New believers joyously celebrate with water baptism

Key leaders are vital. When General Lee (Commanding general of the Confederate army during the American Civil War) lost General Stonewall Jackson at the battle of Chancellorsville, he said, “It was worse than losing a division.” I lost Paul Mok, my trusted rice farm manager. He was forced to quit due to a throat disease that doctors claimed was pre-cancerous. I feared I was finished. But none of us is irreplaceable. And God is a healer.

Pastor Muth (our district supervisor from Rattanakirri) brought down a group of over 20 young men from the tribal regions of North East Cambodia to help out at the rice farm. They rebuilt dikes, pumped water, fertilized land, tilled the fields, planted rice, and caught and dried fish for food. Most importantly, Muth penetrated a Lao speaking community near the rice farm, and on the third Sunday of October, 60 of them were baptized. Paul Mok is recovering, and back on his way to the farm with 2&1/2 tons of registered hybrid rice seed, which has the potential to give us seed rice for the next three years.

I believe that leaders can be trained, but honestly, I am convinced that true leadership is a gift, and it can come from strange places. General Grant (the commanding, and victorious, general of all Union Forces at the end of the American Civil War) was a clerk in a harness store in Galena, Illinois when the war broke out. Because he’d studied at West Point ( US Military Academy) and was friends with a local congressman, he was given the rank of brigadier general. He quickly won two victories at forts along the Kentucky and Tennessee borders, and was given his second star.

Grant found himself in the heart of the confederacy at Shiloh, Mississippi. Surprised by the enemy, the first day looked like a devastating defeat, the second day Grant rallied his troops, and the third day won a resounding victory. Reporters heard a rumor (never substantiated) that Grant was drunk on the first day of battle. They relentlessly picked this up and pressed President Lincoln, “What do you think about Grant being drunk on the day of battle?” Lincoln paused, and responded, “As to whether General Grant was drunk. I have no knowledge of that. But if he does imbibe, if you would be so kind as to find out what brand he drinks, I’d like to send a bottle to all my generals.”