The Longest Ladder

Image courtesy of Nattavut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Harry, Gary, and Larry were walking through the woods one night on the way to their favorite fishing spot.  Suddenly they stumbled upon an old, abandoned mine shaft, and all three of the friends fell through the rotten wood and crashed to the bottom.  Having managed to survive the fall with just some bumps and bruises, they were soon peering up at the small window of light above them.  It was a 50-foot shaft, but it might as well have been 1,000 feet. 

“Oh, great!” groaned Gary.  “How are we going to get out of this mess?”

“I don’t know” replied Harry.  “I’m just glad our gear fell down here with us.” And with that, he grabbed a slightly dented can of beer from their now-broken ice chest.  “No reason to let a little thing like this keep us from having a good time.”

“C’mon, Harry!  Are you nuts?”  This time it was Larry speaking.  “We’ve fallen into an abandoned mine shaft, and all you can think about is your beer?” 

Harry sneered, “Well, what are you suggesting, Mr. Know-It-All?”

“I’ll tell you what I’m suggesting” said Larry, “I’m suggesting that we’ve got a big problem, and we better get busy if we want to save ourselves.”

“What do you have in mind?” asked Gary.

Enough To Go Around

© Anatoliy Babiychuk | Dreamstime Stock Photos

In 1980, Cambodia was just emerging from one of the most horrific periods of time that any nation has ever endured. Between 1975 and 1979, the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, under the leadership of the infamous Pol Pot, abused the Cambodian people in a way that is hard to describe and even harder to comprehend. An estimated 2 million people died either of starvation, malnutrition, or disease or were killed outright by the Khmer Rouge. When the North Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge in 1979 (or at least drove them out of the highly populated areas and into their jungle hideouts) they assumed by default the responsibility of picking up the pieces of the Khmer Rouge's razing of the country and its people. I recently read an account of that time in Cambodia's history and the difficulty that was faced in getting emergency aid distributed to the people, and it gave me some things to think about with relation to the Great Commission.

Rats in the Rice

When the Vietnamese rolled into town, their first task was dealing with the starvation, malnutrition and sickness that abounded on every hand at some of the greatest levels ever seen in modern history. Sadly, when foreign aid and relief began to come flooding in, they had a very difficult time getting it properly distributed to those who were in need. Ships waited for weeks to dock and unload, because of the interminably long time (mostly due to inefficiency) that it took to unload each ship. Once rice and other aid was unloaded, the distribution was just as bad, if not worse. Various aid organizations had donated 1,100 trucks for delivering food and relief supplies, but they were misappropriated, kept mostly around Phnom Penh and used for transporting people. Meanwhile, the stockpile of rice and other food items was getting infested with rats as it sat undelivered. Journalist Henry Kamm went on a 500 mile journey on the main roads and saw only 3 of the relief trucks. Every time he stopped in a village, he was told the same story: very little rations had been delivered and no seed at all. Mr. Kamm told of meeting a 25 year-old man who pedaled his bike for two weeks from Kampong Cham province to Phnom Penh in search of rice. With 80 pounds of rice strapped to his bike rack he began to push it back home. His family was waiting, he said. Instead of distributing the relief supplies and food, certain people at the top of the "food chain" were hoarding it. High ranking Cambodian officials were eating very well while the rest of the people were still starving. Many who had enough for their own family seemed unconcerned with the plight of those who had nothing.

"If King George Possessed Your Hearts"

I recently read the book "Marion And His Men" written by John De Morgan in 1802. It is the story of American Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, who was also known as "The Swamp Fox." Marion both made his mark on the Revolutionary War and earned his moniker by his fighting tactics. He and his band of men were too outnumbered to launch a full-scale attack on the British forces, so instead they dwelt in the swamps of the Carolinas and employed guerilla warfare tactics to buy more time for General Washington. The opening line of one of the last chapters tells the whole story in one line: "Day after day Marion and his men so thoroughly harassed the enemy that Lord Cornwallis was put to his wits' end to circumvent the Americans."

