|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is what we get to do but let me be clear, we are not here in Asia because it is fun. It seems everyday takes more than 24 hours from my life. It is sometimes rewarding. Most frequently depressing. Everyday we see struggling people seeking hope and often looking in the wrong places. This is what God has prepared and given us to do. We are his hands and feet mentoring the next generation to become the changers in their own world.
Here is our story. The motivation and commitment have only grown stronger. One life at a time we see change. We see hope rising.
This is Thoeun Chanta who has emerged from extreme poverty to build a sustainable business to support his family and become influential in his community. He loves God and credits Him for showing the way to become a community light. He makes jewelry from brass ammunition parts. Discarded brass. Truly a “waste to riches work”. Check FB at Angkor Bullet Jewellery Cambodia for sample photos of this beautiful work. Support for him like support for us, advances the Gospel in Cambodia.
Please consider becoming a part of our team. Help us advance with greater vigilance and intensity.
The work is not done.
The sun rises and sets, the rivers and lakes rise and fall with the rains, birthdays and anniversaries pass; many things go unchanged in a world wrestling with the fear of a war, politics and pandemics.
Children laugh and play as usual. Until they don’t.
The threats and actual harm that come to children at the hands of adults who should be guarding and nurturing them is an atrocity. It is not a new thing. It has happened for generations. It is multiplied where the Gospel is absent from the lives of the adults. Where communities value pleasure more than worship of the God who created man (and children) in his image. When the Gospel is shared and absorbed the care of children increases and thereby their safety. The Gospel has the power to change lives.
Minimization of the importance of the church and is a threat to the serious nature and necessity of knowing Christ. This is a serious threat to the spread of the Gospel. It is not just knowing ABOUT HIM but actually repenting of sin and knowing him. We simply have to help native believers share in their own culture and language the hope of Christ.
Thank you for being a part of our advance into places where the Gospel is absent and children are abused.
These folks have an eagerness to engage. The anticipation of hearing hope. The witness of a life changed.
This is what happens within the workplaces and schools we are honored to be a part of. We get to see it and be a part of it. We try to bring that story to you but, it would take far more than a thousand words to paint the clearest picture of the look of a new life. The teams that have come to work with us can testify to the direction to transform lives. One life at a time we engage. One life at a time we see change.
Everyday the Word is shared. Everyday the seeds go a little deeper. Everyday there is a witness of the power of Christ to bring new life. This is the work of IncurableFanatics and we appreciate your prayer and financial support of the work as new life spreads within the community.
Be a part of what God is doing.
Built to be a brothel. But God..,..
What if the owner of this building had fulfilled her plan of opening a large brothel with over 40 “guest” rooms rentable by the hour? This community is overflowing with vulnerable children whose parents work in nearby garment factories barely earning enough to sustain day to day living. When cash is short, selling kids is frequent. The supply of victims is abundant. The shortage of cash is constant.
What a joy to be serving God in this community! Actively involved in the prevention of human trafficking and the restoration of victims and their families, the Livingstons (a/k/a IncurableFanatics) started and now serve as mentors in a rapidly growing (400+ student) Christian school for at risk children and their families. Bible instruction, teacher training, life skill mentoring, parent education and leadership development are their emphasis. A community where the lights are bright on the outside but nearby the darkest of atrocities are acceptable practice.
In addition, the Livingstons are working closely with Cambodian artists helping them form profitable businesses based biblical principles. These become influencers and form the basis for new school/church plants.
They begin to take charge of sharing the Gospel and seeing it change their own community.
Through the work of @IncurableFanatics (FB) and local Khmer leadership, a small Christian Fellowship has been planted at the school where last month 8 prayed to receive Christ and were baptized! This is why we do what we do. This is why we seek continued and new partnerships with like minded and committed believers.
We cannot express sufficiently our gratitude for the support of IOM (International Outreach Ministries International Outreach Ministries) and our own Advisory Team. These seasoned church and missions leaders believe in what we do and provide assurance of accountability to our donors. This is an integral part of being active on the mission field. And to our donors. Your investment in lives is bearing fruit. We thank you.
Blessings to you from Pete & Debbie, IncurableFanatics.org
Your donations are tax deductible and fully accounted for through IOM. And of course greatly appreciated.
The primary purpose of man, of the life of man, is to glorify the One who created it and saved us for his purpose.
