“What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? “ June 12, 2018
His benefits toward me are enormous!
Coming away from PYC last Sunday, I was constantly thanking the Lord for sending me there. He knows just what I need and just what everyone else needs. However I received 10 times more blessing than those youth got from me! They call older women, like me, “Mom.” I think that is so wonderful because that makes all of them my children, and if they are all my children, then they must know how much I love them each one! They touched my heart as never before, and gave me so much joy and encouragement. How I miss them all and hold them in a very special place in my heart. I can still hear those young people pray and sing like the angels sing in that big prayer room! How I miss united prayer every morning with Gem Castor, as we were brought right up into the throne room of God together!
Coming away from that mountaintop experience we dove to BYT and right into the valley of difficulty! Rainy season in BYT Mountains has hit us instantaneously and with a vengeance. Driving rain is incessantly beating down upon us here in these mountains for over one week now. We are not ready to give up the truck yet because we took a lady, ThuCah, to MaeSot for cataract surgery last week and now we need to bring her back for a recheck. Also I have not stocked up with medicine and food supplies to last us through the rainy season. We are praying to be able to drive the truck out and back in one more time.
Today part of the mountain slid down upon our house in the back, filling the ditch and starting to enter the back door! We have been fighting with the mountainside and shoveling mud and water all day in an effort to stop the flood of water, and mud threatening our house! When we finally finished moving the mud, lo and behold more of the bank broke loose and slid upon our house again! We began the process all over again. We have been soaking wet for hours, and covered head to toe with mud!
Our gravity water flow to our house also filled with mud and then stopped entirely. Our drinking water, which is filtered through a small portable cylinder, is a little brown and hard to drink!
Thankfully we can now drink clear good rainwater! Later we had to go and clean out the large tank, on the hillside, which is supposed to bring water to our house. However the problem is further up the mountain at the water source – perhaps a landslide. No water for now. I really do not want to bathe in this muddy river!
And still the downpour continues! The sweet little river that flows gently over the rocks has become a monster, rising up to reach the flimsy footbridges. The angry water is dragging huge tree trunks with great force and speed through the turbulent currant.
We drove the motorbike to WST for our usual worship at BeKee’s house last night. Our worship was cut short because of the deafening roar of the wind and rain! Even with raincoats on we were soaking wet and timid to cross the river twice by motorbike on the small footbridges. Now we know we cannot cross this river with our truck. It would easily flip over in the depth and force of this currant.
Many large trees have fallen across the roads making it impossible for even motorbikes to get around. Also landslides have totally covered the roads in places as well so it seems we cannot go anywhere for a very long time! Thank you Kelly Bolton of NY and friends, who have supplied us with good food for the rainy season, and for Elani and Brendon Dodd who brought it to us! We will not starve! THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!
We pray that ThuCah will suffer no bad effects for missing her follow-up appointment in MaeSot hospital. We pray that more than the restoration of her physical eyesight, that her spiritual eyesight may be opened to receive the “Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!” This is our earnest prayer!