Near the end of the book there is an account of a conversation that took place between Marion and a British officer who had been brought blindfolded into their encampment to work out the details of a prisoner exchange. When the meeting was over and the British officer was preparing to leave, Marion insisted that he eat a meal with them. The man was famished (the British were on limited rations as well as the Americans) so he accepted the offer. He assumed, as did many, that the patriots were living off the fat of the land; thus he was disappointed to see that their entire dinner would consist of some roasted potatoes. The patriot's cook pulled a potato from the fire, blew off the ashes, and offered it to the British officer on a piece of bark for a plate. The man tried to eat the potato, but without butter or salt he found it to be tasteless and sat the bark plate down. The conversation that ensued gives us a glimpse into why the patriot's fought, but more importantly, it provides a standard by which we might measure our fervency as soldiers of the Lord.

The Worth Of A Soul

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26) The implication of this verse is quite stunning really. You may gain all of the wealth, riches, and treasure that this world has to offer, but if in doing so you lose your soul, then you ultimately are the loser. That is the worth of a soul to one's self. But what about the worth of a soul to God? The soul of a man is worth enough to God that He was willing to give His most precious possession, His only begotten Son, in order to redeem that soul from Hell. The worth that God places upon a soul is undeniable and undebatable. But what about the worth of a soul to you and me? I mean, how much is it really worth to us in terms of time, effort, and money to see that a soul has had every chance to not only hear the Gospel, but come to Christ?

It is one o'clock in the morning, and I can't sleep. I received word tonight that a cancer-stricken woman out in the village where we have a weekly ministry just passed into eternity. I am happy that 11 days ago she placed her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, and I am thankful that her pain and suffering are now over. Several of us visited her this past Saturday while we out in the village, and she was in horrible pain. Since then our prayer has been specifically that God would just take her home quickly, and I am relieved in my spirit that tonight He did just that.

As I meditate upon this precious soul who has passed into eternity tonight, little memories keep popping into my mind. Little things that perhaps seemed insignificant at the time, but now in hindsight I believe they played a huge role in bringing this woman to Christ. Although I have known her for about nine years, I am unsure of her name. It is very common here in Cambodia to call someone by a familial title and not their actual name. I call her Ohm (an older aunt). Here are ten factors that I believe ultimately contributed to the salvation of Ohm's precious and valuable soul. Perhaps these thoughts will encourage someone to keep sowing the seed, keep watering the seed, and not be weary in well doing.

That's Forgiveness

On Sunday nights I am preaching verse by verse through the book of Ephesians. Recently I preached from verse 7 about forgiveness of sin. While trying to come up with a good illustration of Biblical forgiveness, God brought a memory to my mind of something I had seen a couple of years ago here in Cambodia. This illustration is about an old train that looks kind of like the one pictured above.

Over the past 20 years, many families (most of them poverty-stricken) have built small houses and shacks along each side of the tracks where the train slowly rumbles through our city. When I say along the tracks, I mean that literally. In many of the houses you can stand in the front door and touch the train as it passes. The railways in Cambodia are in a state of great disrepair, but still the train (an engine pulling a few cars) comes through these neighborhoods periodically. Sometimes it comes several times in one week, and other times it may be a couple of weeks between trains. People have ropes and awnings strung across the tracks where they have set up small market stalls, makeshift restaurants, and laundry lines, and they have to move those things out of the way if a train comes through. When they hear the train coming, they usually have about 2 minutes or so to clear the tracks.

Farmer Fred and the Three Visitors

     Once upon a time there was a farmer named Fred. Farmer Fred lived on a small farm in the heartland of the United States and had been farming for years. He understood the hard work and investment of time that was required to grow a crop. He also knew that from time to time because of a freeze, a fire, a tornado, or a drought, everything would be destroyed and he would have to start all over again. He understood and accepted that fact, because he knew that farming wasn't done in a day or a week. He knew that farming was a lifelong work, with success being the sum total of daily labor and long-term tenacity.

     One day a man dropped in for a visit with Farmer Fred. The visitor smiled real big, extended his hand, and said jovially, "I'm Big Bob". Then after a few moments of casual conversation, he got right to the point.
     "Farmer Fred," he said, "I admire your work, but it just seems so small! You know, years ago I farmed a little plot like you. I had my little farm, complete with a little red barn, a cute little silo, and a little farmhouse with a little picket fence. I grew some green beans, some corn, and a few acres of wheat. We were happy there for awhile. God was blessing our farm. But one day the thought hit me: My little 100-acre farm is so inconsequential! There are millions of acres of ground all over the world that need to be farmed. I figured if reaping a harvest on 100 acres was good, then reaping a harvest on a million acres would be outstanding!"

