Three Gifts

We operate an all-volunteer army. No foreigner receives any salary from FCOP.  Last year, for various good reasons, we lost Kris Warner, Bob and Christal Hollandsworth, and Jenny Robinson, to God’s new callings on their lives. This reduction of force left myself and Sam Tolle, as the sole foreign contingency in the organization (Sou has been a Cambodian since 2001).  It’s not that the Cambodians can’t run this church and N.G.O. it’s just the communications and coordination aspects that get overwhelming. Reports, team coordination, donor communications, training, and keeping the vision in focus seem to be our main functions, but we were buried! I never saw much of Sam as he was with the teams, and paper had me so buried I couldn’t see the top of my desk. Training was really suffering, but God sent reinforcements.I have been praying for a coordinated training program which combined the aspects of “Hearing the Holy Spirit” as presented to us by Randy Clark a year ago, with the Beth Barone’s teachings on the trinity and connection to God, and each other, through relationship. I had to go to Venezuela to find John and Sonja Decker’s book: “Doing What Jesus Did: Ministering in the Power of the Holy Spirit”, to give me a framework to fluff out the content already in my heart. But, the most important aspects were human. We received three gifts in January. Errol and Brenda Faulkes. showed up in a marriage package, on Jan 10th.  Errol, a gifted teacher with the School of Supernatural Ministry and Brenda a skilled administrator and human resources manager are here for the long haul. The third gift is temporary, Ol’e Sonny Weimer, our FCOP Int. Board President, came on the 13th to help me out at the rice farm for a couple of months. The devil is worried, because we are ready to blast off.The rocket almost blew up on the launching pad. I have been on constant antibiotics and Claritin (antihistamine), to keep from getting sinus infections and sore throats, for over a year. I went to an eye-ear-nose-throat specialist and he said I had developed allergies to the rice dust. Well, there was no way that was going to stop me, so I stayed on the drugs. Fifty-two years ago, I was caught under the chin and thrown by a Holstein bull while out trying to retrieve a new-born calf. He knocked out my bottom front teeth. Fortunately, it was on Memorial Day weekend and my Uncle, who was a dentist, was visiting the farm. He stuck my teeth back in my head and over the next few months, and several root canals, I was as good as new. Somehow, one root canal got infected about 50 years later. I couldn’t feel anything, but I knew there was some pressure there. Ol’e Sonny decided to take care of some needed dental work and get a couple of implants with our low Cambodian dental prices. He talked me into going with him and getting checked, five days before I was due to go to Venezuela. I was in the chair for four hours. The dentist pulled the one bad tooth, put me into oral surgery, and drained a huge infection. He said it could have killed me had I not gotten it fixed. I no longer need the Claritin or the antibiotic. Ol'e Sonny saved my life. What’a guy!