FCOP International

February 3, 2017

I was a stranger and you took me in

“I was a stranger and you took me in.” Shelter for these thousands of kids and widows is no small deal. Sam Tolle, our “Teams Coordinator” spends his life orchestrating this as reality. Thank God for teams like the one from Living Water Church! You guys not only gave an old home new life, you so blessed kids that never see foreigners and feel forgotten and unimportant. The fact that you came half way around the world just for them, well, that’s a life changer!

February 3, 2017

Healing the Sick

Healing the sick. We try to always pray for the sick but not everyone gets healed! We have a hospital, full time doctor, dentist and several nurses. We also believe in preventing disease, so we vaccinate. Does that mean that we are faithless? I suppose some would say so but I just say we’re not stupid. Dr. Lina, with the help of Tim and Dhana Wimberly, have vaccinated over a thousand of our orphaned and separated kids. January was a busy month.

February 3, 2017

Young Lions go to Malaysia

Jesus taught and His disciples learned. We sent our Youth leaders to Malaysia for a youth summit this month. They had a great time learning from their peers and sharing what God is doing in Cambodia. It is a good thing to get out of your “fishbowl” once in while and find out there are other fish in the sea. There are and they are doing great!

January 6, 2017

Grandmother’s Wisdom

Virtually all of us think less of ourselves than God thinks of us. Your viewpoint is one of the most important things in life; the old, “Glass half full, or half empty”, conclusion we may draw about anything. Reflecting on 2016 one could say, “The good thing about the past, is that it never changes” (Which really is quite fatalistic, even though it may sound positive.) or, as my grandmother, born in 1867, used to say, “The only thing good about the ‘Good old days’ is that they are gone!” Now, I can understand her point of view. (It sounds …

January 6, 2017

Catechism

“My cup runneth over.” The church continues to grow, despite the critics and the numerous enemies I have managed to accumulate over the years (It is a gift I seem to have) and the occasional pastors we train who drift off with someone else for more money, I am honestly not too bothered by these things, as most of them, despite their motives, continue to serve God. FCOP has so many people to use as “Home Church” leaders that replacement is not an issue. Our challenge for 2017 is to see our pastors rooted and grounded. We did get our …

January 6, 2017

Christmas around Cambodia

Talking about full cups, our Christmas celebration offerings began right after Easter 2016. This is the biggest time of the year for Cambodian churches. In a way we are grateful for the Eastern Orthodox celebration of Christmas on January 7, 2017. Our churches began Christmas celebrations the first week of December and will be holding Christmas celebrations for weeks to come. We have no idea how many people have accepted Christ this Christmas, but it was many thousands. There were about 1500 people who received Christ as Savior at one church in Chom Chao. They had two packed out services, …

January 6, 2017

Hong Kong Team

They filled our glass! We had a visit from team from Union Church in Hong Kong. Several people came to participate in a marathon in Siem Reap, but they all visited our church/home at Pouk Siem Reap to make needed repairs and a general “Facelift”. Teams bless us with their support, but mostly it is the relationships that are established that are most valued. Children who felt, “My glass is half empty” are left with a new perspective, “People came from thousands of miles just to see and help me!”

January 6, 2017

Hep-B

We’re filling this glass! We continue to move toward seeing 100% of staff and our kids vaccinated for hepatitis B. This is a very contagious disease, and many of those infected (about 3%test positive) received it at birth. We made tremendous progress on this front in 2016 and our glass is more than “half full”. Tim and Dhana Wimberly have worked very diligently to see this happen.

January 6, 2017

Manna Pack

We’ve not only a full cup; but a filled plate as well. We have been one of largest beneficiaries of Feed My Starving Children, Children’s Hunger Fund, and Reach Now International. The children we care for receive one of the healthiest diets in Cambodia. FCOP children are easy to pick out in any community, their skin tone is better, they have better health, their teeth are regularly inspected and clean, they are well cared for, and they are happy. The Manna Packs are a big part of this. I received a video story of one young man, Danny, who volunteered …

January 6, 2017

Mak Sou’s Birthday

Mak Sou would like to lower the level in her cup! She kicked the can down the road for another score. On December 21st she entered her 70th year on this earth; now she greatly prefers the Western measure of age; which computes it at the end of the year, rather than the beginning, which makes her 69! She thinks that sounds so much younger than 70!

January 6, 2017

Rice Mill

At last! The cup of blessing is rising! FCOP has a rice mill capable of putting out a #1commercial grade quality of milled rice. We had to add four new machines to a very complex piece of equipment to get to this level. FCOP obtained a Jasmine rice variety that produces up to eight tons per hectare. This is our key in moving toward self-sufficiency in the care of separated and orphaned children. The harvest continues, and it is better than we’ve ever had before. Our rice was blessed this past year, as we started with dire predictions of drought. …

January 6, 2017

Rice Farm

Those who wait upon the Lord shall not thirst! The farmers who waited, because of fear, got caught in a mid summer dry spell and had little rice to harvest. They were hit with a double blow, low yield and even lower prices. Thailand stopped their rice subsidy program and a lot of old, surplus, rice was dumped on the market. This drove the prices down all over the region. Then in November it started raining; that’s when it is supposed to quit. We had more rain in December this year than we did in July. You can see the …