     While Farmer Fred was standing there listening, he was feeling a strange mix of emotions - a slight tinge of regret for the relatively little he had to show for his years of farming, and at the same time a growing admiration for this man with such a grand vision. He wanted to know about this "million-acre farm".

     "So what'd you do next?" he asked.

The Fun Train

I was very excited today to get our new book, The Fun Train, back from the printer. This book is a parable about life and eternity, and it's purpose is to make people stop and think about where they are going. I came up with the idea for this story several years ago while soulwinning along a railroad track. I asked one of the men in our church to draw some pictures to go with it, and his 30 black and white drawings made the story come alive. Normally our tracts have lots of words and few pictures. This parable has lots of pictures and few words. Our church people are really excited about giving it to their friends and relatives, because they think the story and the accompanying pictures will catch their attention. Many Cambodians do not have a very high level of education, so we feel it is important to utilize the method that they will most readily understand. 

I would like to especially thank three people who worked many hours to make this book possible.

1. Kang is a good man in our church who also happens to be an artist. I led him to Christ about 8 years ago, and he has certainly used his artistic talents for the Lord. 

2. Karona is a woman my wife and I led to Christ about 7 years ago. She did the initial translation of this story and then we worked together to get the translation fine tuned. She is a constant blessing in our church with her desire to serve the Lord.

3. Adam Wood is a fellow missionary here in Cambodia. He has the computer skills that I lack, and I appreciate his willingness to jump on board and do all the typesetting and layout for this project. 

Here is a synopsis of the story:

Who Are You Holding On To?

I took two of my daughters, Deborah and Emma, with me on the moto the other day to make a visit. All of the kids love riding the moto with me, and since they have all been riding since they were toddlers, they are pretty comfortable with it. While we were riding, one of them made a statement which really got me thinking.

But first, a word about the different ways that passengers ride motos here in Cambodia. I have noticed that while virtually everyone here is comfortable on the back of a moto, there are different ways that people ride. 

First, there are the clingy riders. Oftentimes the really young kids are the clingers. I have seen motos go zipping by with a little girl behind her mom or dad just hanging on for dear life. Sometimes their eyes are wide open and slightly terrified, and sometimes their eyes are squeezed tightly shut as if they are concentrating intently on not falling off.

A New Grandpa

A Story of Sowing and Reaping in God's Field

I would like to share an email written by a good friend of mine, Missionary Rodney Ruppel.  This is a great story.  It blessed my heart tremendously, and I believe it will be a blessing to you too. 

Dear Friends,

This past Thursday (July 29, 2010), God gave me the privilege of leading a man and wife to a saving knowledge of Christ.  Samnang and his wife Sokhom both have a 40 year history of God planting Gospel seeds in their hearts. 

Sokhom had been to church in the early seventies before the Khmer Rouge took control in 1975.  During that same time Samnang was travelling in and out of the country studying at universities abroad.  Though he had not made room in his own life for Christ, his brother accepted Christ and became a pastor for an evangelical church.  That brother was then murdered by the Khmer Rouge during their regime. 

A Christian nephew who started pastoring in the province during the nineties coupled with radio ministries in Phnom Penh continued to water the seed of God's Word growing in their hearts.  Samnang and Sokhom turned away from Buddhism and started to search for the truth.  Through Bible reading, visits from Mormons, listening to the radio, and talking to Christians they realized that there were many different denominations in Christianity and were confused about where to go to church.

Just last year a new missionary family, the Carlyles, rented a house across the street from this couple.  The Carlyles were a great testimony to them and quickly won their trust.  Since brother Carlyle is still in language school, he introduced them to me in order to finish the task of explaining the Gospel.

Sometimes we plant. Sometimes we water.  Sometimes we reap. Sometimes we do all three.  Surely, God is involved in every step of the miraculous process.  What a privilege it is to be one of many labourers over a 40 year span.  So much the more, what a privilege it is to be a labourer together with Christ in bringing in an eternal harvest!   

