The Royal Order of Sahametrei is the highest award given to foreigners in Cambodia. This order was established in 1864 by the King Norodom I of Cambodia and has been continued, under royal decree, ever since. It is awarded in five classes which are the: Grand Cross, Grand Officer, Commander, Officer, and Knight.
On February 9, 2010 Steve Hyde was awarded the medal of the Royal Order of Sahametrei for distinguished services to the King and the people of Cambodia. He was given the rank of “Officer” or “Sena” in Cambodian. Steve has been working in Cambodia since 1994. This award was given for his role in building a new children’s center in Poipet and helping impoverished families and children. It was presented by H.E. Sak Setha , Secretary of State, on behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H.E. Sar Kheng.
Sahametrei is an ancient word which refers to peace and mercy. Steve is the president of Antioch Institute with more than 4,000 students in 22 of the 24 provinces of Cambodia. He is director of Words of Life Ministries which produces hundreds of books and other media in the Cambodian language. He is also the director of Imparting Smiles which is an association committed to educating and caring for orphans, abandoned children and children from rural areas who have no access to education. Imparting Smiles currently cares for and educates about 130 children.
Previous awardees include heads of large organizations, presidents of universities, Prime Ministers and Ambassadors of foreign nations.
Steve’s wife, Noit, is equally involved in every aspect of service and care of children. Steve is also supported by a staff of more than 20 Cambodian workers who faithfully and sacrificially work together for more than a decade. They are equally deserving of the award.
Governor Oeung Oun with Steve Hyde and Sopheap
On Obama’s second day in office he issued an executive order allowing federal funds to be used for funding abortions overseas. So, in effect, America is now funding death throughout the world. Across America, since Roe vs. Wade in 1973, Christians have started several thousand Crisis Pregnancy Centers across America to provide assistance and counseling for women. Millions of women have chosen life for their babies as a result.
Overseas, in many countries like Cambodia, the message that people are receiving (by way of US funded programs and UN initiatives) is that their poverty is a result of having too many children. This is a lie. Abortions are provided free in most health centers in Cambodia and private hospitals offer abortions for as little as $10. It is difficult to estimate, but research by health care organizations have shown the number of abortions in Cambodia to be approximately 3,000 lives extinguished per month. Few, if any, of these are done because of a medical danger to the mother but simply a form of birth control and gender selection. Since 1997, under UN influence, abortion was legalized in Cambodia. It is estimated that 400,000 Cambodian babies have been aborted since then. While a few individuals and some churches are now working towards life, counseling women and abstinence education in Cambodia, there are no Crisis Pregnancy Centers in the whole nation of Cambodia.
LIFE INTERNATIONAL is a Grand Rapids, Michigan based ministry that is now working in 22 countries with a vision to help women in every country on earth. It is a huge task. LIFE INTERNATIONAL is unashamedly an Evangelical Christian organization which believes and practices a Biblical worldview. The heart of this issue is showing the love of Jesus Christ the giver of life.
Their office space in downtown Grand Rapids was formerly the largest abortion clinic in western Michigan. This building was first built as a Jewish synagogue. In the building’s prayer room, you can see the hand-built stone wall that those Jewish men laid from stones from the river some 150 years ago. Later, a bigger synagogue was built in another location and the building was converted to a church. Though it was a historical building it was later converted to office space and became an abortion clinic.
The abortions were performed in the basement of the building. An estimated 20,000 children lost their lives in the depths of 72 Ransom Avenue in Grand Rapids.
After years of ceaseless prayer by the community of believers, God redeemed His house by allowing the building to be purchased by LIFE INTERNATIONAL to be restored as a place that brings the light and life of Christ to the nations. In the spaces where abortions were provided, there is now a prayer center dedicated to the lives of the unborn around the world. The ministry website is www.lifeinternational.com and they can arrange tours of the facility or be involved in their prayer ministry as well.
LIFE INTERNATIONAL has already helped provide training for more than 200 pastors and women leaders on the issue of abortion in Cambodia and more training is scheduled for this year. In the coming months they will begin to train our board, doctors and counselors in operating a Crisis Pregnancy Center, abstinence education and the promotion of the sanctity of life in Cambodia.
Last week I have travelled across America. Each stop I was greeted by the best thing anyone could ever want: Friends. Even when you arrive at midnight in cold Chicago, friends are there. They care for you and give you the best room in the house and talk with you for hours on end. Arriving in even colder Michigan where the snow steadily falls, more friends are there. They introduced me to more and more friends. Within forty-eight hours new friends have become like old friends.
On to Kansas City, a friend immediately meets me at the airport and gives me the keys to his Cadillac, with enough snacks stocked in the car to see me through a week in the jungle; and off I go. I head north, in the night, toward the freezing temperatures in Iowa. My destination is a surprise visit to my 97 year old Grandmother. Eventually I am too tired to go on. I just randomly stop at the first hotel I see. I register my destination on Facebook and immediately another friend pops up and says her house is only two miles away. A few hours later, in sub-zero temperatures I am reunited with a friend of twenty years ago. The warmth of friendship obliterates the piercing cold.
I drive on and visit my Grandmother. I am only glad she didn’t have a heart attack when her Grandson who lives on the other side of the world, wakes her from a nap. During the day my Grandmother kept touching my hand to make sure she was not dreaming; yes I was there. At the end of the day I headed deeper into Iowa, drawn by the prospect of seeing more friends. We barely could quit talking as we caught up on our current events during my stay. Only the closest friend would fix me hamburgers from Iowa beef with cheesecake for desert at breakfast.
Off I drove to Kansas City. Again my time was short but full of fellowship with friends. I returned the car and was treated like a king. Meeting long time friends is always fulfilling. We can joke and laugh long hours and never get tired. The visits always seem too short. Off again; this time to Los Angeles. A meeting was cancelled, so my arrival in LA should have been just routine, but nothing is routine when friends are around though. One friend meets me at the airport and drives me the two hours to meet with more friends. In Victorville, CA I cannot even count all my friends. My trip there would only last about twelve hours, but friends host me for a giant meal, and open their home so I can stay the night.
You know, Jesus calls us his friends. “13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:13-15) After what Jesus has done for us, would there be anything we would not be willing to do for him?
Being a Christian I have friends all over the world. Some I know well, and others I only just met, but no matter where I go in ministry, it is always an honor and privilege to be among friends. Sometimes as we receive blessings and love from our friends and other times we get to give it all back. That is true friendship.
