The Big Squeeze

My old boss at FMI, Jim Scott, once said to me, "Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean that they are not out to get you". The Cambodian government has surely proved that to be true. FCOP has been hit with taxes on our facilities, high license and permit fees, along with an endless demand for meetings. They seem to be following the Chinese Communist Party model of church suppression. Last month, the government unleashed our old antagonist, UNICEF on FCOP.  We have been in UNICEF's crosshairs for ten years. Our mission is to be the body of Christ. FCOP will never turn away a needy child. When the Apostles James, Peter, and John instructed Paul in Galatians 2:10, "They desired only that we should remember the poor," which is the very thing FCOP is eager to do. James wrote: "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and keep oneself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27). UNICEF's stated goal is to eliminate all institutional orphan care in Cambodia by 2023. Their claim is that 80% of institutional orphans have at least one living parent. Ok, but even if that unproven statistic is true, that is not who we are at FCOP.  What about the other 20 percent? What about the parents who remarry and abandon their children? What about those parents that are prostitutes or drug dealers? What do you do with them UNICEF? Foster care does not work in Cambodia despite the propaganda. FCOP takes care of separated and orphaned children that don't have alternatives and UNICEF should leave us alone! God is bigger than UNICEF and we will win this war through faith, prayer, and hard work.

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