FCOP International UPDATES

Rice Drought

Rice prices are spiking higher. The drought is regional, throughout most of South and Southeast Asia, not just in Cambodia. We are preparing to plant, and have had some very rare, but very beneficial rain on our rice farm. A respected prophet came through in February and pronounced the “Drought is broken!” That very night we received our first good rain in six months. Please pray for continued rain for the entire region. We could really use some help for our rice crop, as we are $25,000 short of meeting our expenses. So, if you have any ability to help us …  

Playgrounds and Mattresses

We are getting closer to a Memorandum of Understanding (M.O.U.),which will give us a new operating permit for three years. We have invested over $1,000,000 USD in making improvements. That seems like a huge amount of money, but when you are working with over 100 locations it doesn’t go that far. One single mattress and bedding set, when complete, can value over $100.00 USD. A needed item at all our Church/homes are playgrounds. Fortunately, we made several play sets from material donated by a “water Park” that was renovating. I wish we had more!  

New Year Blessing

  April has about a two week hole in the middle of the month when very little happens. Government and many businesses just shut down due to Cambodian New Year. It is the biggest celebration of the Year, and though there are only four official days of vacation, somehow it gets stretched out on both ends, and makes it very hard to get things done. Prices go up, and permits are impossible to obtain. Regardless, it is fun a time where people go to visit and honor their families. Mak Sou and I were prayed for, and gave blessings for …  

Vaccinations

Testing all of our kids for Hepatitis B, has been an expensive process. We first have to test the blood of every child for the virus, because the vaccination of an infected child can kill them. We find about 5% of the kids test positive. Their treatment may require isolation. Special sanitation protocols are put in place, depending upon the virus load. The kids that are Hep B negative are vaccinated. This requires at least two trips to each church/home, and costs us about $32.00 per child without travel expenses. We still have at least a thousand to test and …  

Rescued and Restored

What you are about to read is a story that has mature themes in it. Some names and locations have been changed to protect the identity of the victim. Srey Oun was born in 1995 in a rural provincial town a few hours outside of Phnom Penh. As Srey Oun grew up in an impoverished household and became a teenager, she was told the same thing many young teenage girls are told by their families, “We’re sending you to Phnom Penh to work and send home money.” This is an all too familiar story around Cambodia.  With widespread corruption and …  

Courage…

“Courage is being scared to death – but saddling up anyway.” (John Wayne) It’s hard to believe that God talks like John Wayne, but He does! He’s just more direct. God said it this way, “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”  (Prov. 24:10)  We normally look each month in the face with nothing in reserve and a minimum of $125,000US in obligations. The first week of March we submitted 97 applications to the government for approval of our Church/Homes. FCOPI continues to work on meeting new governmental standards, vaccinating children for hepatitis B, making …  

Our Unsung Hero’s

The constant obligation of child support makes the makes the months go by real fast! Stockpiling a food reserves is a big deal, It would be so easy to just do some feeding programs on a periodic basis, put up a bunch of pictures, and claim you are caring for 3000 kids and widows. The problem is that most of this would be pure “fluff”; the kids would not be provided with safe, healthy, or loving homes. Our partners, that supply us with food, Feed My Starving Children, Reach Now International, Children’s Hunger Fund, Gleanings for the Hungry and Lou …  

Changing a Nation one Life at a Time!

Proof of FCOP’s program effectiveness is in the results! (see sidebar story) Children who are orphaned, separated and/or abused need a safe place to stay. They need 24/7 care, not photo ops! Families are God’s first choice, but what happens when families break down?  Who fills that void? Is the answer to place these children in foster care with little oversight? That is a formula for disaster.  In the USA where foster care children have a recommended oversight of one caseworker for 17 children, the abuse rate is something like 60%. Cambodia has no infrastructure for oversight. God commands the …  

Trafficking Victims or Solid Citizens?

How many of the kids in this picture do you think would not be trafficked if they were out on the street?  You really don’t need a vivid imagination to conclude the matter; the answer is, virtually all! The simple fact is that they don’t have loving families able to care for them, except for FCOP. How do you stop human trafficking? American Statesman, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” He was referring to fire safety, but the axiom is just as true when it comes too human trafficking. We applaud those groups …  

Trafficking Defeated by Income Replacement

The key to rescue is income replacement! For most people involved in the sex trades in Cambodia, their greatest value is support of family. When they are “rescued” out of a life style that produces $300-$600US per month, and this is replaced with a $160 dollar per month factory job. It is a real challenge to keep them from returning to the money.  

Einstein or God?

We’re certifiably crazy. Here we go again!  Albert Einstein said, “Doing the same thing over again and expecting different results’, was a sign of insanity. We face another planting season in the midst of dire predictions of drought.  Only this time we have a word from a prophet that, “The drought is broken!”  So whom do you believe, Einstein or God? We are doing what we are able to accomplish, step by step, to make improvements, but without the construction of dikes and reservoirs we are at the mercy of the elements. You may have seen this before but, please, …  

He is Risen

Easter is becoming a big deal in Cambodia. Christmas has always been the big celebration for the Christians in Cambodia, but Easter was the reason for Christmas. Helping the Cambodian church realize that is a huge step.  Our message is simple: we live eternally because we have faith that He died for us and conquered death through the resurrection. The pageant repeated all over the country is a powerful evangelistic tool.