Note: This story is a continuation of the previous day’s blog.
We had been so confident we left the village all our water and only took one little bottle of water each to tide us over till we got to the next village. We had no food. The T’moan village was probably seven kilometers behind us, yet I new they could not help us either. They had no tools, no machinery, no vehicles and no food either. The only way forward was about forty-five kilometers to the next village. As I Boy Scout I had once hiked 25 miles in one day, and it about killed me as a physically fit teenager with plenty of food and water. Now, it seemed our only option for help was to walk forty-five kilometers (about 30 miles). I knew we could never do it, even if we had water. As for water, we were about five kilometers from the closest water source, and it was a stagnant river bed. This was a serious problem.
I didn’t panic. I just silently prayed. I felt God wanted to teach me something. Why else would have allowed me to break down in the middle of nowhere?
The sun was starting to get higher in the sky and soon it became unbearably hot. It was not the cool evening breeze anymore. Adding to the difficulties, I had brought my 10 year old son on this trip and one of his friends. So I was responsible for the lives of two kids out in the jungle on top of everything. My son just jumped out and started playing. He was pretending to be Luke Skywalker and attacking an invisible force. He was oblivious to the danger we were now in.
How do you re-attach wheels?
We had no choice but to try and fix the vehicle. We struggled for two hours and finally were able to get the wheels close the right place, but they were still not attached, only sitting in the right position. We tried to tie our winch line around the axel to hold it onto the body of the car. After so much work in the dirt and hot sun we were tired and almost all our water was gone. The drive shaft was still separated, but we just tied it up so that it would not spear into the ground and cause further damage. Since it was a 4×4 vehicle, we still had use of our front wheels because they are attached to a separate drive shaft. So we could move slowly. The broken drive shaft was whipping around with the every turn of the wheel. It was whacking the bottom of the vehicle with a loud clunk with every revolution. I felt absolutely hopeless. We had worked for two hours and this was the best we could do. I had no hope that this was going to work. Suddenly, about one kilometer down the road, the wheels fell off again. There was no way that we could repeat that same procedure for each kilometer we had to go. It would take two weeks to get to the next village and we would long run out of food and water before then.
We got out of the vehicle to pray and further assess the situation. My son went back to attacking Darth Vader and myself and two other young men looked around and contemplated what to do. We needed a miracle.
Suddenly, we heard a rumble in the distance. I was sure it was loggers or smugglers; either way, they would likely flee at the sight of the vehicle. As we saw the motorcycle we noticed it was a man we met a few days earlier. He was indeed a smuggler, but one we knew, so he was a friendly smuggler! As he saw us, he stopped as we were “friends”. Immediately he looked at the vehicle and said, “You guys are in big trouble”. He bent down and looked how we had tried to fix it. He thought: this was not going to work. He saw the broken drive shaft. He said, “We need to reconnect the drive shaft; that is crucial to making it out of the jungle.” He continued, “You can’t make it up over the lip of the river banks without four wheel drive.” He oozed confidence and it was not even his problem. It is not typical of Cambodian’s to help each other like this. It was as if God had sent him directly to us. He didn’t even ask permission to help us; he just climbed under the vehicle in all the dirt and started doing what he could to fix our vehicle. We climbed under with him and pulled and tugged together.
At one point we needed to jack up the vehicle. I didn’t know what to do. He did. He told me to find a tree about 8 inches across and 25-30 feet long and chop it down. We would use the spire tire as a pivot point and with the tree as a lever hoist the vehicle in the air to reset the axel position and driveshaft. We had no water, we had no food and we worked for hour after hour in the sun. Slowly making progress, but not sure if we would be successful or not. Five hours later we had done all we could. We had the axel in place; we re-attached the drive shaft, and used the wince cable wrapped around the axel and truck body to hold it all in place. Would it hold?
Jungle Jack
I never quit contemplating what God was trying to speak to me. Our lives are like this breakdown in the middle of nowhere. We are hopeless. We are stuck in the middle of the jungle with no way out. The only way we are going to get out is by a miracle. Jesus can provide any miracle for us. “Everything is possible with Christ.”
- Some people go through life acting like my son. He was in great danger, yet all he wanted to do was play. He was oblivious to the dangers around him. He was in trouble, but he didn’t even care to know it. Many, many people that we meet each day are like that. They are just living live to the fullest, yet are seemingly oblivious to the danger that awaits their soul. We can only try to help them and warn them.
- Others are like me, they are the Eagle Scouts. “Be Prepared” is our motto. We are prepared for everything: sewing torn pants, knot tying, bird identification, plus we have really cool pocket knives. We think we are ready for anything and then. . .wham. . . an axel breaks! Our preparation, our planning, our thinking, our training, our effort along with our bright shiny knife is inadequate to help us. We need a miracle. We need Jesus to come down and rescue us.
- Still others are like the smuggler. He has a list of evil deeds longer than a felled log. Greed is his life. Yet, something in him is burning away inside of him. Something is leading him to help a fellow traveler. He is empowered with supernatural compassion for others.
That winch wire held. It was nothing short of a miracle to get to the next village. It took a miracle and all of us working together. Our temporary job was so strong that in fact we made it out of the jungle and drove for two days to get all the way to Phnom Penh where I could have it repaired professionally. You know as I drove out of the jungle during many points in our slow journey I would swear that I could see the footsteps of angels walking in front of the vehicle. I think they were pulling us to safety. At any point if the wince cable broke, we would probably have had a cataclysmic accident, yet I believe God held it all together. We drove out of danger and out jungle friend continued on his way after I thanked him profusely for helping us out. I never saw him again.
That is not really the end of the story. It has much greater significance. Do you know why we were in the jungle? Not for adventure; though we had it. We were not there to discover anything; though we did. We were there simply compelled by the love of Jesus for us and the passion to give it to others. God was using us to be a miracle for the T’moan people. Jesus wants to be their miracle to lead them out of danger to a place of safety.
We can also be someone else’s miracle. Some of the most famous mission phrases ever uttered was done so in error. When William Carey knew he was called of God to go to India, he was told by his church Deacons that “If God wants to save the heathen, he will do it without your help or mine.” Interestingly, it was a Baptist Church. Today, Baptists in all their denominations, probably the largest missionary force in the world. You know, that statement is not true in the least. In reality, “God wants to save the heathen, and he is depending on you!”
