FCOP International

June 5, 2015

Rice Farm

Our rice crop is honestly much better than that of 90% of the rest of the country, but we live day to day on the precipice of death by drought. We pray, and pray, and a rain comes just in the nick of time. We still don’t have the flood cover (2 to 4 inches of water) that we need that to put down our fertilizer. I don’t want to even think of the consequences of losing another crop. Harvey will be hilarious with misery.

June 5, 2015

Attack on Kids

We have had attacks on our kids. One of our orphan boys from a floating church home, Phat San Dai, who’d been swimming like a fish since an infant, suddenly drowned. The only thing we can think of is cramps. Another child, Elisabeth, the daughter of our pastor at Krava church home, is suffering from a rare kind of hemorrhaging, called Bone Marrow Aplasia. She is in the hospital and the doctors say, “There is no hope.” Well, we know the God of hope! So join us in praying for Elisabeth. This girl shall live!

June 5, 2015

Drought Relief

Most of Cambodia is caught up in drought. I am so glad we brought in emergency supplies. We thank God for Reach Now International, Mission of Mercy, Children’s Hunger Fund and The Butte County Rice Growers. We have food to last until a harvest, but we do need rain.

June 5, 2015

Deliverance

Harvey had a few bad days! Churches keep growing, and one family brought in a 20 year-old woman bound in chains. She refused to wear clothes and attacked everyone. Pastor Sinoun and his elders prayed over her, cast out the demon, and restored her to her family fully clothed, and in her right mind.

June 5, 2015

Thany’s Wedding

And, Cambodian “Elvis” That’s Thany, the head of our “Young Lions”, got married! It was a big event for us. Thany saved money for nearly two years to pull it off, and most of our staff were on hand for the big event down at the coastal town of Kampot. We wish him a long and happy marriage.

June 5, 2015

Mak and Pa Become Doctors

Through this all, Mak Sou and I became “Doctors of Divinity” in a special presentation at the graduation ceremony of Life Pacific College. Dr. Jim J. Adams presented the degrees along with Dr. Glenn Burris, Dr. Jim Scott, Dr. Remi Lawanson, and Dr. Sam Rockwell. This is a great honor and it is the first time this degree has been given to a missionary in around 40 years. We pray we prove worthy of it. Thank you to all!

June 5, 2015

Teams

The teams keep us afloat. There is no way to say this without sounding patronizing. Tim Wimberly led a team from Living Water Church and refurbished Sna Songkream Church Home. They left the place with a new lease on life. With the national operating license still being contested by powerful enemies, we need your prayers for the abandoned kids, as well as the orphans! Keep those teams coming. We had a couple of local teams repaint the small church at the Center and rebuild the Church Home at Toul Sokrom in Sway Rieng Province. The most important thing teams do …

April 30, 2015

Five Suns in Battambang

It’s been a Mark Twain month: “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” In my word’s, “Weird!” There were five suns over Battambang on April Fool’s Day, and it was no joke (click here to see video footage). Obviously, it was caused by some strange atmospheric optical effect, but all the local shaman claim it’s a “Bad omen!” Since our God loves to prove them wrong, it must be good news! It definitely stirred some emotions and fears and induced a time to pause and reflect on Luke 21:25 & Matt 24:5-7. We’ve got “Blood Moons,” plenty of wars, …

April 30, 2015

They Killed the Wrong Pig

One of our kids came up to me highly agitated and exclaimed, “They killed the wrong pig!” My head snapped around and I simply asked, “What?” She explained, “They ate our boar (male pig)! No one in their right mind eats their prize boar!” I was dumbfounded! My mouth fell open in a combination of despair and unbelief. “Why?” I asked incredulously. “They don’t even taste that good!” I shook my head and groaned. “That was a $1500.00 dollar pig!” I exclaimed. “He had the best rate of gain and the best conformation of any pig we ever had! He …

April 30, 2015

Happy Khmer New Year

The Khmer (Cambodian) new year is on April 14th, and traditionally, it is a time of honoring your elders, confession, repentance, and cleansing, which fit very well into a Christian context as well. Some may accuse us of cultural piracy but confession is good for the soul. Even though Cambodians see it as a Cambodian holiday, we know the originator of practicing honor to elders, confession, repentance, etc. extends far beyond any culture. That’s why we’re more than happy to participate in a Christian context.

April 30, 2015

Easter Sunday at FCOP

We had Easter services in most of the churches, but because Easter fell on a weekend just over a week before the Cambodian New Year, and was during another major Asian holiday, we postponed the big event in Phnom Penh until our church members would have been arriving back from the combination of holidays. We had no idea how to handle the crowd. Most of our church members come in open-air vehicles, motorcycles, bikes, tuk-tuks (scooters with trailors) and open trucks. An hour before service time it started to pour rain and it didn’t stop until just before we started. I …

April 30, 2015

Magic Machine

We have been doing everything possible to expand our rice production to take in smaller tracts, level them, and create larger, more efficient fields. The magic is our laser-guided chain scraper. This meant trading, buying and renting various pieces of land to create a homogeneous whole. This is tough enough when you have some money from last year to work with, but we finished the year flat broke, but at least out of debt. We’d gotten some valuable help to purchase some strategic tracts but there was one piece that we desperately need to connect with one of our isolated fields. A generous donor offered …