Video Christmas Greeting
Merry Christmas Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones. We have so many things to be thankful for this Christmas season, but most of all and the true meaning of Christmas, we are thankful for Jesus coming to earth. We’ve been hard at work here in Cambodia spreading the gospel message all around the country. Pray with us as we hope for 50,000 salvations this Christmas time. The picture below is how our kids view Christmas. It’s Cambodian, but it is Christ. We selected this drawing from four finalists representing all 3,000 plus kids and widows we care for. Be …
Koinonia Visit
It is always refreshing to see a dedicated church like Koinonia Fellowship, Hanford, CA come and pay a visit. This was a father-daughter team made up of Michael and Lacee Nordstrom that left the home greatly encouraged and well supplied. Thanks!
Pa Thom (Ted Olbrich) in USA
Pa Thom (Ted) went to speak to leaders, churches, and interested support groups in Colorado and California for a couple of weeks in September. He was explaining a machine he needed to build in order to plant sprouted rice seed to Rice Farm Manager, Paul Mok. He assumed they would have to build it. As he was driving down the road in Colorado, the perfect machine, built fifty years ago and kept in storage, had been pulled outside by the owner, and was sitting by the road where Ted spotted it. It had only been use once and is like …
Cambodian Rice Donors
Your gas gauge is bouncing on empty, the little “gas pump” light is flashing on and off and the warning bell has dinged; the journey is 400 miles, you have no money, and there are no known gas stations between you and your destination. Fun huh? The circumstances are screaming, but your still, small, inner-voice, the “True North” on your internal compass, your soul, says, “Go!” What do you do? That is what walking by faith is all about. And, that’s why I hate it. Really hate it! But I keep moving, keep praying, and I keep looking for …
ICS Singapore Feeds Orphans
Pilots have been known to get vertigo, doubt the reading of their instruments, and fatally crash. Somehow, over the past few years we’ve managed to navigate by the “True North” heading, even though every natural instinct has told us, “You’re crashing!” We always seem to arrive wheels down and still alive. The trip is not always by the planned route, or maybe we won’t even arrive in the same vehicle, but we’ve made it. We’d decided that rice harvest would begin in November, it always does. We ran out of rice in July. Generous donors helped us survive until December, …
Cambodian Rice Harvest
It is deeply troubling to see all the abandoned rice land as I travel to our rice farm in Balang, Cambodia. This is good land that raised nothing after the floods and drought. Some farmers replanted after the drought only to be wiped out by the flood and then gave up. Few kept on going because they were either dis-spirited, or broke, or both. We were broke, but too stubborn to quit. The rice that we replanted after the drought, which did not get wiped out by the flood, was the best rice we ever harvested, some of it yielding …
School Uniform Distribution
A navigation course is set in stages; from check point to check point. “True North” for our students begins with enrollment. Unfortunately, you cannot attend school without a uniform, and for many poor families and orphans there is simply no money for such a luxury. The result? Kids don’t go to school. Stage one: get them through the door. That requires one functional uniform, and supposedly a pair of black lace top shoes. Some poor districts will overlook the shoes. But then, stage two is to keep them in school, and that requires basic supplies. School uniforms and basic supplies …
Cambodian Thanksgiving
No matter which way you turn a compass, the needle always comes back to “North”. Our hearts can be wounded, our bodies made sick, and our surroundings become miserable, but as God guides us, and we have the sense to listen, we can’t help but wind up back on course in awe of His provision. We celebrated “Thanksgiving” with orphans at Chom Chao on Nov. 22nd. I have never seen two 24 pound turkeys, with all the trimmings and 30 large pizzas disappear so fast; virtually gone in five minutes. It made those of us who take such a holiday for …
Communion and Christmas
“True North” for all of us who are followers of Christ should be “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col 1:27. Jesus never navigated alone. He only did what the Father told Him. There was a big problem before the first Christmas. “God is a Spirit” and we humans had physical bodies that were disconnected spiritually. So,how do you fix that? Obviously, God solved it by becoming human with a connected spirit. He restored the path of connection for us who were broken. Christmas is all about how this restoration began. We celebrate the great price He eventually paid …
Thanks Doc
Compasses can have problems. If an enemy puts a magnet too close, it will definitely lead you the wrong way. That can happen when our bodies get sick, or we start running after riches, or seeking to simply satisfy our flesh, it affects our souls and we can despair of life. We may look at a needle that is pointing anywhere but “True North” and believe we are traveling in the right direction. At FCOP we understand that, and so, we do all we can to minister to the whole person, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our doctors work more overtime …
Rolling Junkyard
Why can’t we get the “Lions” where they are needed? Our vehicle fleet is simply not up to the task. We never trade in vehicles; we just wear them out and sell them for scrap. The roads in Cambodia have greatly improved since the early days of our ministry in 1999, but our “Junkyard on wheels” has paid a price. We keep fixing up everything from broken frames, to blown engines, to stripped out transmissions, to bent fenders. Our average vehicle model year? 1996. It’s a good thing we train mechanics and have a steady supply of budding Grease Monkeys! …