Ted Olbrich White Paper
Table of Contents
Background
Cambodian glory came early in history. From AD 900 to AD 1300, the time of
the construction of Angkor Watt, Cambodia was the dominant power in S.E.
Asia. From that time onward Cambodia has been in constant turmoil with more
powerful neighbors to the east and west, Vietnam and Thailand. It was
pressure from these neighbors that drove Cambodia into a colonial
relationship with France, which lasted for about 90 years ending in 1953.
For the next 17 years Cambodia enjoyed a brief period of peace known as the
"Sihanouk time".
Tragedy was set in motion when the U.S. invaded Cambodia in 1970 in order to
facilitate their extraction from the politically unpopular war in Vietnam.
This led to the U.S. backed Lon Nol government being established in
Cambodia. With the final U.S. withdrawal and North Vietnamese triumph in
1975, Cambodia was left to the mercy of the communist victors;
unfortunately, they had none.
Enraged by five years of relentless U.S. bombing the Khmer Rouge took out
their pent up hatred upon the Cambodian population. From 1.5 to 3 million
people died out of a total population of 9 million under the Pol Pot reign
of terror. Pol Pot sought to set up a communistic agrarian utopia. All
modern development was considered counter revolutionary and eliminated.
Cities were evacuated and schools, hospitals, water and sewer systems,
libraries, factories, bridges, hydroelectric dams and irrigation systems
were systematically destroyed. Cambodia went from being one of the most
developed countries in S.E. Asia to the least in 5 years. The Vietnamese
invaded Cambodia in 1979 to stop the genocide. This led to continual
fighting with the Khmer Rouge, with Vietnamese dominance of the population
centers, for the next ten years, ending only when the Vietnamese benefactor,
the Soviet Union, disintegrated in 1989.
Various factions fought for control of Cambodia until the United Nations
intervened in 1992. A UN supervised election in1993 placed the Royalists
under King Sihanouk's son Ranariddh in power but Communist leader Hun Sen
refused to yield to the election results. As a compromise a three-headed
coalition government was established only to be overthrown in a Coup de'tat
in July of 1997 that placed Hun Sen in absolute control. Presently, Prime
Minister, Hun Sen is moving the country toward democracy. The greatest
obstacle to this is the established corruption and cronyism of the existing
leaders and the absence of the "rule of law". At the present time in
Cambodia, the rich and the powerful rule, although steps toward democracy
are occurring on an increasing basis.
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Current Realities
A) There is relative freedom to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the
exception of arbitrary government, "Requirements". These are not born of
ideological beliefs as much as from greed and political pressure from the
Buddhist majority.
B) There is a hunger within the people for spiritual truth. The tragic
events of the past 30 years, and the failure of the current value system to
bring any kind of equity into the lives of the vast majority of the
population, have left people searching.
C) Christianity is rapidly growing in Cambodia. The Foursquare Church grew
from 1 to 42 congregations during the first 9 months of 1999.
D) The rampant, "Wild west" capitalism of the past eight years has left
Cambodia to be run by the will and whim of the, "Robber Baron" rich.
E) Extreme poverty has driven many reproductive age women into prostitution
as a survival tactic. In Cambodia this profession lacks the social stigma of
Western cultures and is frequently patronized by the men.
F) Cambodia has the highest H.I.V. infection rate in Asia with 100 new cases
per day in 1999.
G) Constant warfare between various factions over the past 30 years has left
many areas of Cambodia virtual, "Landmine Gardens". There are an estimated 1
to 2 million active landmines in Cambodia. One in every 243 Cambodians is
permanently disabled due to a mine.
H) A.I.D.S., landmines, poverty, poor health care, war, childbirth
complications and malnutrition have produced a disproportionate number of
orphans in Cambodia. Deaths from A.I.D.S. alone produced 43,000 new orphans
by the end of year 2000. The extended family system that has traditionally
absorbed these orphaned children can no longer handle the supply. In
addition, the temptation to, "Sell" orphaned children by impoverished
relatives, is making family placement risky.
I) Approximately 85% of Cambodians are rural and agrarian. The Government is
by far the largest non-agrarian employer. Soldiers, police, teachers and
civil servants are paid from $16-30 per month. It takes from $50-150
(depending upon location) per month for a family to survive in Cambodia.
Incomes for government employees must be supplemented. Some employees have
second or even third jobs but more have developed innovative methods of
income enhancement (graft). Police collect fines on the spot, teachers
charge students for instruction, and civil servants collect "fees" for
services rendered.
J) More than 80% of Cambodians live below the international standard for
poverty. "Land grabs" by the rich and powerful coupled with drought (1998),
flooding 1996-97), medical emergencies and economic depression have forced
many rural Cambodians to sell land and left the vast majority destitute.
K) The "Patronage" system of corruption infects the nation from top to
bottom. Many benevolent organizations have left Cambodia in frustration over
their inability to establish any kind of self-policing system of governance.
Even the family system has been compromised by the selling of children,
especially young girls, who can bring up to $700 when sold into the brothel
system.