Please pray for this couple to continue to come to church and become committed to church.

Please pray for their discipleship as I start this Tuesday explaining the wonderful relationship that they have just begun.

Please pray for their 3 children and 2 grandchildren to be saved.  All of them live with Samnang and Sokhom. 

In the field,

Rodney Ruppel

If you will read that story slowly and carefully, you will notice some beautiful jewels buried in the details.  Let me share a few of my thoughts from this story.

I'm With Him!

A devotional thought from the streets of Cambodia

Driving in Cambodia is a challenge, but you don’t have to be here long to pick up little “tricks of the trade”.  One of the techniques which I employ often is something which I call the “I’m with him” approach.  Let me explain it.

Imagine you are on your moto trying to turn left onto a major road.  There are no traffic signals or stop signs and there are not sufficient breaks in the traffic for you to cross over and get onto your desired road.  When I say a major road, I mean 4 lanes.  But don’t confuse 4 LANES with 4 LINES of vehicles!  If all you had to deal with was 4 lines of vehicles (2 moving in each direction), that would be simple.  But considering the general disregard for lane markers AND the fact that you can fit 3 or 4 motos in one lane anyway, this 4 lane road actually has about 10 or 12 different rows of traffic at any given spot on the road.  (And it is not the case that on THIS side of the road everyone is going one way and on THAT side of the road everyone is going another way).  So…you get the picture.  Getting your little self out into the middle of the action where you need to be can at times be a bit difficult.

There are three basic ways to cut through the traffic.  One is to sit there like a good, sane, meek, law-abiding citizen, waiting for the proper break in the traffic so that you may drive across the flow of traffic while making a slow, safe, gently-curving turn onto your desired lane.  I tried that once.

The second way is to drive down the left shoulder, against the oncoming traffic, waiting for a little break in the traffic through which you may catapult yourself.  That works better than the first way, but it is a bit more dangerous than I usually prefer.

The third way is my favorite.  You look for a large vehicle (big SUV’s work well, but so do trucks and buses) that needs to make the same turn as you.  The big vehicles are not intimidated in the least by the scene that lies before them.  They just charge in, and miraculously the traffic opens up as easily as the Red Sea parted for Moses.  So the smartest thing you can do is get on the right side of the big vehicle and borrow his size and strength.  Hence the “I’m with him” technique.

Last week as I was in a swirling sea of traffic, about 12 inches off the right rear quarter panel of a big, black SUV, suddenly the thought occurred to me:  “I’m with him” is a good SPIRITUAL principle too!

How Long Is Your Spiritual Attention Span?

My son came to me the other day and said with a slight whine in his voice, "Dad, can you make church not so long tonight?"

  

"Why?" I asked.  

"Because I always want to fall asleep!" was his honest reply.  

I answered, "Well, son, the people who come to church come to hear a message from the Bible, so I cannot promise that church will not be long."  Of course, "long" is a relative word anyway.  Our service lasts from 6:00 to 7:30 on Thursday nights.  Shorter than a movie or a ball game, but nonetheless to a 4 year-old, it's long!

About an hour later, he came to me and said, "Did you decide yet, dad?"

"Decide what?"

"If you could make church not so long tonight."

"Well, I already answered you, son."

"Oh."

But apparently he heard what he wanted to hear and not what I said.  Later in the day he told his sisters, "Daddy is going to make church not be so long tonight."  One of the girls said to me, "Is that true, daddy?"

"Is what true?"

"Stephen said you're going to make church shorter tonight."

"No, that's not what I told him."

Cool?!!

I picked up a copy of the Phnom Penh Post today.  I usually don’t buy this paper, but this one had an 8-page insert inside, a “magazine” for Cambodia’s youth.  The topic of this particular issue:  youth and religion.  On the back page, one of their reporters (I think he either IS cool or was trying to BE cool…not sure) wrote an article called “5 Cool Things”.  I think the point he was trying to make was that there are cool idols, icons, and items in every religion.  In fact, I think by recognizing 4 of the world’s main religions, he was trying to say that it’s cool to be cool with religion.  Gettin’ chilly yet?