That thought is certainly not new to me, so I claim no authorship or bright insight to have expressed it. But…..
This thought has so captivated me that it has altered the course of my life, my work, my joy.
So, in believing this so deeply, I cannot carry it simply as an academic or intellectual truth. It compels me to think and dream and plan for how I can use my life each day to spread the greatest joy to the hearts of those who have not yet discovered this for themselves. It drives me to act every day.
Debbie and I share this passion and this in itself is a joy. To share a vision with your covenant partner in marriage adds both excitement and ease in decisions.
In April, we will return again, as the government permits, to our beloved friends (family) in Cambodia to walk with and beside them in the work they are assuming to change their communities. Make their communities where kids are safe because the value of human life is viewed thru the lens of Scripture.
Cambodia has not embraced the Gospel for a long time but just a few weeks ago celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first Christian movement in the country. Awareness at present is very high as there was a country wide celebration and major event in the capitol, Phnom Penh. The opportunity to press into this culture is at present, uncharacteristically open. We want to sieze it more deeply with expanding our work to increase educational opportunities through opening strong academic Christian schools.
We have a working model. We want to seize the expansion opportunities now open to us.
If battling human trafficking is more than a fight against an atrocious social injustice, if it is a sign of broken people, broken families, and broken societies where the Gospel is absent; join us in this fight.
We are not slowing down. We are not giving in. This is our God given purpose and passion – helping families live for the Lord. Where communities become safe for children. Thru micro businesses and education we help local leaders and believers change their own world.
If you can, donate to this work on a monthly or one-time basis. DONATE here.
We are not slowing down.
One of the works of Incurable Fanatics has been to train and empower local leaders, those who suffer with the bad and rejoice with the good right in their own neighborhood, to stop the circumstances of child trafficking themselves. Say NO, and then put action to the words.
At New Vision School Cambodia this is what these young leaders are doing. Changing their own lives and building a better future for the children in their community.
Covid 19 hit and the tuition stopped because jobs stopped. Jobs stopped because factories closed. Many schools went bankrupt in short order. Many closed and terminated teachers. At New Vision School, the work is not just about the classroom. It is about changing their world. So the teachers went on 1/2 salary but kept working so they could keep track of the children, their safety and provide at home lessons. All while no tuition was being received.
But generous donors stepped up to form a bridge to help them continue on. And they have.
And they want to say thank you. Watch the short video. It is a real THANK YOU.
If you would like to support the work, tax deductible donations are received DONATE HERE
Watch VIDEO LINK: New Vision School expresses huge THANK YOU to donors
When God decides he is moving, look out he will exceed your expectations.
If you support us, read here about the extraordinary model for spreading the Gospel God dropped on us. If, after reading this you want to be a part of this extraordinary model, you can DONATE here.
Our intention in Cambodia was to be seed planters and ground cultivators. We never set out to be harvesters. That does not mean we were not evangelistic. Quite the contrary. The Gospel has always been the primary motivator but assisting the local people harvest has always been and continues to be the vision of Incurable Fanatics. We do not report “decisions”. We report disciple makers and disciple making environments. Functions and people ministering to their friends and neighbors. Planting, growing and harvesting among themselves. This was the vision God gave to us.
Wow! He has exceeded our vision to make sure his vision goes on.
Our role has shifted from instigators to planters to mentors to coaches to advisors to consultants and now resourcers and idea planters. We remain connected and available but constant presence is now in their hands and the blossom of this fruit looks delightful.
At the school, affectionately called ”Purple School” in the community, staff are discipled 5-6 days per week in ongoing biblical training written and used by Debbie with the first staff group. The teachers then impart that biblical foundation into a growing group of students now exceeding 260. And that training is happening 5 days a week 8-10 hours each day in each subject. The kids are in school all day because their parents are at work in garment factories 10 hours a day. School is their safe place.
The level and intensity of discipleship is Thank previously unknown to me. It truly is a Mighty Work of God.
We also work in the community with local believers to advance micro-businesses so that they can secure more reasonable income. A more reasonable income means they can afford some tuition for their children and this in turn grows a self-sustaining school.
Join us in the next phase as look to start the same school and business program in another at-risk community. Help us help THEM deliver the life saving FREEDOM offer of the Gospel. DONATE here, tax deductible.
