A Little Beat Up

Both subjects in the above photo look a little beat up; me at 71, and the old 'Hilltop House Hotel' in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, USA, at 130. I started my Southeast Asian Journey there 50 years ago, taking my first training with International Voluntary Services on my way to Laos in June of 1968. I'm pretty sure we've both seen better days but I think I am faring better. In fact, I'm not even sure the old hotel is still standing, as this photo is about 4 years old. One thing that did look pretty good back then was Mak Sou. I had the good sense to marry her, spent three years in Laos, then 15 in agriculture, 12 pastoring a church in Illinois, all while raising a family of two boys and two girls and coming back to Cambodia in 1998. Somehow that should add up to fifty. And, several thousand churches, 18,000 kids, 107 church/homes later, here we are. Seems like yesterday; seems like forever. I'll let you try to figure that out.

Despite our age, Sou and I keep chugging along like a couple of "Energizer Bunnies" working hard at building replacement leadership into our team. But, we've had setbacks, with the murder of Apostle El Sim just one year ago, and the very questionable death of Vice president Long Khit in April (we still do not know if that was an accidental 'hit and run' or an outright murder). We do need your prayers and your help. I can understand how it gets pretty easy to take FCOP for granted after 20 years of hearing about Cambodia; for you millennials, it is most of your life. But, remember, we started in a spiritual vacuum, and we still see the freshness of the Holy Spirit blow away every new infusion of man's religious doctrines. Our secret? We just outlast them! Actually, there is something else. Read on.

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