Death of a Rice Crop

 The “Prince and Power of the Air” is not our God! God took out all His judgment against us at the cross and is not the one in charge of disasters! We still fight them and we take a hit now and then. We just took a big one! In late July I asked our donors for prayer for rain. We got one inch on August 1st and it looked good. But the rain forecasted to come following that one never came. The clouds split to the North and South. The rains missed the main rice growing areas of Cambodia and Thailand. However, Laos, NE and SW Cambodia got clobbered with heavy rains and flooding. Rattanakiri (NE) and Khampong Som (S) Cambodia were under water. The rice growing areas of Thailand and Cambodia remained dry (Record drought). Our rice passed the crucial “boot stage” without enough water to set heads. We had no choice but to plow it under and start again on 600 of our 1000 acres. There was no seed available in Cambodia so Paul Mok (farm manager) drove all night to get to Vietnam to buy seed. It is now planted and about 4 inches tall and we are getting some rain, with September traditionally being our wettest month.  This gives us an optimistic outlook for this crop but harvest is three months away. This is a big hit for us. We lost $200,000 in input costs and then the additional cost of replanting. It pays to persevere. Most rice in the area is not re-planted as there is no seed available.

In another year and a half, after our reservoirs are constructed, we will be protected from this, but not yet. Not now! So, we need prayers and help. Thanks for what you have done!

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