As believers, God has called us to be miracles for others. We are called to help those who are broken down in the jungle of life. They may be like my son who did not even realize the danger he was in, or they may be like me who was desperately trying to fix something which I could not fix in my own strength. Either way, we needed help. Jesus is our miracle. Jesus also wants us to be a miracle to others!
The T’moan people literally live in the middle of nowhere. They are 50 km (35 miles) to the closest village in any direction. They are 80km to the nearest road. They are surrounded by jungle. After years of logging by the military, some is getting quite thin, but there are still some areas that the trees are so big and tall that they block out the sun.
The other day I was going back to visit the T’moan tribe and it was the first time I had attempted to take my truck instead of the normal motorcycle. The dry season this year has been especially dry and so I assumed that most creeks and rivers that we needed to cross would be dry so I could potentially drive right to the village. I wanted to take my vehicle because I could carry much more food and equipment. This time I wanted to take the village iodized salt because most of the T’moan have iodine deficiencies which can cause many health problems, not the least of which are large goiters (or tumors on the neck). I have seen some goiters the size of volleyballs and weighing more than ten pounds. The only “cure” once a person gets a goiter is to have surgery; however, it can be prevented simply by using iodized salt. Simple. So this time I took enough salt for every family to have one kilo (2 pounds) of salt. Back as little as fifty years ago salt was as valuable as gold in the remote tribal villages, even now it is extremely hard to come by. The people had never had iodized salt before.
Driving to the T'moan village
On the day we drove to the tribe’s main village we had no trouble, other than the constant jerking of the vehicle over the uneven jungle floor. Most of the ground was just dirt and uneven trails, making it hard to drive, but not impossible. There were sections of boulders or exposed tree stumps which are the most destructive to vehicles. I was careful to drive very slow all day long and avoid hitting any rocks or stumps. I only high centered the vehicle one time because I was not paying attention for a split second. After only a few minutes of pushing and shoving though, we were able to release the vehicle and keep going.
We spent a few wonderful days in the T’moan village teaching the people more about Jesus and fellowshipping with them. Though it was quite hot when we were there, we could soak in the river of God in the evening and cool off. At night, the temperatures dropped significantly.
Our last evening there I did not sleep well. We only had dried wild cow meat to eat as food and it looked and tasted very moldy. We cooked it as best as we could, but the putrid smell of the meat was a sign to me that the meat was already spoiled. That night, about midnight the evidence came suddenly. I ran as fast as I could for the woods, not making it all the way, but close enough. After relieving myself, I returned to the house we were sleeping in. I had only laid down a moment when the stomach rumblings hit me again. I tried to move quickly to get out of the house and made it only to the bottom of the flimsy ladder acting as the entranceway into the house. From then on, every few minutes, my body was purged of everything it did not appreciate! (I’ll spare you any more graphic details). By four in the morning I was exhausted and felling a little better when the village started to wake. By five in the morning, the first light was coming over the eastern horizon and the whole village was sitting around campfires to keep warm in the early morning light.
By six our team decided to head off. I knew it would be a tough day, but fortunately there is one benefit from being 50km from the next village: you don’t have to go very far to find privacy behind a bush!
We said our goodbyes in the village and promised to return in a few months. We headed out, quite refreshed and mentally prepared for the rough journey ahead. Each one in the vehicle was sharing about the fun things we had done and seen over the last few days. I was only driving in first gear and we slowly crawled along the uneven ground. We were probably about seven kilometers outside the village when all of a sudden. Crash! We were going slowly, but we had hit something which caused us to freeze in our tracks and lurch upward. I thought we had simply hi-centered the vehicle again on some dirt in which case we would just push it off and keep going.
As I got out and looked toward the back of the vehicle I realized we had a serious problem. The wheels were not where they were supposed to be. They had been completely ripped off! We had hit a tree stump which was hidden in the grass. We only missed clearing the stump by less than a width of a finger. While the stump appeared small, at only about 20cm across (8 inches), it was attached to an extensive and hardy root system. The stump did not give. The axel of our truck did. The springs were ripped off, the drive shaft severed and both wheels were lodged into the body of the truck. The wheels were no longer attached to the vehicle!
Now we had a problem. The monkeys had not yet set up an AAA automobile repair service yet. There is no emergency police number to dial and no cell phone coverage within fifty kilometers. Over my years in Cambodia I have fixed a lot of things, but as I looked at this I had nothing to say. I knew we were in big trouble. We were in the middle of nowhere and there was no way to get help. The only thing I could do was pray.
Note: The last installment of this story will continue to tomorrow on this blog site.
The other day in Singapore I was listening to Heidi Baker speak. Many things inspired me during her preaching and praying, but one comment really struck me. She was talking about how people are so particular about tithing that they forget what God called them to do. They calculate their 10% giving down to the cents so they don’t err in their giving and get cheated out of a blessing from God.
Do you know that the word “tithe” is only mentioned twice, in negative contexts, in the whole New Testament? The first time it is mentioned is in Matthew where Jesus himself says, 23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” (Matthew 23:23; The synoptic parallel verse is found in Luke 11:42).
The second instance is when Jesus quotes a Pharisee’s prayer saying, “The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’” (Luke 18:11-12). Both of these two references equate tithing with the religious Pharisees. It does not condemn nor condone tithing, but simply says that the Pharisees put so much effort into making sure they do not short change God out of the tithe that they even tithed tea leaves and herbs, yet they forget justice, mercy and faithfulness.
The only other place in the New Testament which mentions the tithe is in Hebrews 7:8-9, but only in regard to Abraham’s giving of a tenth of the spoils of war to Melchizedek, which is an Old Testament story.
I grew up in a religious tradition in which tithing is constantly preached and practiced. It was considered the sign of a true believer. I am thankful for most of my background, but in later years have struggled personally to separate religious legalism from my personal relationship with Christ. I found my own relationship with Christ being more like a Pharisee with religious rules and regulation rather than being a wholehearted follow of Christ.
I found that on many occasions I viewed my “religious duty” as going to church on Sunday (even if I didn’t feel like it) and at least giving 10%, calculated always precisely so as to not be rebellious. I was committed to a righteous life between nine in the morning and noon on Sunday. I was certainly holy because I also attended the evening service and often came to prayer meetings on Wednesday night for a few hours. Calculating the hours of my righteousness it comes out to approximately 10% of my week. I was tithing my life. Yet as I looked at my life, I saw emptiness. I saw dissatisfaction. I saw discarded dreams. I would listen to powerful messages, engage in wonderful worship yet I knew was not reaching my potential in Christ. I was only tithing my life to Jesus. I was only giving 10% of my life.
