Chomrong in his youth

Dying is easy. It’s living that’s hard! I’m probably the only guy in the plane that starts praising God when turbulence hits. “Yes! This may be it! This would be a great way to go to heaven! Quick! Painless!” But, then the plane smooths out and I’m back in the grind of reality. Find a way to feed, educate, clothe, and heal these orphaned and separated kids. Pay the staff. Help lead a nation to Christ. And, the worst of it? Try to keep your friends from thinking you’re evil! Much of the opposition to orphan homes comes from the US and Western nations. Never mind that we’ve kept about 18,000 kids healthy and protected at some point in their lives these past 16 years.

The UN teamed up with an Islamic news network to tell the world how evil orphan homes are. They lie, distort, and because of the humanistic bent of today’s society, all of a sudden, we are the bad guys. I’m sure in most non-karmic, developed, countries (These are most nations in the world, where the concept of karma is not central to their cultural values), orphan homes are not needed. But, that is not the case in Cambodia. Many of our kids, probably at least 30 percent, are simply abandoned. Why? One parent dies, the other remarries and the new partner doesn’t want the kids. (The thinking goes like this: “Those kids are cursed because their mother died!”) Chom Rong’s story is not unusual for us, but each child’s story is different. UNICEF would totally reject helping a kid like Chom Rong. Please, read Chom Rong’s story in the side bar if you haven’t already done so. By the way, contrary to the implication of UNICEF and the Islamic owned news network, FCOP has never closed a church/orphan home, done orphan tourism, nor does FCOP recruit orphans! Almost always, the children are brought to us by government officials, and cleared through the Ministry of Social Affairs.