Chi Phat are has a church built there but nothing really going on at the present time. Bo and I asked about that when we came through in April 2015 and were told that a Korean group had built the Ch. The theory is that if you build it, the people will come. That has not proven to be true in practice though. There is some thought that Chinese business folks have discovered Titanium in the Chi Phat region and are planning to mine it out of there. This is supposed to be a protected area for eco-tourism, but this may be out the window if there is money to be made in titanium mining.
We pr’d at Chi Phat, Sre Ampel, the Wat at SA, and the mountain top at the shrine of Yeah Mao.
We met with the Cox’s in Koh Kong. Checked on their dog that had a deep skin infection. We went and had breakfast with Chris and he talked about how slow things were going for them there in Koh Kong. He asked about hiring a police officer that is a believer. Chris is thinking that he could be a lot more effective if he hired someone to help him evangelize.
Dave E encouraged Chris not to hire the officer as an evangelist, but to encourage him to do ministry from his position in the police dept. If Chris were to hire him away from that job, then he would actually be hurting long term ministry. Dave told some stories of how it took some people that he had hired 10 years to ‘recover’ from the effects of being hired to do ministry work before they were back on their feet and doing ministry again. Dave recommended the officer to use his skills and talents to minister right where G had placed him and to be a positive influence on those around him in the police dept. By hiring him, Chris will marginalize him and not have as great a long term influence.
This is somewhat difficult as Korean M’s have come in and hired away some of the folks in the village that had regular jobs. These folks were hired away from working in the groups started by Jeff Hogue to work with the Korean groups. This is a frustration that Jeff had expressed in the past.