Jesus was completely clear about giving when he said what he expects, “any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33) That doesn’t sound like a life “tithed” does it? No, that is a life dedicated to Christ 100%. Well, in my past life I would have probably stopped writing here and made some cute final comment like, ‘So, what would Jesus do?’ Everyone would feel blessed because it doesn’t require any application or accountability. Today, I am not going to stop writing at the comfortable place.
So, what does this mean to me?
- Do I tithe my income, or do I give freely without calculating, as the Holy Spirit leads me to give? Is my giving “sacrificial” or only out of my “surplus”?
- Do I tithe my vehicle? Am I so concerned about my vehicle and potential scratches that I would never give someone a lift, loan them my car, or drive long distances for ministry or friendship because it would lower the re-sale value? If I am, I am only “tithing” my car, not giving it to the Lord.
- Do I tithe my house? Is my house only a place of personal privacy and security? Do I only open my house once a year for a brief prayer meeting? If so, I am likely not giving of my house for the Lord’s purposes. Have I ever had visitors, other than relatives, stay at my house? Or, is my house known as a place of refuge and a place where anyone can come and stay. Is my house a point of ministry, rather than my palace?
- Do I tithe my time? Am I only “serving” during prescribed religious programs such as Sunday school, a church picnic or Bible study? Or, am I sensitive to the Holy Spirit, continually, seeking to use my time for the purposes of the Kingdom of God. Does my life, at my place of work, serve any purpose to the Jesus?
When I graduated from university with my computer/business degree I felt God gave me a choice. The choice was: serve Him or serve myself. I tried to rationalize several other favorable alternatives to God. First, I promised to make money working for several years and then later in life going out to serve him on my own money so I would not be a burden to others. Secondly, being in computers and business I promised to make a lot more money than “normal people” and I assured God that I would tithe faithfully, and my tithe being so much greater than others, would be a great benefit to God’s work.
God won out and I chose not to tithe my life, but to give it all. Yet, that same choice I made some twenty years ago is the exact decision I have to make every single day. I have to consciously make a daily decision to not simply tithe 10% of my life, time, and possessions, but to give all to Him as a follower of Christ.
Living a life like this, I can honestly say, I have seen the God “throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it” (Malachi 3:10).
Benny Prasad
In Singapore recently I met a most fascinating man. His name is Benny Prasad. When I first saw him I thought he was a 1970’s left over with his tie-dyed shirt and long hair. Come to find out, he was only born in the 70’s! I was captivated by what he had to say; His testimony of Jesus saving him, a miracle that he is alive because he only has 40% of his lung capacity functioning and how he has travelled the world. I travel a lot and have been to about 40 countries. I recently had to get a new passport because all of my 125 pages in my current passport were full. The US Embassy wouldn’t add any more pages for me, so I had to get another passport. Benny’s was probably 500 pages and about 4 inches thick!! It was amazing. My wife just looked at me and said, “I guess you don’t travel that much after all!”
Let me tell you about Benny: Born on 6th August 1975, in Bangalore, India, Benny was the first of his generation in the family. His birth was celebrated with the highest of hopes for his future. But his was not a promising start: he suffered severe asthma which required him to take cortisone steroids. Because of the steroids, he developed Rheumatoid Arthritis, had 60% lung damage and his immune system was failing so his life was threatened daily.
His parents believed that these terrible early difficulties would only make his success all the more blessed and honorable. He was expected to excel in his studies, to set an example for his younger brother and sisters. He struggled to live up to such pressures, his father was a highly regarded scientist at the National Aerospace Laboratories, and spent a lot of time trying to drill mathematics and science into Benny, but in vain. Finding no fulfillment in life, Benny became depressed and his behavior continued to worsen. He reached out to what seemed the only way out for him and attempted suicide at the age of 16.
Then Benny Prasad had an encounter with God. He heard God speak to him, saying. “Benny, even though you have been useless all your life, I need you now and I can make you a new creation.” Finally, a fresh start! A new birth! That was all it took to bring about a complete transformation in this lost and hurting young man.
From being the shame of his family, he went on to be their pride. God’s power brought the most powerful change in Benny’s life. Before this transition he had displayed no interest or ability in music. But from that moment to the present, he has performed before presidents and parliaments, before the crowds of the 2007 MILITARY WORLD GAMES, 2006 FIFA WORLD CUP and the 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES. He has traveled to more than 225 countries and is on pace to complete his goal of sharing the gospel in every country on earth in the next year or so. He has won renown by designing two guitars (The word’s first Bongo guitar and 54 string guitar, the “Bentar”). Today, through his music, Benny brings the Hope in God to thousands of people, traveling to 40 to 50 countries every year.
Benny says, “If I could be made useful, anyone in this world can. If my dreams can come true, yours can too. My sin and shame has been exchanged for righteousness and new life by the almighty God who died to set me free. For those with no hope, there is more to life than what today holds. I thank God that I did not end my life but rather chose to live through shame and failure so that today I’m able to be a blessing to the World. Remember, you are never too bad or sinful for God to redeem and transform.”
Benny is an absolutely amazing individual. I was enthralled by him and his message. His music is beautiful and he oozes creativity. He is also an extremely funny guy. He jokes about playing the guitar and sharing the gospel in places such as Libya, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Somalia even though it could have cost him his life.
Benny’s ministry website can be found at: www.bennyprasad.com I hope you get a chance to hear him some day. With all of his travels I am pretty sure he will be near you sometime soon!
Heidi Baker
I had the privilege over the weekend to hear Heidi Baker speak, in person, in Singapore. I only heard of Heidi Baker a few years ago when I heard stories that thousands of churches were being started in Mozambique. One of my great passions is church planting, so anytime I hear about thousands of churches being started I want to find out more.
I have listened to podcasts and watched DVD’s of Heidi ministering as often as possible over the last few years. The first time I saw her she was kneeling on the floor, hugging a microphone praying and teaching at the same time. My first thought was, “that is very odd”. My second thought was, “I would never do that; how embarrassing!” Later, after listening to Heidi, I found out that was the whole point: We can never have enough humility. Heidi has said again and again, “The only direction for a minister to go is down!” We are all in need of more and more humility. As we humble ourselves, God will do great things through us.
