. “I thought they’d killed the pastor. I saw him fall face forward into the soft mud”. Fortunately, God was still in charge and Pastor Peter had a cooler head. The colonel contacted me, obviously afraid of my intention to go to the Prime Minister; since his son had used his father’s weapon illegally, he knew my threat might well have ‘legs’. I called Peter. I was calming down. Peter went to see the Police Colonel, explained that we did not want to destroy his son, and, since we knew the gang was using and selling drugs. He’d like to help them. The next day the Colonel brought the three gang members to the church. They have been is service every Sunday for the past month, and agreed to provide security for the church rather than prey upon it. We’ll see how the drug rehab goes. BTW, the pastor, despite a fractured skull and a 4 inch gash in the back of his head, is doing fine.

Rains are finally subsiding and we hope several stalled construction projects will soon be moving ahead. The largest influx of people into Phnom Penh during the year comes as, traditionally, the waters of the ‘Tonle Sap’ river switch the direction of flow and go from the Great Lake back to the Mekong. http://www.missionreports.com/water_festival_nov06 An additional 1.6 million people gathered in Phnom Penh, and the streets are absolutely jammed for the boat races.

  The Swiss Warm Blankets Team slogged through both mud and dust as the transitioning from wet to dry began at the beginning of the month by building a much needed security fence. http://www.missionreports.com/swiss_06

  The Palelai home is now higher and drier with about 2 feet of fill keeping the floods out. Now we will wait until next rainy season to see if the problem is solved. http://www.missionreports.com/palelai_landfill_nov06.

   Northwest Medical Teams joined forces with South Lake Foursquare Church to take a full blown medical and dental team along with construction workers to Khampong Thom Province. Just overcoming the logistics to provide power and air is a challenge. http://www.missionreports.com/northwest_dental_oct06  Their construction team worked at a separate location renovating our oldest home in the district. http://www.missionreports.com/northwest_construction_kakaoh_oct06

   The “Broken Wheel” (That’s what Bak Roteh means) Church/home is celebrating a face lift courtesy of the Christian Life Center of Riverside, CA. When they finished there they traveled to Ba Lang where they visited the rice mill which they substantially paid for. It is now beginning its third season of operation, and has literally saved us by reducing the cost of rice by at least 25%. They took time to visit the church in the same town, which has all come to be since the church was planted there four years ago. Now several hundred people live in the town known as “The Foreigner’s Rice Mill”. I am distinguished as the “Foreigner” http://www.missionreports.com/clc_bakroteh_oct06

   We welcomed Emily Plater from Church on the Way. She is here for a two year stint to help us develop our children’s church curriculum (among a host of other things). I spent about half the month returning to the US for the 25^th anniversary of Gleanings for the Hungry, celebrating the new facility dedication for Glad Tidings Church, visiting Warm Blankets Orphan Care donors in the Chicago area, a visit to headquarters in Los Angeles, and speaking at four California churches which are all on board with supporting Cambodia’s orphans.

  May God bless you abundantly! Have a great November.

  Ted & Sou Olbrich

  Anna and Autumn Blake

  Jamie Gonzoles

  Emily Plater