Welcome to the Hope for Komar Foundation, Inc. Web Site!
We are helping orphaned Children in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand through a network of missionaries, churches, and relatives offering food, shelter, clothing, housing, education, and an understanding of the gospel.
In 1992, twelve years after learning the Cambodian language and eleven years after marrying a widow and becoming an instant father of two young boys from there, I arrived for the first time in what's become my second homeland, Cambodia. My first encounter on the streets of the capital, Phnom Penh, was with a dark, thin woman in dusty, tattered clothes. By appearance she was about as pathetic as any person I'd ever seen in my travels around the world until that time. She immediately approached me, probably because I was the only white guy getting out of a vehicle in a place where Westerners were so rarely seen. I don't recall speaking with my colleagues, who were all Cambodian, but it didn't seem to matter to her whether or not I understood what she said to me. As if making some kind of offering, she pleaded with me as she held up an object wrapped in her krama, a scarf commonly used in Cambodia. As she spoke to me it didn't take long to realize that the bundle she was offering contained her most precious treasure of all, a child. I didn't know how to respond. It was one of the most awkward moments I've ever experienced. It seared a lasting impression on my heart.
When I returned to Cambodia years later, each time I'd see a child on those same streets I'd wonder if it was her child. Then one day I stopped for a moment to reflect on the words of the King's Speech. By that I don't mean the words from the Academy Award-winning film's screenplay. What I mean is what Jesus said of a day when He, the Son of Man, will sit upon a throne in all His heavenly glory, surrounded by a host of angels. There He describes how He as King will separate some sheep and goats. It's clear that He's speaking figuratively, not of real animals, but of human beings just like me and you. He's saying that in the end what will divide two kinds of people on that day is not their racial and cultural differences, nor even their religious affiliation. In Jesus' words, it's simply a matter of how they've treated those among them whom others have overlooked and ignored (Matthew 25:40, The Message). When referring to specific ways in which we have or have not treated or cared for and about them, the King then emphatically says, that was me!
Whenever I reflect on those words from the King's Speech, I realize that it doesn't matter whose child I might happen to see in the streets of Phnom Penh. Even though I believe its true that in one sense we're all His children, there's something even more important than viewing each child as being the King's child. Each time I think of the infant offered to me that day in 1992 - or for that matter of any person anywhere who's been so sadly or injustly overlooked and ignored - I realize that in spite of appearances this is not only one of His children. It's the very King Himself! He's set aside His glory and stepped down from His royal throne. He is wrapped once more in swaddling clothes as He enters my world as humbly as He did that night in the little town of Bethlehem. When I think about this, I am in awe. A few questions then come to my mind. They're deposited somewhere deep within my heart: What will I do for the King of glory, the One whose glory though hidden from most is now truly present here before my eyes and must never be overlooked and ignored? What kind of gift can I offer Him? What will I offer to Him? According to King Jesus, the way each one of us answers those questions makes all the difference, not only in this world but also in the one which is yet to come.
In part, I believe, the Hope for Komar Foundation provides an effective and meaningful way of answering those questions here and now. It is my sincere hope and prayer that in the faces of the children of Southeast Asia who are being loved and assisted by us you will see the face of our King. If you look closely enough, I'm sure you'll see a striking resemblance. You may even see, as I have, that indeed each of them is truly Him. What gift will you offer Him?