Mozambique has a similar history to Cambodia. It has a AK-47 on its flag if that gives you some idea of its values! Civil war has abounded as has communism, drought, famine and a culture of systematic abuse of its people, especially children. It was here that Heidi Baker and her family were called of God to go and serve. They had previously ministered in Indonesia and London and have been missionaries for nearly thirty years now. Their focus has always been the discarded of the society such as street people, garbage collectors, squatters and the poor.
She went to Mozambique about ten years ago after both her and her husband finished their doctorate degrees in theology. What was their first position after attaining such a prestigious degree? No, it was not First Church in some big city, it was not even a professorship as a prestigious theological institution, it was the garbage dump in Mozambique. There is but one direction a minister of the Lord needs to go: Down. The Bakers have modeled this with their lives.
Since then, what has happened? Thousands of miracles including the dead raised, blind see, deaf hear, cripple walk and even creative miracles such as multiplication of food. The by-product of a life humbled to Jesus Christ in utter dependence of him has led to now more than 12,000 churches started. More than 1,000 churches started among a people of a radical and violent faith. They are feeding and caring for more than 10,000 children in dozens of children’s homes in Mozambique and other nations in Africa. They are even sending people into Asia now as well.
Being a missionary myself, when I had the opportunity, I personally thanked Heidi for being a role model and encouragement to other missionaries like me. Serving far away from where we were born, speaking a new language and adapting to new cultures is very difficult. The times of discouragement and frustration often far outnumber the moments of joy. Heidi has seen more evil attacks than most. I have found in ministry, that the more fruit for the Kingdom a person has it seems they have an equal increase in attacks (both from non-believers and especially painful attacks from fellow believers). Many of her pastors have been killed; brutally martyred. She has had innumerable personal attacks on her, both physically and through media, yet she keeps a smile on her face and the joy of the Lord bubbling out of her. She knows there is only one way to go, down. As she daily humbles herself, she is compelled by the love that Jesus has given her for the poor of the world.
It seems an odd concept to be compelled by love, but as you look at the life of Jesus, the apostles and the Bible in general, you see the overarching theme is being compelled by love. Heidi and her ministry certainly have shown the power of love in their lives and it is reflected in their fruit in ministry.
Heidi Bakers ministry website is: www.irismin.org I would urge you to follow her example, as she follows our Lord Jesus Christ.
Northeastern Cambodia gets a lot of lightning strikes compared to the rest of the country. Every year in Kracheh province, dozens of people are killed by lightning. In our children’s center we have to take cover in the wood buildings to get away from lightning when it comes through. Each year I hear horrible stories of people killed by lightning. The worst story was from last year when three boys sitting watching TV in their little house when the TV antenna (permanently fixed to the roof) got hit with lightning. The electricity came down the antenna wire, through the TV and shot out of the TV hitting the boy sitting in the middle and killing him instantly. The boys on either side of him were completely untouched.
When I was in the T’moan village two of the boys were telling me about their experience a few months ago of being hit by lightning. Mien and Pun had just bought a second-hand phone. The tribal guys have figured out from talking to various wood cutters that there are certain hills in the middle of the jungle where one can get a cell phone signal. The T’moan village is nearly fifty kilometers from any cell tower, but there must be a microwave signal that is aimed through the jungle near their village because they can pick up a faint signal on the hillside.
So, one day in rainy season, these two guys were trying to call one of my other friends. They were standing up on this hillside. It was not raining, though there were some clouds in the sky. As soon as they dialed the number and picked the phone up to listen they got hit. Wham! Instantly everything lit up and they fell back as if hit by an explosion. They were in shock. As they tried to pick themselves up they looked around: Trees were burning around them, they were smoldering and they were trying to figure out what had happened. Apparently, the lightning hit multiple targets in one burst. The one lightning bolt set a tree on fire, burned three beams in a nearby house, and hit the two kids standing next to each other. The phone was obliterated.
They boys did not escape unharmed. Each of them, on one half of their body, lost their hair, lightly burned the skin, and both boy’s shirts and pants were burned and shredded.
I was amazed that they survived the lightning strike. I asked them about any problems they had noticed with their bodies since then, like dizziness or nervousness, but both report no problems at all. However, now they don’t go up the hill when there are clouds in the sky like they used too.
Then I thought about something. How many people do you know have been hit by lightning? Most people probably don’t know anyone. I know several. This made my curious mind wonder even further why I know so many people who have been hit by lightning.
Let me tell you some of the stories of people I know:
- Ang, one of our key regional church leaders, was hit by lightning. It was during a rain storm and he was standing under a tree to keep the rain off of him. Suddenly there was a bolt of lightning which hit the tree and flashed around him. The tree was left flaming and obviously took the direct hit, but Ang, apart from some light burns, was unhurt.
- Sareth, the director of our children’s center was hit by lightning. Sareth was driving home and a storm was approaching, but it was not raining. Suddenly he felt a shock and a flash around him. His hand was excruciating painful. The lightning bolt had hit his hand and continued down into the ground. Other than a painful hand for a while, he was alright.
- The Children’s center hit by lightning twice. Our children’s center has been hit at least two times. The first time the lightning bolt hit a tree and jumped to the roof of our toilet building. It has a galvanized steel roof. Inside one of the bathroom stalls at that time we kept a generator. It was not running at the time, but it fried the whole generator. We had to buy a new one as it was completely destroyed. Inside, the engine’s metal components fused together. There were children all around, but they were untouched. The bathroom was one of the shortest structures on the property as well. The second time the generator was again hit. Again, many of the children were within a few feet of the lightning strike. There were upwards of sixty kids around the area. At that moment the kids reported a massive bang like a bomb going off. They were all scared, but unhurt even though they were so close to the strike. Quickly they saw smoke and smelled a pungent smell. This time, when the generator was hit, it burst into flames. Beneath the generator we put an old car tire to cut down on the vibrations of the diesel motor. The tire was completely burned up and only a crumbly powder was left. In both cases, the children at our center could easily have been killed, yet they were completely untouched.
- The last example I have is none less than my wife and I. The Airplane that my wife and I were flying on was hit by lightning. It was March of 2000 and we were making our first trip to India. We were flying on a brand new airplane, a Boeing 777 belonging to Japan’s premier airline ANA. This plane was equipped with a nose-cone camera which was fascinating for me to watch. The clouds were amazing as we flew through them and could watch through the front mounted camera. Suddenly in the distance I saw a bolt of lightning on the screen and it was shooting straight for the plane. Instantly, the whole plane turned a blue color with a flash of this translucent lightning bolt. We were still cruising at a high altitude. Immediately after the strike, the plane descended and we were on the ground in only about five minutes. Apparently there was no visible damage and no one on the plane was hurt.
