Thank you for the Christmas books!

Thus goes the Christmas Spirit in Cambodia, “Thanks for speeding Pa Thom! Please remember to speed again next time you come through town,” encouraged my friend, “Mop the Battambang Cop”. (I know of no other country in the world where you get treated with such respect for breaking the law!) It seems that last year Uncle Sam gave him the greatest Christmas present he’d ever received, a used radar gun. It’s a money machine!

There is about a 10 kilometer stretch of 50km/hr speed zones (in addition to the 30km/ph zone in the center of town) that extends on both sides of Battambang, that’s like 30 miles per hour, and I’m always in a hurry to make the 450 km trip to the rice farm. Mop the Cop is clever, he is constantly moving his speed trap, and I always get busted. Now, this is what makes him happy. The normal fine is $2.50US collected on the spot, but since I, as a foreigner, only get a one year driver’s license, mine was expired, and I was doing 20km over the limit.

I knew I was ‘big time’ busted. So, I just saluted Mop when he came up to my car window (respect is more important than money) and told him, “Mop. I’m really in a hurry, and Christmas is coming, so I’ll just pay you $10.00 and give you a Christmas book”. A big smile broke across his face, “See you next time you come through town’’, Mop said with a belly laugh. “Merry Christmas!” I cheered enthusiastically as I hit the gas and was gone in a flash, watching him thumb through the “Christmas Book” through my rearview mirror.

With the help of the Foursquare Foundation, and a lot of work and money from Steve Billington (Home of English), we will distribute 117, 500 of these books this Christmas season and they are fantastic! Children and adults fight over them as they read about Thanny, the leader of our Young Lions, tell the story about, “Why I hated Christmas”, and Nazareth’s story about how he was so malnourished when he came into our Church Home that doctors predicted he would, “Never Walk and Never Learn”, but God turned him into a top student and an athletic, musically talented,  trouble making, teenager. We are expecting  to see in excess of 50,000 decisions for Christ this December. Many the result of this book.