Jenny Robinson came back! She led a team from New Hope Bible College. It seems that a staff change left the team without a leader. The school knew of Jenny, and she was able to get time off from her job to come and lead this team of college students in rebuilding the remote home of Toul Sokrum, near the Vietnam border. They left the home with a beautiful new fence in place, and a bunch of new friends. “Thanks Jenny!” And, “Thanks New Hope!”  

  Pa Thom (me) and Mak Sou (Sou) spent the last days of May in the US attending our annual meeting for FCOPI, and the Foursquare Convention in Dallas.  Since the meeting was in Texas, we had to look the part. We partook in a Global Missions Conference before the convention, along with a speaking engagement after the convention. We were gone for 12 days. Lugging about 800 pounds of calendars and “Ministry Overviews” as excess baggage was the worst part of the trip (download Ministry Overview 2014)  All those we took with us were given away in the display area at the …  

“There’s a sucker born every minute!” That statement has been attributed to P.T. Barnum, the ‘American Circus Tycoon’ of the 19th century. Barnum would put, what people of that day referred to as “Freaks”, on display for money. Some were genuine quirks and misfortunes of nature, like two headed animals, and some fabricated, or embellished, like the “Mermaid”, which was an object comprising the torso and head of a juvenile monkey sewn to the back half of a fish, covered in paper-mâché. The children pictured above are abused Cambodian children, and we cannot do anything about it. They have parents that purposely keep them this way …  

Bishop Julius Mbgaya, of Kenya, and his son Don were here. Julius feels that it will take Cambodia fifteen years to re-build the systems of good governance. There is no way an orphan is going to be self-supporting no matter how long it takes. That’s why we need your help! I understand that if you are constantly putting money into buying converts, that is the dependency we all oppose. But our pastors, in the 6000 home churches get paid nothing. We visited some of them and we were all encouraged.  

A simple hug. A prayer of blessing. A pat on the shoulder. Stuff we do every day and forget, especially when you’ve been doing it for 15 years, almost everyday, with around 13,000 kids in the rear view mirror. It’s the little things we do and say that stick with these kids. Often children long forgotten, and statements erased from our memories, surface in unusual ways. Recently, at one of the many weddings we attend and often help fund, a young guest asked to be photographed with Mak Sou and I. I did not recognize her, nor remember her name. About a week …  

FCOP was busy with teams all month. Our first lesson was in humility. Living Water Church from Olympia, Washington, USA (Close to Seattle) happened to show up just in time for the Super-Bowl (The annual US football championship which featured the favored Denver Broncos vs. the ‘under-dog’ Seattle Seahawks). Now, the problem is that since FCOP International has located its office in the Son-Haul building in Fort Morgan, Colorado, Sou and I have made it our official US residence.  Sonny Weimer, our board president, is a life-long Broncos fan, along with Errol and Brenda Faulkes from Colorado. The game began …  

Two New Years (Western and Chinese) and never-ending Christmas celebrations dominated our month. I think our last official Christmas program was held on January 24th, but some home churches are still celebrating. It is our biggest draw of the year by far. When Sou and I came to Cambodia in 1999 we had to import a plastic Christmas tree. Now, Christmas decorations are everywhere until mid January, and they actually say. “Merry Christmas”, not “Happy Holidays”. Buddhist Cambodians openly acknowledge that the day is about the birth of Christ, and everyone is curious about what it means. So, we have tens of thousands of curiosity …  

Mission teams are our lifeline. They think they come to impart a little and receive a lot. I’ve never seen a single team leave disappointed, but they impart much more than just the financial resources and their skills. They leave our kids with new relationships that they will carry for a lifetime; “Someone from half-way around the world cared enough about this “Stray Dog’ (Slang term for orphan in Cambodia) to come to see me and help me!” We already hosted two teams this month in addition to the “Living Water Team” which is on the ground now. East Valley Christian Center did a major re-hab at …