Mak Sou had so much fun in Khampong Thom she took the “Road show” to Rattanakirri. Since the Young Tigers delivered the Holy Spirit to that province two years ago, several hundred new churches have been planted in the province and every ethnic group has a sizable group of Spirit filled believers. All because a few devils thought they could intimidate some tree worshipers by sucking out their blood. The “Tigers” kicked devil butt and they’re not afraid anymore. Fear has been displaced by faith and joy.  

Christmas has always been the biggest holiday of the year for Cambodian Christians. But, our Divisional and District leaders faced a difficult question at their monthly training, “If Jesus was simply born of a virgin in a stable and lived out a life and died on a cross, would we celebrate Christmas?” After a long pause they decided that if it weren’t for the resurrection we wouldn’t even know who Jesus is. They realized that the same Spirit that gave Him life raised Him from the dead and then came to live in us! Wow! Easter has all of a …  

This was an Asian month. A group of Singaporean high schoolers helped build a fence for our church home in Khampong Som. Singapore is light-years ahead of Cambodia economically and these kids come from a private school which only well-to-do families can afford. They experienced a side of life they will never forget. And they left a bit of their own blessing behind in a much safer home for our Cambodian kids.  

There’s always more work to do than teams to do it! So, when Pa Thom saw the miserable deterioration in the roof and floor at the Serei Sapoan Church Home he called an S.O.S. With in 24 hours, 18 volunteers including a doctor and a contractor were at the site – all Cambodians – and after a few days, the place is looking like new again!  

Yup, Pa Thom spent three of the four weeks last month at the rice farm. Improvement is slowly arriving to the depleted Cambodian rice land. Though the locals all think he’s a “Mad Scientist,” his soil samples show a steady improvement in soil fertility. Not only are we making progress on that front, but soon, the “slaves” that suffer from the heat and dust will have a cool, clean place to sleep. Life gets easier each year. Four years ago the fertilizer went on with one 20kg pail at a time, all by hand. Now we can load up an …  

Persecution is like a “root canal”; it hurts, you hate it, but it does you a whole lot of good. Police in Kompong Channang Province detained some 400 church leaders preventing them from attending our annual convention. Hundreds of others were stopped in various locations. Still over 2000 people were in attendance at the conference, and this year most had to pay their own way. The 400 who were sent back home at Khampong Channang called in saying, “We fixed them! They sent us home so we went to the villages that didn’t know Christ and got hundreds more born …  

After hearing that his obituary had been published in a New York newspaper, Mark Twain commented, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated!” The same could be said of a report in a local English speaking newspaper that 70 FCOP Church Homes were being closed. The cause of the entire melee was a mis-translated quote picked up by a non-Cambodian speaking journalist after a speech that was given at the presentation of a UN funded study on orphan care in Cambodia. Last month we ran the story of these government officials coming to our center to congratulate us for the high …  

A ‘hot time’ was had at the Chhuk ChurchHome. We just got done refurbishing the place and noticed that a persisting roof leak was caused by a structural weakness in the roof trusses. A contractor came and was welding on some truss reinforcement steel when a spark flew through the ceiling hatch and ignited a mattress. The entire top floor was burned ruining all the beds, clothing and personal effects of the kids. Pastor So Sonet also kept the funds for monthly support in a steel strongbox, which was not insulated, $6000 was turned into ashes. Fortunately no one was …