The rice seed is in, now we just need some rain!

Craig Grunert died when he went to inspect a silo of canola. No one knows what happened to this normally, very safety minded farmer. But, he’s the third farmer I have known personally, to die in a bin of grain.

Craig’s mortality has put a new urgency into Sou and I’s own transition in Cambodia. A key factor in making the Cambodian Foursquare Church sustainable is to make it more self-supporting. My fear is that long term donors may see Cambodia as this huge gushing wound with no tourniquet in sight; slow death by bleeding out the donors. That’s a misconception, but an understandable misconception, since I have not communicated with you previously about an end-game.

I don’t believe orphans can ever be totally “self-supporting,” but we can move in that direction; and our rice farm is the key. It’s going to have to grow by about five times, take several years, and several million dollars to develop. But, I have the plan to make it work. Cambodia will no longer be a “dependency leach.” Imagine an 8000 church strong system of growing Christians in a poor Asian nation! It will happen. It’s our life’s ambition.

As with our churches, the rice crop is planted, but the ground is not yet green. It’s time to pray for adequate rain. Both physical and spiritual rain. This year we’ve increased production to about 460 acres. The crop is the best fertilized, and best seeded to date. We have about 240 acres that can raise two crops a year, and 60 acres that are capable of growing three crops this year.