I think that it is amazing that I know so many people who have been hit by lightning. Each one of the people mentioned are people that love and serve God in great ways. To me one of the only ways I can comprehend so many lightning strikes on people I know is that the enemy wants to stop us from doing the Lord’s work. Yet, everyone I know who has been hit by lightning has survived with no lasting effects on their body or nervous system. This is a great miracle of God’s protection.
Note: I have written a book about the T’moan people and how they came to Christ. It is called “T’moan: Guardians of the Secret Temple of God”. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of this 170 page book which is full of illustrations, you can contact me and I will let you know how to order one.
If you could die for your nation, would you? I think many of you would. It requires an awesome commitment! The problem is that there are 238 nations in the world, more than 20,000 people groups so there are constant nationalistic tensions between everyone. Each of these 238 countries has their own idea on what is the “best” form of government.
I often think of what makes a nation strong and great. I would like to see Cambodia become a great and righteous nation. I would also like the see the United States continue to be powerful as well. Without studying history, or paying attention to the current news, you may think that all nations in the world have always existed and will last forever. In fact, the fall of great empires only takes a moment in the scope of history. I remember clearly the day the Berlin wall collapsed which marked the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union. This was once one of the most powerful empires in the world. I even saw my Dad cry as he watched the news, something which I rarely saw. In a matter of only a few months, the entire Soviet Union unraveled and vanished from the earth. In generations to come it will be reduced to a few paragraphs in a history book.
Where did nations come from? Do you know that previous to Genesis 11 and the tower of Babel, not much is said about nations. Language seemed to be unified and only after the separation of languages did the birth of nationalism begin. People spread out in the world and the clusters of people became unique nations.
In the Bible there were so many empires which were mentioned yet have vanished: There were Assyria, Babylon, Edom and Moab to name a few of the better known empires that no longer exist. There are also dozens of smaller countries such as Hurria and Akkadia which are not so well known and are gone forever. Very few of the kingdoms mentioned in the Bible have any relation to present nations. Egypt and Israel are the only two which are still represented in name, yet the form of government, much land they control, and even languages are different today than in ancient days. In our western history, we talk about nations such as Gaul and the Holy Roman Empire, yet neither exists today. The United States of America has only been a country since 1776 and the last two states only added about sixty years ago! In my life time I have seen nations such as Rhodesia and East Germany disappear and others such as Kosovo and Timor Leste appear. In present day Cambodia, former powerful nations such as Champa, Cochine and the Stieng Republic (I know you have never heard of them) no longer can be found because they have been assimilated by other more powerful nations. Monuments of an even more powerful civilization of the Angkor kingdom are present all around us in modern Cambodia, yet the glory and grandeur have never been repeated and their cities lost to the jungle for hundreds of years.
I am not smart enough to know what it takes to grow an empire to last forever, but I know that the one book that records so much about ancient history gives a lot of instructions about how to build a nation. The Bible, especially the sections of the Law of Moses (Genesis to Deuteronomy), have much to say about how God wants us to build a kingdom; His Kingdom. People keep trying to do it their own way. We have as many nations as ideas about how to govern them. The greatest empire to birth democracy, Greece, died long ago, yet to some democracy is the answer for a strong modern nation. Communism has collapsed, yet some still seek to re-promote them as the solution for societies needs. There are innumerable ideas of governance and nation building. Most of them have been tried, and failed before.
The Bible also records the future for nations. In Revelation it describes heaven by saying, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9). The nations are extremely important to the plan of God. He desires that all the nations will worship him. The Biblical word “nations” is actually the Greek word “ethné” which more accurately means “tribes” or “people groups”. Nations are made up of people. It is the people, not the form of government, which is more important. While nations rise and fall constantly, the people remain and regroup to form new governments with new names. These people and the nations they represent are crucial to the plan of God. It is God’s desire that all people, of every nation on earth, will worship him.
How do you build a strong nation? I have no way of knowing for sure, but it seems to me that the more people we point to Jesus the better chance we achieving what God has called us to do. There have been so many different forms of government in the modern world including: Authoritarian, Communist, Islamic Sharia, Dictatorships, Monarchies, Police States, Anarchies, Democracies, Oligarchies, Republics and so many other variations on each. It seems every national context has a different variation on the “best” form of government. Many nations which have long since died swore they followed the “best” form of government, yet with their demise proved they obviously didn’t. Today seems no different. In our respective nations, we seem so invincible and act as if our nations will live forever. Historically it has been shown since the beginning of time it only takes a moment for a once powerful empire to collapse into a distance memory.
In the book of Job it speaks of rulers of the world by saying, “They die in an instant, in the middle of the night; the people are shaken and they pass away; the mighty are removed without human hand.” (Job 34:20) When Satan offered Jesus the “kingdoms of the world” in Luke 4, it was so easy for Jesus to turn him down. Why give up divinity for something which will not last? Jesus has called us, His people, to establish His eternal kingdom: A kingdom, not of political persuasions, but of righteousness and submission to Jesus Christ alone. Nations of the world will come and go, but we need to keep leading more and more people, from all the tribes on the earth, to Jesus in order to accomplish God’s plan for the world.
Note: I know this blog is as heavy as a wet blanket. I ponder the idea of the Biblical Kingdom of God because I don’t want to simply treat symptoms of society’s issues, but I want to bring about real change to societies for the better. I am convinced the wisdom of the Bible is by far the best way. What does this blog mean to me: don’t get hung up on theoretical forms of government or nationalistic issues, but focus on people and bettering the lives of actual people. Nations come and go. Let’s build nations considering, with the best of our abilities and seeking God, the potential future ramifications and effects on the people. Why does it concern us? We are supposed to be ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, representatives of Jesus’ government.
