Economic – Page 3 – FCOP International

August 1, 2022

It Never Ends!

Nature takes its course. The “Second Law of Thermodynamics”, my version: “Everything, eventually turns to crud”. Revengeful, fired pastors wreak havoc on their abandoned buildings, acid rain eats away at concrete and steel, sewers plug up, gates break, floods devastate; I think you get the idea? Anyway, there is always more to do than we have resources or manpower to pull off. We look forward to a return to teams, we could sure use the help! But, regardless of the decay, we accomplished much this month.

July 1, 2022

“When the Elephants Fight the Grass Gets Trampled”

Sanctions, boycotts, lockdowns and export controls are supposedly designed to hurt an enemy and protect the local population. However, after being caught in the middle of what appears to be an attempt to escalate the world into an economic catastrophe over a virus, only Denmark, a small country with intelligent leaders, and a group of African nations that take anti-malarial drugs with chloroquine, have navigated well and come through with low mortality to become the first countries to avoid shutdown. Why are the Elephants so stupid? Now, the US and the EU, through NATO, seem to be pushing the world …

July 1, 2022

The Triumphant Trip

Sou and I spent the last half of May and the first half of June in the US and Shanon was there for all of June, but it was a trip of great victory for us! Sou and I would not have been able to go, but for the generosity of a great pastor and church who purchased our tickets. We left Cambodia in a tough position. We have no food products being imported to feed our 2,500 orphans and widows and our rice was planted but needed fertilizer which was five times more expensive than last year. We must …

July 1, 2022

Water and Diesel

Seven large diesel pumps are running night and day, consuming $1,000USD of fuel every day. We must build the reservoir, but until we do, we are dependent upon the rivers. Unfortunately, the Chinese dams are still filling their reservoirs and water is not flowing. What started as a wet spring has turned into a dry summer and our rice is thirsty. So, we built three more large 16″ pumps. Pray for rain on our rice! Rains around Cambodia are very spotty this year, with some localities experiencing flooding and others drought. Thanks to the generosity of so many, we were …

July 1, 2022

Broken Down and Busted!

There comes a time in the life of everything mechanical that it reaches the point of ‘no-return’. Our rice mill in Balang which is being called upon to perform better than ever before finally spit out its last grain of rice. Purchased well used in 2001, it has served us well for 21 years. Finally, with holes worn in many of the screens in the ‘shaker box’, the bucket elevator slats worn paper thin and most of the tubes and elbows ground through with multiple tons of those miniature grindstones called ‘paddy’. We decided it was time to send the …

July 1, 2022

Why They Call Me, “Pa Thom” (Big Daddy)

Ziona Chana from India had 39 wives and up to 94 children, making him the head of arguably the world’s largest family. Not true! Pa Thom has one wife and 25,000+ children in Cambodia! On Sunday, June 19th, “Father’s Day”, one of the young dancers in her beautiful dress ran up and pushed the below envelope into my hand. I don’t even know who to thank! In a way, it was from all of them! The handmade envelope and dried, pressed, flowers shows the heartfelt effort that went into this. Then, they did a special dance. “Thanks!”- this says it …

July 1, 2022

One in 10,000! And the Power of Prayer

It was gratifying to see the FCOP Churches function as was discussed at the FCOP Annual Meeting. The kids FCOP raised are now the leaders of the movement, and without any foreign presence in Cambodia managed to navigate through some turbulent times and carry on the work they do best, seeing Cambodia come to Christ. A new first occurred under their watch, what I would call a, “spiritual abduction”. A 27 year old man disappeared from his home in the middle of the night with no explanation. His family, members of the Siem Reap Church, were living on land that …

May 25, 2022

Sleight of Hand

The supply shelves are going empty in Cambodia. From what I understand we share this fate with many nations around the world. Every good magician knows that distraction is the key to every trick they pull off. Getting people to look over here, while the real action is going on over there. While the UN, The World Economic Forum, the Globalists, the corrupted politicians have us all looking at Russia and Ukraine, the real action is in China. Even China is promoting this by saying, “Sanctions against Russia will not bring peace to Ukraine, but will provoke food, energy and …

May 25, 2022

Last Man Standing

Most of the young people on our FCOP staff were too young to remember the PolPot regime, however the effects of that time remain tangible today. In the 1970s, 80s, and even early 90s, the Cambodian people learned to live off of the land and became the ultimate survivalists. As the central government was dismantled, the people learned to eat anything and everything; oftentimes making tools from very unlikely sources. Since protein is essential to one’s survival and a balanced diet, Cambodians have learned to consume protein from every possible source. It’s not uncommon, even in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom …

May 25, 2022

Rice Farm Woes

It is strange how adverse events all over the world seem to be coming into focus. China stopped exporting the two main fertilizers used by Cambodian farmers last July. Last year, prices were normal during planting season but in the last month, as farmers attempted to plant, reality has bitten! Most of our rural churches are made up of poor rice farmers and they are in a struggle to survive. FCOP went to spray our rice crop with a herbicide that last year cost us $12.50/hectare and it’s now $58.00/hectare. Fertilizer prices are up 350%. However, rice prices are forced …

March 31, 2022

Bring On The Teams

Everyone around the globe has had to endure the effects of COVID-19 and adjust to life with regulations. One of the impacts on FCOP, which we have detailed ongoing, has been the inability to have teams come. For the first time in over 2 years, it looks like there might be a way. In March 2022, the Cambodian government announced two important changes; first, no pre-flight COVID test is required to travel to Cambodia, and second, no testing on arrival. This applies to vaccinated travelers only. This is great news for FCOP! Visiting teams play an essential role in our …

February 28, 2022

Merciless Merchants

Farmers in Cambodia have proven to be expendable. It seems the government’s focus is to keep the masses in the cities happy with cheap rice and allow the merchants to extort as much taxable gain as possible from the farmers. The results may prove to be catastrophic! Farmers are getting paid less for rice this year than last, yet fertilizer prices and other input prices have been allowed to triple! Faith is the only reason to plant a crop. Even with ideal yields, at current prices, farmers are planting into a guaranteed loss! So, why do it? We know we …