L) The value system of Christianity and the centralized polity of the
Foursquare Church have endowed it with a core of honest, dedicated leaders
eager to demonstrate the love of Christ, and a governmental system capable
of dealing with lapses of integrity when they do occur.
M) There are several Non Government Organizations (N.G.O.'s) in Cambodia
willing to work cooperatively with other groups when they can provide
leaders of integrity to accomplish the organization's stated goals. Often
there is an overlapping of purpose and areas of shared mission between
organizations.
N) There is a willingness of certain individuals, charitable organizations
and foundations in the developed nations to fund the care of orphans if they
can have confidence that their gifts will be used for the intended purpose.
O) The Foursquare Church has established a nationally recognized N.G.O.,
"Foursquare Children of Promise", dedicated to planting churches, the care
of orphans, and developing an economic and agricultural base of support for
the people of Cambodia.
P) Every Church in Cambodia faces the challenge of a "spiritually hungry"
population, the extreme poverty of the people and the increasing number of
orphans. Very few Cambodian churches own a meeting facility.
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Observation, Truth, Assumption & Conclusion
Observation:
Human existence consists of three aspects,
body, soul and spirit. God created all three to function in harmony as a
unified whole. Current missionary efforts in Cambodia, as a reaction to the
past error of establishing dependency building material aid centers at the
expense of proclaiming spiritual truth, have shunned ministering social and
material aid to the Cambodian people. The result has been an anemic church
with spiritually informed but skeptical and impoverished believers. The
church has left the economic and social concerns of the Cambodian people to
secular agencies, which have often conflicted with church teachings due to
differing value systems.
Spiritual Truth:
… "I will build my church; and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it." (Matt. 16:18) The promise of Christ for
triumphal power against the forces of darkness in this world rests only upon
the church. No other institution on earth carries this guarantee. In
addition, God is especially interested in some specific social activities
for the church, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless
is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep
oneself from being polluted by the world." (Jas. 1:27)
Assumption:
God wants to bless Cambodia. Jesus
proclaimed: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to
preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to
proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19) This message has not
lost its potency in 2000 years. The concept of "Gospel Lift" is more than a
"Warm fuzzy" from some optimistic preacher, it is the truth of God
intercepting human reality.
Conclusion:
The "Church" must be proactive in
developing spiritual life through the proclamation of the Gospel but at the
same time work in cooperative effort with other dedicated organizations to
bring holistic health to the body of Christ, specifically to build strong
families, assist the orphans, widows and impoverished and thereby
demonstrate our love for the total person body, soul and spirit.
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Rationale
James 2:15-18
"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of
you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does
nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by
itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say,
"You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will
show you my faith by what I do." (NIV)
Vision
To establish and build the Church of Jesus Christ in Cambodia by proclaiming
the truth of the Gospel and by demonstrating the love of Christ in practical
ways.
Mission
To establish and build the Church by proclaiming and demonstrating the
Gospel of Christ to the holistic community through ministering spiritual,
social and material truth to the Cambodian people.
Spiritually, this will be accomplished by evangelizing and training the
people in Christian truth and by equipping "called" spiritual leaders from
among them to plant new churches.
Socially, the Gospel will be demonstrated by teaching family values and
strengthening existing family structures, according to Christian principles,
to eventually absorb homeless children. In the interim the church will be
proactive by, feeding, housing, loving, and training orphans, building
facilities, and assisting destitute widows.
Materially, the Gospel will be demonstrated to those without clothes and
daily food by assisting them with the establishment of self-sustaining
agricultural enterprises. City dwellers will be assisted through appropriate
cooperative training opportunities when available.
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Approach
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Plan
Spiritual Social Economic
A) Spiritual:
The Cambodian Foursquare Church seeks to follow the pattern of
Spirit-empowered church development found in the book of Acts. The plan is
to strategically follow the four-stage pattern of church development as
adopted by Foursquare Missions International. (See appendix A). Emphasis
will be placed upon the following areas for 1999-2001.
1) Training pastors and church planters through the establishment of a Bible
School with a short-term "church Planting" emphasis.
2) Develop lay leadership through training sessions held regionally on a
periodic basis.
3) Plant Churches as leaders are called, identified, trained, dispatched and
equipped.
4) Mobilize church members with an evangelical outlook and mission.
5) Demonstrate the Gospel through the Holy Spirit empowered ministry of our
Lord.
6) A major focus of the teaching of the Cambodian Foursquare Church will be
on strengthening family values and teaching Christian principals of
compassion, with a goal of eventually equipping church members to absorb the
supply of homeless children.
B) Social: "Suppose a brother or sister is
without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you
well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs,
what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied
by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I
do." (NIV)
1) Every community is faced
with the problem of orphaned children.
2) Often widows are destitute and uncared for.
3) Family structures, devastated under Pol Pot, are not strong enough to
absorb the homeless children, children are frequently sold or abused.
