Micah, 16. Working with the Karen on the Maynmar border of Western Thailand.
I would like you to meet my son Micah right here on my web page. Later he will begin his own web page because he has big plans to work for God here in this country. He would like to take local medical training and more medical missionary training, learning hands on with me and at Sunshine Orchard. Later he would love to manage one of the clinics we plan to build up in the jungles surrounding BYT.
Presently he is the driver for the Sunshine Orchard School, along with many other responsibilities. He supplies the school with food and bottled water, drives patients to the various hospitals and studies his own school subjects. He is learning more and more of the Karen language in reading, writing and speaking. Already the students, teachers and villagers he communicates with, think he knows the language fluently and they love to chat with him. It always amazes me, when we must communicate with the Thai people how many Thai words he can speak. He always seems to get his message across and the Thai people are thrilled to hear the Thai words that he knows. Micah greatly enjoys the variety of each new day, handling the ever changing circumstances of mission life. He is very adept at making do with less and solving problems in creative ways, using whatever is available.
My son Micah will now tell you one of his many exciting stories:
“It’s A Boy!”
“One hot, humid, sweltering, day during the rainy season, when the sun was trying to shine, I was playing volleyball with the students at Sunshine Orchard. Suddenly one of the teachers came running up to me with wide eyes saying, “Quickly Quickly Thara, a lady is trying to have a baby!!” (Thara is the Karen word for teacher). Fortunately she was in the closest village to us, only about one kilometer away. I quickly ran to my small bamboo hut, changed my sweaty clothes, grabbed my bag and hopped into the truck. As the teacher and I got to the pregnant ladies house, it was clear to see that we didn’t have much time to get to the hospital. On a normal day, the closest hospital is 30 minutes away and I could tell that we didn’t have that kind of time! Anyway I had to go, because my Mother was already gone with another patient. 4 other village women got into the back of the truck with the laboring woman. They said, “Le, Le, Le!” meaning, “Go, Go, Go!!” I heard nothing from the back of the truck for half the trip, but suddenly I heard, “Tee Thibpa Lee!!” meaning, “The water has just broken!” Now I knew we wouldn’t make it to the hospital in time, but they told me to drive even faster because they had no supplies. I noticed that the once calm ladies in the back were now appearing very nervous. In a very short time they yelled to me, “Boqua – O Da Ple Lee!” Which means, “A baby boy has arrived!” But they still wanted me to drive even faster – so I did! The rest of the trip went quickly – like a blur to say the least! We made it safely to the hospital in 18 minutes instead of the usual 30 minutes. As we arrived at the hospital doors, I breathed a silent prayer of thanks! I let the nurses do the rest, they jumped in the back of the truck, clamped and cut the cord, carried the healthy looking screaming infant inside and placed the Mother on a stretcher. It appeared to me that both Mother and baby boy were alive and fine.
I praise the Lord that He has helped me rise to every occasion and He has and will supply all my needs.”