As I’ve shared in a previous update, Mak Sou, myself and staff member Shanon Hladek will be traveling back to America to attend Foursquare’s annual Connection gathering in Orlando, Florida. This is really our excuse to be able to spend time with some very important people; visiting and sharing at various partner churches. Each of us will be in separate churches each weekend; covering an area from New Hampshire to California. For any of you that might be attending Foursquare Connection, please make sure to come and find either myself, Mak Sou, or Shanon Hladek as we would love to …  

Christmas has been gone for a month and many of you have re-watched, “It’s A Wonderful Life” for the umpteenth time. There is a line where the angel tells George Bailey, “Each man’s life touches so many other lives.” My friend, Dale Downs, missionary to Brazil moved into heaven on New Years Eve. He died of Covid-19. In the fall of 1998, I was serving as President of the Board for Camp Hickory (the Foursquare camp in the old Great Lakes District). I’d sensed the call of God to missions and back then you jumped through a lot of hoops to get a …  

The greatest promise in history, “Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Is 1:18). Amazingly, the two lines that precede this promise suggest it is a result of reasoning following a demand containing these two lines: “Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.” I am not saying that we are saved by works but certainly God is concerned for these disadvantaged persons. If there is a formula to explain the success of FCOP, I suppose that is it. I went to visit my old friend …  

Any homeowner knows about maintenance and upkeep of their house. We have over 100 homes that house orphaned and abandoned children. We often use visiting teams to help with some of the upkeep and projects. Without having a foreign team in the last two years and funding for projects taking a hit because of it, we’re in a deep hole trying to keep our church home buildings in good repair. We’re grateful for churches who have done virtual teams with us (if you’re interested, feel free to contact us) and for our own staff who we send all over Cambodia …  

In mid January we unloaded our last container of Manna Pack. It is a nutritious, rice based meal with protein, vitamins and minerals added. The freight costs and shipping difficulties are killing us. With regard to supply chain issues, it now costs us nearly $10,000US to receive a 20 ton load of Manna Pack from the US interior to our Training Center in Phnom Penh. Domestic rice price are under the government thumb and our own raw rice is selling at our farm for only about $225 per ton. With a 62% milling percentage and a $50/ton milling cost, that brings our locally milled rice …  

January was a very busy month. We planted multiple new home groups, led many to the Lord, baptized new believers, healed the sick, cast out demons, refurbished church buildings, took care of thousands of orphans and widows, harvest rice and repaired equipment.   

In December FCOP sent out three inspection teams to do our first ‘in depth’ church home evaluations in almost two years. Some teams were gone for two weeks and of course uncovered some problems. As a result, FCOP has changed pastors in six locations, established a new administrative district and appointed two new District Supervisors. In addition, we unveiled a plan to release General Supervisor Pastor Som Art to spend more time traveling to encourage and support pastors through relieving him of some of the daily responsibilities at the Chom Chao Church. On December 21st, we brought the new supervisors …  

FCOP actually started to harvest in early October and the rice was yielding about 10 tons per hectare. The rains had slowed and it looked like we were going to reap a blessing. Sadly, the Chinese funded dams on the Thai border were opened and we were flooded with a wall of water that forced the water eight inches over the top of our dikes, which we raised this year but obviously not enough. Overnight we went from a beautiful crop to a lake. It was heartbreaking. This year has been a struggle for our crops, but there is always …