4) The church is generally poverty stricken and unable to adequately care
for the children in the congregation let alone build a facility for church
meetings and the care of orphans.
5) Benevolent organizations are willing to help with the care of orphans but
difficulty with corruption make oversight of funds a nightmare.
6) The Church will partner with organizations like Warm Blankets Orphan Care
International, International Cooperating Ministries (ICM), Children of
Promise (COPI), Kids for the Kingdom and others to construct church
facilities to give a more permanent physical presence to churches in each
community.
7) The church has dedicated clergy who subscribe to ethics of integrity.
Win - Win
When congregations sense the will of God to
care for orphaned children, the Cambodian Foursquare Church provides
pastoral leadership and disciplined oversight to establish an orphanage
within the local church setting.
The Cambodian Foursquare Church recognizes that the "Family" is the God
given and ordained structure for child rearing. The problem in Cambodia is
that the supply of orphans, the extreme poverty of most families, the
temptation to sell unwanted children, and the devastation of family values
under Pol Pot have rendered family units incapable of meeting the demand.
Children of Promise, ICM, Warm Blankets Foundation, Kids for the Kingdom and
other benevolent organizations provide funding for the monthly support of
orphans and the construction of facilities. The local church supplies
leadership and a dedicated staff and benefits by being able to demonstrate
the love of Christ in a practical way and by meeting in the orphanage
facility.
Widows are housed at the orphanage facility as staff members and given food,
clothing and a meaningful job. The children receive Christian care and
upbringing and the church realizes a debt free facility (see appendix B).
The donor organizations have assurance that their funds are used properly.
The community benefits by receiving care for orphaned children and by
experiencing genuine Christian love. The nation profits by the development
of stronger families, citizens with Christian values of compassion, and the
development of emerging Christian leaders.
C) Economic: Most of the Cambodian people are
agrarian (85%) peasants; more
than two-thirds are illiterate and the majority are landless. The
introduction of modern agricultural practices and improved livestock
varieties through the proven techniques of Heifer Project International
along with micro-enterprise development business practices allows the
community to become self-supporting and empowered to reach out to help
others.
Win - Win
Heifer Project International benefits from finding leaders of integrity to
watch over the funding of their project (appendix C). The church benefits by
breaking economic bondage and dependency of the members and by teaching the
concept of the tithe (i.e. If you have ten pigs to sell one belongs to God).
The community benefits as trained members "pass the gift".
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The N.G.O.
Foursquare Children of Promise (F.C.O.P.) is a nationally recognized Non
Government Organization (N.G.O.) licensed to operate anywhere in the Kingdom
of Cambodia by the Department of Social Welfare and the Department of Cults
and Religions. Specific authority is granted to:
1) Plant and develop churches.
2) Aid orphans.
3) Establish schools
4) Drill wells
5) Provide for agricultural and economic development.
6) Construct facilities as needed to carry out mandated responsibilities.
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S.W.O.T.
Analysis
(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
Strengths:
This plan:
A) Builds strong, healthy, self-governing, self-supporting and
self-propagating churches in Cambodia.
B) Contributes to the development and training of church leaders.
C) Builds the church by demonstrating the love of Christ to the Cambodian
people in a manner that fulfills a requirement of "true religion". James
1:27
D) Gives the church a debt free meeting facility.
E) Involves the local congregation in a participatory level. They provide
labor and service as they sacrificially give themselves to the care of
orphans.
F) Helps the Cambodian government by assisting in meeting an expensive and
embarrassing need - the care of homeless children.
G) Allows the benevolent donor organizations a high degree of confidence in
the proper use of funds.
H) Develops a renewable and sustainable economic base for the congregation.
I) Teaches the concept of tithing.
Weaknesses:
This plan is:
A) Subject to the uncertainty of foreign benevolence.
B) Subject to the favor of local and national government officials.
C) Subject to the integrity of leadership.
Opportunities:
This plan has the potential to:
A) Develop 50 strong, healthy, reproducing congregations over the next three
years.
B) Provide for the care, education and Christian upbringing of 2000+
homeless children in Cambodia.
C) Provide for the development of a trained clergy.
D) Provide for the economic self sufficiency of church members.
E) Assist the Cambodian government in meeting an urgent need.
F) Fulfill the mandate of God.
Threats:
This plan is vulnerable to:
A) The discontinuance of foreign support.
B) Government graft and corruption.
C) Governmental politics and control.
D) The failure to maintain a high level of integrity.
Summary
The Cambodian Foursquare Church recognizes that this is a departure from
"Business as usual" for Foursquare Missions International and suggests that
this plan be implemented as an experiment for the next three years subject
to annual evaluations of the effectiveness of the plan in reaching stated
goals.
It is the opinion of The Cambodian Foursquare Church that the "pendulum" of
missiology has swung too far in the direction of indigenosity so as to
neglect the social and economic aspects of church health that may be beyond
the reach of an impoverished people. It is the intention of this experiment
to bring balance between the essential aspects of evangelism, compassion and
development in terms of growing healthy churches.
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