I love movies. Anyone who knows me well will verify that. If I am in the Philippines (where movies are cheap) I can watch 3-4 movies a day no problem! The bigger the screen and louder the music the better the movie environment! I rarely watch a movie twice. I can only recall two off the top of my head: End of the Spear and The Mission. Both are about jungle tribes which is one of my favorite topics. Several years ago I showed the T’moan their first movie. I brought a generator, LCD projector and a bed sheet on my motorcycle and showed the movie on the side of a little house. We call it “Good News”, it is not a real Hollywood movie yet (a big budget version is in production called “Kingdom Come”), but it is a hack job of the Jesus Film, Independence Day, 10 Commandments and some 1970’s Adam and Eve flick. It is exactly one hour long and powerful! (I am not joking). If you have ever seen the Jesus Film you know that it is the story of Jesus’ life as told in the Gospel of Luke. So it is purely a historical movie. You can go away quite easily and have only a foggy idea of what the gospel is. So, some Japanese friends of mine (with some Scandinavian pirate blood in them) made this hack job movie to show people why Jesus was born and why we need him. It is clear, concise, and powerful.
It starts with a little boy looking up into the night sky filled with stars. He is pondering: “Who made all this?” Then it demonstrates creation and the variety of beautiful life we have on earth. Then it talks about sin and how sin has caused us to fall away from God. People even created their own gods out of objects such as wood, rock and gold.
Then it has a section about the basics of Jesus. He was born, lived a sinless life, went around performing many miracles and focuses specifically on what he taught. It climaxes with Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection from the dead. From here people now can understand why Jesus came to earth and why they need him. But it does not quit there. We know how it is all going to end: The return of Jesus. So using modern computer graphics you can see Jesus returning in the clouds with his angels to judge the world. This is where the movie Independence Day comes in: cities are blown up (they deleted the flying saucers and aliens), tidal waves and massive global destruction. It culminates with millions of people standing before the judgment seat of Christ. One by one the angels drag the people up to Christ’s throne to give an account for their lives. One by one they are thrown into a fiery afterlife. (Again, really cool graphics).
But, it is not over there. Those who have believed in Jesus, who have repented of their sins, are ushered into a life of peace in heaven with Jesus. It ends with the “Hallelujah Chorus” and everyone is thrilled. Computer graphics simulating heaven top off the movie.
Well, we had shown them this movie a few years ago, and they were begging to see it again. I only had a borrowed six inch portable DVD player with me, so I set it up on my truck. I plugged it into the cigarette lighter on my truck and about 150 people sat on the ground staring at a six inch screen for exactly one hour to watch the movie.
You may wonder what the result was. Well, they are already Christians, so I don’t think we had any new conversions. I know that it was a good reminder to them of why they need Jesus to forgive their sins and the importance of seeking righteous living. Also, those 150 tribal people living in the middle of the jungle sure had a fun time watching a movie on a six inch screen!
It is seven in the evening at the T’moan village. There are children playing outside running around little campfires. I am sitting in on a little log enjoying the nighttime noises with a little breeze keeping everyone cool. The temperature is good, the people are fantastic, and it just seems like a great end to a wonderful day among my favorite tribal people. It has been dark for about an hour and a half and we are fifty kilometers from the nearest light source.
I promise you, God put most of the stars right above the T’moan village. I remember God told Abraham that he would make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. If you can only see three stars, like I can in Phnom Penh, that is not all that impressive, but when you are in the T’moan village it is astounding. Just to tease myself I put my thumb up and tried to count the number of stars I could see with my naked eye in the area as big as my thumb. I gave up. Impossible. The harder I looked, the more I could see.
We had traveled nearly ten hours that day to finally get the where the T’moan people live. It is so remote. There is no road, but this time I wanted to try and take my truck. It is old enough, so I don’t care if it gets damaged (13 years old) and built for tough conditions. It was slow going, but we were going. Every second of the trip we were getting jerked left and right, up and down as we bungled down the trail. The dust we were kicking up filled the sky like a light brown cloud. In ten hours I only used first and second gears so we had to travel so slow. Without a four wheel drive vehicle we never would have made it. Only one time did I high-center the vehicle on a mound of dirt, but after a bunch of pushing we broke free and kept going. My hands started cramping up after four hours and by nightfall I could hardly open them straight because I had to grip the steering wheel so hard. Every inch of my body was sore from the rough trip, but I was also dirty.
After it was dark we headed down to the river of God to bathe. The water temperature was perfect: not to cold and just right. The water was still flowing, though in the deepest part it was only about five feet deep. Most of the river was just about a foot deep as it gently flowed toward the Mekong river. We only had two small flashlights between us (you know those cheap LED ones made in China) and they kept going out because of shorts on their internal wiring. At one point, we had no light and I noticed something I had never seen before. All around the water’s edge and some in the stream, were little glowing dots. Once we got a light back on we saw they were little glowing worms. Amazing how God made those, they worked better than our flashlights! Adding to all that nighttime beauty were hundreds of little lightning bugs blinking away as they shot around the sky.
The complexities of life always get stripped away when I am with the T’moan. I have no internet access, Facebook updates to ponder, blogs to write or schedules to figure out. The only thing I have to do is enjoy God’s creation around me and fellowship with my good friends, the T’moan. How I wish, some days, that life could be simple like that again. When all the busyness fades away it is so easy to just focus on God and his splendor. Because he put all those stars over the T’moan village, it made me take time to just enjoy what he created. Sitting along the River of God I basked in God’s handiwork: the stars, the glow worms, the lightning bugs and most of all the people that he loves called the T’moan.
A T'moan Girl
January 7 is a great day in Cambodia. We call it “Bram-pi Makara” in Cambodian. If you are going to celebrate anything, January 7th is a good day. January 7th is the day that Phnom Penh fell to the Cambodian and Vietnamese army setting the way for fall of the Khmer Rouge. Better yet, it was when my wife, Noit, was freed from the Khmer Rouge!
On January 7, the Khmer Rouge began leaving the area where my wife was held in Northwest Cambodia and taking thousands of Cambodians with them. My wife, about 15 years old at the time, was rounded up with a bunch of other children. They had nearly completed building a water canal and in typical Khmer Rouge fashion would be executed after each finished project. They told them to hike west to the mountains that were visible in the distance. You obeyed or died. Upon arrival most of the people would also be killed. My wife headed out, but halfway through the day she became homesick. Not really homesick, because she didn’t have a home, she was living in a grass hut with no walls for nearly four years. She slept on torn grass mats right on the dirt each night. She was so skinny, all you could see was bones on her skeleton. She weighed less than 60 pounds (25 kilos). For the last 3 years, 8 months, and 21 days. . .a day etched in the minds of every Cambodian over forty years old. . . she had lived off of 1 cup of rice a day, divided between 22 people. She missed her mother and wanted to try and find her.