Five years ago we set out on a journey to change lives with the Gospel as the essential tool in our tool box and broken education and job environments the workplace that was sending children at a horrendous rate into human trafficking – not by their choice, but as slaves. It took us two years to gain sufficient context and language understanding to see exactly how God had prepared us to bring transforming opportunities to those affected and to do it so that God is the one who is glorified when the captives are set free.
Now we have seen his transformation take shape. We have seen local leaders rise up and take charge and bring change. The joy that surrounds these “change managers” who understand that education and job opportunities alone are only the beginning, that real change only occurs with the Gospel, these are the folks who will change their world.
We are merely their mentors. (Read Isaiah 61)
We are eager to see this movement grow. But to do it we need financial seed to get more classrooms opened and hopefully new schools started. Each classroom modestly equipped, staff trained and started. We have a financial, model now proven, in the first school and want to repeat it to create a dynamic interacting brotherhood of schools all focused on the Gospel.
We have three driving directives:
1. Glorify God
2. Teach about God
3. Witness about God
Each of these gets flooded daily into the staff and student of the school. It is 8-10 hours a day of discipleship into newly trained teachers who in turn witness into the lives of the local children who also hear and live in the Gospel environment 8-10 hours every day of the week. Disciples making disciples who witness in their community.
Here is a picture from the front of Purple School. It is the first and now clearly demonstrated model of a school established to be self-sustaining and it is growing rapidly both in enrollment and in influence.
Now, we have been offered another site to start another school using the same model.
It takes seed funding to make this happen. We need deposits, desks, chairs and marker boards. Supplies and start-up staffing costs. The model is designed to result in self-sustainability inside of 2 years. The first school is well ahead of the target. We have learned a lot. We have demonstrated a lot. And the reputation has now resulted in invitations to start new schools in communities where children suffer both financial and educational poverty and therefore are susceptible to human trafficking. The work we are advancing is a game changer. The people we work with are community changers. They are all in with the power of the Gospel.
Consider being a sponsor of this work. All donations are tax deductible. DONATE HERE
Share this link with your friends. Tell them to join you and get on board.
For short term work projects, contact us.
I have lost a big piece of my heart. Hopefully only temporarily. Or perhaps I have found that a piece of me has been deposited in hundreds of young people whose destiny has been redirected in the work of God for them.
Oh my! What could have been that likely for them now will not be. The future for many of these kids and their families has been diverted by God intervening to establish something for their benefit and long-term growth.
And Debbie and I have had five years to witness and participate in the move.
For a farmer, it is the seed that bares fruit. It is what is inside the seed that brings forth the crop. Fertilizer does not yield fruit. Irrigation does not yield fruit. Tending to the weeds and chaff does not yield fruit. Only the seed has the power to yield fruit, the rest is just assistance. God is bringing forth the fruit!
For us, we have been like the fertilizer or the field tenders who pull out weeds. Carefully we have instructed, mentored and showed the way to a new generation of “field tenders”; but this next group of farmers are home grown and have risen up from among the people to whom they will now lead.
We will depart Cambodia to assume a different kind of role with these young leaders. We will still advise but now from a distance. To truly take hold of the opportunities and conditions of their country, to rise into leadership so that the work becomes self-sustaining and self-perpetuating, we have to step back.
I confess that this is very hard for us. Not that we lack confidence in those now leading but because we have laid ourselves out without holding back for five years. The work has consumed and enriched us simultaneously. We have found new weaknesses in ourselves and new strength in God as we lean into an lay hold of the Truth of his plan. Stepping back means not seeing daily people we love. Not soaking in the hugs of children who demonstratively love on us even more than we have loved on them.
The time has come to watch the harvest field grow its own crop. Time to see those who have been shown how to lead be given the opportunity to lead.
We aren’t disappearing from the work. We are merely stepping into roles that let those with talent, dedication and now experience assume the roles God has for them. Leading their own village work and changing their own communities.
We are NOT EXITING the work. Please stay with us and say what God will do next. We have one new school site already ready to assemble. Site selected, now we just need the seed finances to get it moving to self-sustaining and perpetuating. JOIN us in this next adventure. DONATE HERE
Stay tuned in for what we are calling the “PURPLE SCHOOL PROJECT”. Your tax deductible donations will help us repeat the process we have begun.