FCOPI Admin Archive

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Update: October 2010

Dear Friends and Family,   “All things are possible!” so the Book says, but reality does challenge your senses, and especially your faith. Here is a silly example. Now, I’m not especially proud of the fact, but with the help of bulldozers, chainsaws, herbicides and dynamite, I’ve probably killed more trees than Paul Bunyan. Who would think that I would find myself allied with Al Gore and the “Tree huggers”? A shockingly true fact!  I had just returned from the “Souls” meeting in Germany (not silly) with BarOne Ministries which has helped us reach out to the Cambodian people with a …  
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Update: September 2010

Dear Friends and Family, Remember those healthy young men, the tribal kids I mentioned last month, who were being killed, by what their animistic leaders said were spiritual attacks for allowing miners to destroy their forests in Rattanakiri? The people were crowding our churches for protection, and that first week 551 were saved, delivered and filled with the holy Spirit. (If you want to read about it go to http://www.missionreports.com/Cambodia and click on the top left “August Update”) Well, now, the rest of the story! The next week all the area churches were packed out, hundreds more received Christ, blind eyes were …  
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Update: August 2010

Dear Friends and Family Several, apparently healthy, young men suddenly died along the Voen Sai River in a remote region of Rattanakiri early last month. The Kavet Tribe, a small ethnic minority group in N. E. Cambodia, claimed the deaths were due to spiritual attacks, and that the victims had two small holes in their necks where the spirits sucked out their blood. Medical examiners claimed that the three young men they performed autopsies on died of strokes, but they cannot explain the holes in the neck. “Maybe they fell on nails?” is about the best they can do.  According to village elders the …  
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Update: July 2010

Dear Friends and Family, We run a clean operation and so did my dad. (More about that in a second) Thanks for the lessons Dad! Even though you’ve been in heaven for nearly 20 years, I am still very grateful. Happy Father’s Day! In fact, though you are not all fathers, you are all very much in the role of parenting our kids, whether you realize it or not. So, before you do anything else, you need to see this. It is from our hearts!   It’s important for you to know this is not staged or hyped but just a selection …  
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Update: June 2010

Dear Friends and Family, Olbrich! You are late this month! “Yup, Guilty as charged.” Sou and I’ve been off to American marrying our last unattached child off to a fine young man and attending our church annual meeting in Atlanta . We just got home. The nest is empty! Hannah, our youngest daughter, was married on Sunday, May 23rd in Littleton , Colorado . Weddings are always a little “nuts”, but trying to handle this from 10,000 miles away was only possible because we had our older kids there to help out. Though we all came close to homicide at various …  
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Update: May 2010

Dear Friends and Family, The old song goes: “99 bottles of beer on the wall; 99 bottles of beer. What should we do if one of them falls? 98 bottles of beer on the wall; 98…..” Mine goes: “1623 weddings to go; 1623 weddings. What do we do when one of them’s hitched? 1622 weddings to go; ….”  Why is Pa Thom (Me) smiling? http://www.missionreports.com/j_d_wedding Clue: It’s not beer! (Nice try!) Now, it could be the eleven beautiful women? (Good guess! But, hey! I’m a missionary!) The truth is that one of our kids married our surgeon’s daughter, and the doctor paid …  
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Update: April 2010

Dear Friends and Family, It’s called the, “Question”. “Father, how do You want to humbly serve me today?” For many of you that may seem like a strange (maybe arrogant or even blasphemous?) way to start the day, but that’s what we’ve been doing since Beth Barone (Bethy) was here to teach the leaders of our “Young Tigers”, “Young Lions” and Elders.http://www.missionreports.com/beth_barone_workshop Most Cambodians see God as the ‘Boss with a ball bat’, who’s more than willing to ‘whack’ you. God as a ‘Loving Father’ is a ‘hard sell’, especially if you’ve been taught the concept of a ‘Benevolent Dictator’ for a …  
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Update: March 2010

Dear Friends and Family, Spud’s dead. He checked out while I was in Kenya earlier in the month.  The rats and in Cambodia have declared a three day holiday! They hired a hit man. Unlike Caleb of the Bible, taking the mountain when he was 80 years old, O’le Spuddy was 91 (dog) years old, he not only took the mountain, but crossed over it as well. Actually, Spud was more like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”. He went down with both guns blazing and died with his boots on. You see, it was a cobra that took Spud out, but not before Spud gnawed that sucker in two. Spud’s my hero. …  
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Update: February 2010

Dear Friends and Family, Humility in a major dose. What does it look like? It can be a little embarrassing, especially when it hits you in front of a couple hundred Witnesses.  There was this work team from one of the largest churches in my denomination, http://www.missionreports.com/korng_pisey_construction  and they were leaving Cambodiaafter two weeks of fruitful service for Olympia, Washington. Their last act before departing was to attend our Friday night prayer meeting at the Cham Chao Church. There are around 150 orphans, staff, and church members in attendance each week. It is a powerful service and it always is a high point for every visitor that has the privilege to attend and …  
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