We have 2 Philippine girls with us for 4 days this week. We have sure put them through a lot because it has been busy. On the first day we went to NeLeeGwee village to treat the sick and teach them about God, the next day did not go as planned we had to make an emergency trip all the way to Omkoi with a 28 year old BYT girl, ChiYe. She is a very close friend and new church member. I had taken her to Omkoi 8 days before and the doctor ruled out cardiac disease and lung disease, so he thought it was thyroid. However she went into a crisis this morning with severe chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness and fainting spells – hence the emergency trip to Omkoi, (My worst favorite place to go)! The winding, rotten road seems to go on forever! They could not find out her problem so she was taken on to a larger hospital in ChiangMai. Now we wait anxiously and prayerfully for news about her.
The next day, (Friday), was already scheduled to take 2 ladies to Meta hospital for cataract surgery. Once in a while an Ophthalmologist surgeon comes to this small hospital and can do simple surgeries there. We had high hopes that these ladies could receive their eyesight again. What joy that would be! We had 2 other patients that day also. So the Philippine girls, BletJhaw and I, plus a caretaker for the cataract ladies, and 4 patients equals 9 people in all on this trip.
We were in the midst of a sea of people at Meta that day.
The 2 ladies were checked and indeed needed surgery, but because of the huge number of people needing surgery, they were referred to MaeSot hospital one month later. After seven hours in that hospital we are ready to go home. We all piled in the truck to return to BYT.
Surprise! A thunderstorm struck after we hit the shortcut! This shortcut is extremely dangerous when wet. BLetJhaw struggled at the wheel. At one time we went sideways down the slope and almost hit a fallen tree. Thankfully it could have blocked us from going down the cliff! We could not make it any further and had to leave the truck and walk a long way home in a torrential downpour. I felt so sorry for the 2 ladies who could not see well. One lady could hardly walk on the flat surface of the hospital. When she had been checked she could not even tell if the man had 1-2-or 3 fingers in front of her face, let alone down all these steep hills in the mud and rain, plus it had become very cold. Torrents of water was exploding down the steep grades with great force. Our feet fought with the water and were slipping and sliding in all directions. Everyone made it home finally, praise the Lord.
One of our visitors preached the sermon the next day.
They both had a good spirit and put up with all the hardships without complaint! I don’t think they will forget the experiences they had in the jungle mountains last week!
