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A History Lesson

According to Carl Von Clausewitz, in his famous 1832 book On War he states, “The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and means can never be considered in isolation from their purpose.” In that case, it looks like China is winning WW3. Does that sound like insanity? Warfare has evolved from the first cavemen bashing each other with clubs, to Egyptian archers and chariots, to knights in shining armor, to rows of soldiers with muskets blasting away at each other, to the trenches and tactics of WWI, to the atomic bombs of WWII, the guerrilla …  
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Church Improvements

As Cambodia continues to deal with the effects of it’s first major outbreak of COVID-19, dubbed the “February 20th Incident”, churches (along with many other institutions) are prohibited from meeting. So, as activities are significantly restricted, some of our staff with extra time took it upon themselves to make improvements at our Phnom Penh church refuge center. When FCOP purchased the land nearly 22 years ago for our church refuge center in the capital of Cambodia, we did it in an area where the prices were dirt cheap and we could get the size of land we had a vision …  
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COVID-19 Craziness

In Cambodia, we’re dealing with the largest COVID-19 outbreak to date. As of the writing of this, there have been 2,377 total cases and 11 deaths.  Prior to what’s been dubbed the “February 20th Event” of this year, there were only a few hundred cases.  Now, there are people on both sides of the fence regarding how to deal with COVID.  It’s lockdown versus herd immunity.  Without getting into the scientific arguments of both of those, I want to present another fact that immediately impacts our situation in Cambodia: Tuberculosis.  Annually, about 13,000 people die of the disease, often referred …  
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Revival Is Not Optional!

Why did Jesus warn us, “As the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be”? Was it just because life will be normal until the event occurs? Or, was there something about the conditions which caused the event to come to pass? Why did God judge the people of ‘Noah’s day’? It was because the human race which was created in God’s image was being corrupted genetically by non-human fallen angels (Satan’s demonic host). Read Genesis 6:1-7 and you will see, in the first verse, that this began right out of the Garden …  
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Church Planting

Imagine having to cross a rocky, rapidly flowing river on foot just to hear the Word of God. New believers in the mountain region of Ratanakiri at the Vietnam/Laos border (what is known by locals as ‘the tail of the dragon’ and most foreigners as the ‘topknot of the parrot’) will travel long distances from various locations throughout Laos and Cambodia to have fellowship with other believers. FCOP is sharing the Gospel in some of the most remote areas of Cambodia and now has outreach to 8 tribal groups (each having their own dialect). This thriving group of 60 strong …  
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Local Blessings

We are forever grateful for the love of our local church members to help care for the orphans and widows. On January 26th, church members from Chom Chao Church donated new sports clothes for the younger boys that live at the church refuge center. Our boys will wear these new clothes with pride. We’re encouraged to see those in the community giving generously to those that have less. FCOP has been working on teaching our congregations the importance of tithing and giving to those in need.   
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“Shut Up”!

“Why don’t you just shut up about politics and be a missionary”? My critic was not very happy and from time to time I’ve had similar comments. Honestly, those things used to bother me, but now they seem to blow right by me. What caused my change of heart? I realized that FCOP has always been engaged in a Gospel that is focused on the whole person: spiritual, social, and economic. But, then I noticed that Jesus was political. I know that may shock you, because many Christians have been taught to stick to the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ and …  
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Stopping China

I have never been a big predictor of end time scenarios, but then, I’ve never seen a year like 2020. All of the old predictions had one big problem. They did not affect the entire world, they did not cause a universal panic and fear, they did not herd us toward a one world government and there was no way to predict who was holding back the “Man of Sin” in 2 Thessalonians 2:7. There were plenty of theories but nothing met all the tests. China’s desire for world domination is well documented. Virtually every nation has experienced the Chinese …  
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You Think You Have It Bad?

Mark Twain said,  “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” There is another thing that the now “politically incorrect” author wrote in his last book, ‘Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc’ which is more history than fiction. It shows the serious, spiritual side, of this very earthy humorist. Sometimes, when I think we have it bad, I read Twains description of Paris in 1410: “In Paris, mobs roared through the streets nightly, seeking, burning, killing, unmolested, uninterrupted. The sun rose upon wrecked and smoking buildings, and upon mutilated corpses …  
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Home Floods

This really has been a dry year except for the past month, yet we still had dozens of our church homes flooded. This year a lot of flooding was due to the fact that development projects of the past few dry seasons did not provide for adequate drainage and many water catchment areas were filled in. We have a lot of drainage work to do and this little hiccup of rain in October sure pointed that out. We have structural damage to repair and just as we are stretched in every direction, with funds virtually cut in half due to …  
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Virtual Teams

We have our first team since COVID-19 hit! Well, virtual team that is. Pastor Lisa Machen from Church of the Open Door in Iowa, a longtime partner of FCOP, contacted us with the idea from their team members that were missing Cambodia.  We immediately thought it was a great idea! We’re getting photos and videos of the construction needs for the team to see firsthand and start fundraising. The expense of airline tickets can be saved and rolled over into helping work on accomplishing the construction project. We will miss having the team members here in person to invest time …  
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Entropy?

Entropy (from high energy to low) happens in churches; maybe faster than we care to acknowledge? Paul established the church in Ephesus around year 53-54AD (Acts 18-19). While imprisoned in Rome (year 61AD), seven years after the tremendous revival of Acts 19, he wrote the church a letter of encouragement. Paul reminds them that they are saved through the blood of Christ, through faith in His sacrifice, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to destroy the devil’s works through fighting a spiritual war. How long this had effect is unknown but I believe in an early date for the writing …  
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