- Noit Today
As she ran away from her group, she knew it would be a death sentence if she was caught. She just kept running to get away. Something was pulling inside her to get away. She eventually came to a large road. It was deserted. She huddled in the bushes to rest.
Then she heard a sound: A strange roar coming from down the road. For nearly four years she had seen no vehicles nor heard an engine roar. She was petrified. She peeked down the road to see what was coming. A line of military vehicles with light skinned soldiers was coming. She cowered in fear. They stopped next to her. They were Vietnamese soldiers.
They simply said, “You can go home. The Khmer Rouge are gone.” It was over. January 7, 1979. 31 years ago.
Over 3 million Cambodians died, but my wife was not one of them. She was not one of them because of January 7. Some young people say we should not celebrate January 7 because it also symbolizes the day when the Vietnamese occupied Cambodia. But we remember January 7 because of life that began again on that day.
“If there was no January 7, there would be no Cambodia today.” –Prime Minister Hun Sen, Commander of the Cambodian forces.
Since I started blogging back in October 2009 I have noticed a common theme: Life Sucks! Every day it seems I get confronted with so much hardship: Poverty, orphans, starving kids, homeless, beggars, AIDS, sickness, bombings, killings, rape, oppression, injustice and even demon possession. So much of what happens every day I don’t even bother telling you, because it would get you depressed! I should be crazy or had a melt-down by now if you believed what Shrink’s say!
So how should I respond to all this stuff?
Option One: It is easy to just stop at “Life Sucks” and then wallow in despair and self-pity, or
Option Two: I could gloat and become arrogant because my life is better than some other poor sucker.
Option Three: I could just close my eyes, get a HD TV with 500 channels and ignore the pain in the world. I could also good job with stable mildly wealthy people (I am sure they have less problems)! I am sure that dream world exists somewhere!
Well, I cannot ignore people’s pain, and if I did, I am certain I would go crazy. I hope I will not become arrogant and I have my wife to put me in my place. I don’t really want to be depressed, it is pretty tough to climb out of that hole. . . I’ve been there before! Some days I have just have no answers for people pain.
So, I guess I only have one more option: Do my best and trust God. I cannot be the savior of the world. Jesus volunteered for that role. I cannot fix poverty for the whole nation of Cambodia, nor the political and economic mess of America. I can affect my own attitude and the lives of a few people around me! So even if I only can help a few people I guess it is better than the other three options.
Considering the overall theme of my Jungle Adventures blog, it is pretty clear that my life is certainly a wild adventure. Through my trust in Jesus I have hope for Cambodia and hope for the world. So I am going to have as much fun as possible in the face of the world’s reality and do my best to change it into what God desires! Some of the coolest and most inspiring things I have ever experienced had nothing to do with traveling through the jungle and meeting new tribes, or visiting different countries and experiencing their cultures; no, the best thing is when I do something which changes someone’s life for the better. Sometimes it is huge: like helping a kid graduate from High School and go onto college (and he is the first in his village or tribe to do so). Or other times it is as simple of giving away pieces of cake to kids who never knew what a birthday cake tasted like. Either way they are happy and both of our hearts were blessed too.
Life sucks, but it doesn’t have to suck all the time! Jesus is in the business of using people like me and you to help others get out of their despair. So I’ll just keep doing what he wants me to do until everything gets better! Life doesn’t suck, it is just an opportunity to help people smile!
I the last few days I have driven from far northern Cambodia until the southern most part; well over 700 kilometers one way. I have just returned minutes ago and taken the car to the shop to replace the brakes. The mechanic is usually the first stop after each week’s trip. I am always aware of the constant poverty in Cambodia, and on this trip, covering some 8 provinces on the western side of Cambodia I found myself unable to help people time and time again. The site of poverty is all around us. Some think there is poverty in America, some would say there is poverty in places like the Philippines and Indonesia, and I am sure there is, yet here in Cambodia I come across people in almost hopeless situations every single day which I rarely see in other countries. Starvation is still a realization for many millions every day here.
- In one province, last week, I had to turn a girl down from coming to our center because she was simply too old (16 years old). All she wanted to do was go to High School. She had gone to live in a church in the city, but then she got raped by the pastor. I wasn’t able to help her. She may never finished high school because I could not help her.
- In another town I met two boys walking on the street collecting bottles and other potential recyclable materials. I started up a conversation as I gave them some coke and water and found out they do not know where their parents are and they live alone (all under 10 years old) and just collect people garbage to try and sell for food. They only eat once a day, on a good day. They downed a whole coke in seconds. I couldn’t help them, but to offer then a coke and water.
- I met two street kids while swimming in a swimming pool. I am not sure how they got in to the hotel but they just wanted to chat with my son and me. One said, she dreamed about being able to ride on the hotel’s elevator. Before you knew it the security knew they were in the hotel and ran them out. I couldn’t give them their dream of riding on an elevator, nor get them off the street.
- I met many staff working in resturants and cleaning hotels. Many get sexually abused, but these are almost the “lucky ones” because at least the have some income, even though it is only enough to provide food and some basic clothes.
- I passed a factory which is now running smooth and making millions of dollars selling sugar. More than 500 people lost their homes and farmland to the factory and the wife was even allegedly guilty of murder and no one ever charged her because of their status. The people who lost their homes and land just live in grass huts along the road. I could not help them.
I have been studying the Old Testament lately in an effort to discover more clearly for myself what God’s plan is for a country like Cambodia in which sin, greed and poverty abound. In the law of God it says, “ 4 However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. 6 For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you. 7 If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. 8 Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.” (Deuteronomy 15:4-8) The solution for poverty is to give. We give Jesus, but we also give opportunities to as many people as we can, especially the orphans and widows, because they don’t have anyone to help them.
The one thing that gives me comfort while living among such poverty is that I was able to help about 100 kids this week have an opportunity to get education, eat good food, and have opportunities that all the other people I met could probably never even imagine. This week we enrolled 8 more kids into school and gave them a new home, beyond their wildest dreams. I sure wish I could help more people. As we start this near year in 2010 my resolution is to help as many people as I can come to Jesus Christ and through his love for them receive opportunities which are beyond their wildest dreams. The more I can give to the poor of Cambodia, to help them in their daily struggles and give them a better life, the faster Cambodia will break the curse of poverty and become a righteous nation.