Besides learning how cool religion could be, I also picked up some good news and some bad news out of this article.

Insurance In Cambodia

I read an interesting article last week in The Cambodia Daily. The headline was “Insurance Industry Still in Its Infancy in Cambodia”. It didn’t come as a surprise to me to learn that there are only six operating insurers in all of Cambodia. Actually, that’s more than I expected. Basically nobody here has insurance of any kind even though several kinds of insurance are available (motor vehicle, fire, etc). But I did discover a piece of information of which I had not previously been aware. Even if a person wanted it, life insurance is not available in Cambodia at all! Here is an excerpt from the article:

Although companies can theoretically apply to the Ministry of Finance to acquire a license for life insurance no companies have yet decided that it is a product they want to offer Cambodian customers. (The Cambodia Daily, April 8th, 2010)

As I continued to read the article, I saw that there were a couple of underlying reasons which kept the six insurance providers from wanting to offer life insurance. Both of their reasons struck a chord in my heart. Their first reason bears a stunning resemblance to the difficulties that Gospel-preaching churches face here in Cambodia. But their second reason is exactly the opposite of our situation! Let me share the two reasons with you.

Soggy Cereal

I despise soggy cereal!  

When I was a kid, there was a grandmotherly woman named Mrs. Shelton who would sometimes care for us if my parents were out of town.  She had a very effective way of getting us out of bed in the morning.  She would turn on the bedroom light and sweetly say, "I just poured the milk in your cereal."  About 3.5 seconds later we were at the table eating breakfast!

My own children now hate soggy cereal as much as I did back then.  But recently we had a "soggy cereal" incident which taught me a very important spiritual truth.

Firefighting in Cambodia

In the past few weeks, I have read two articles in a local newspaper about firefighting woes in Cambodia.  Both of these articles caught my attention because of the parallels to the missionary work in which we are engaged.  Let me share a brief excerpt out of these two articles in the hopes that they will challenge you as they did me.

The article which I read today had this headline: "Not Enough Fire Trucks To Save Market From Fire".  It talked about a big market fire in Kompong Thom province in which 160 of 360 market stalls were destroyed.  As they interviewed officials, a major problem became obvious.  Here is an excerpt from the article.

"We don't have enough fire trucks to put out a major fire," said Chhou Sam An, provincial deputy police chief, who noted that the province has only two trucks. After an hour of battling yesterday's fire, officials sent for three more trucks from far-away Siem Reap province, but the flames had been contained by the time they arrived hours later. Chan Kimseng, director of the Ministry of the Interior's Weapons Control and Firefighter Department said he was aware of the problem, but that the government simply does not have the resources to purchase fire-fighting trucks. "We don't have enough fire trucks to meet the demand," said Mr Kimseng, who noted that there are 90 trucks for the entire country of 14 million people. (The Cambodia Daily, March 3, 2010)

That's quite a number...90 fire trucks for an entire country of 14 million people!  But as I considered that ratio the thought occurred to me that it is probably not much different than the ratio of Gospel-preaching missionaries to the general population in many countries around the world.  There is such a tremendous need all around the world for additional laborers for the harvest.  Men are dying without Christ, and there are just not "enough 'fire trucks' to meet the demand."

Christians Who Aren't Bored With God

One of my favorite things about serving the Lord as a missionary in a country that does not have a Christian heritage is that virtually everything in the Bible is new to the people. Sadly, many Christians who grew up with the Bible eventually got bored of the Bible. I don't think it has to be that way, but oftentimes it is.

Our church in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is not large, but the people whom God has allowed us to reach...my, how they love the Lord and His Word! Recently a missionary friend came to me and explained that he was working on putting together an exhaustive Bible concordance for the Khmer Bible. I wouldn't even know where to begin on a project such as that, but my friend had a computer program (and the brains to know how to work it) which would help him make the concordance. But he needed some help. The printed Khmer Bible has many differences from the digital Khmer Bible when it comes to the spacing of the words, and this was messing up his attempt to do searches on the various words. He needed a number of Khmer believers to volunteer their time to compare every single verse in the printed Bible with every single verse in the digital Bible and mark the differences in the spacing. Now, doesn't that sound like exciting work?