The day began with ominous clouds and occasional thunder. We had to go to WST (WaSuTa) to do an early morning worship for the son of an SDA family who was being drafted into the army. I had prepared intensely for this worship, as I felt he would meet many temptations of the devil, and I wanted to encourage him to stand firm for God. On the trip back to BYT a big snake slithered out in front of us. (We were on the motorbike). Was it poisonous? I don’t know.
The rainy season has been long and difficult. For 6 months we were unable to drive our truck into BYT. This means we can’t bring in a lot of supplies each time on our motorbike. Only what I can put in my backpack and BletJhaw can handle in the front, plus the treacherous everlasting MUD! MUD! MUD!
We have been very busy in the clinic, as the rain and clouds seemed to give everyone tonsillitis, asthma, bronchitis, and chronic coughing. Finally we had a break in patients and we packed quickly to drive the motorbike all the way out to purchase supplies. With the heavy patient load we had exhausted our supplies. We wanted to hurry because the clouds were hanging low over the mountains and should we get caught in the rain, it would give us a tremendous struggle up and down those steep mountains. Finally we got out of the rutted bad pathway and reached the concrete. Going faster, it was more dangerous when we passed 2 cobras trying to get warm on the concrete! So many close calls make us acutely aware of the presence of God. His hand seems to be laid on my shoulder much of the time! He brings so much peace and love to my heart and there is so much more that I have not tapped into! Oh the sweetness of His presence!!!
On one of the dirt road turn offs, we met a 2WD truck in trouble. The man had never travelled this way before and thought this pathway would take him to the next village. He didn’t know how impossibly steep it was and that it only goes to a cornfield. Now he was stuck. He couldn’t go forward as it became exceedingly steep, and he couldn’t back out as his back right tire was just spinning and the rubber was wearing off the tire as it screamed and smoked and spun in the rocky dirt. We stopped to help, but there was only that man and his wife, an old grandma, and 4 little boys! BletJhaw and the man tried many things, but were powerless to get the truck out! I felt so sorry for them all and realized how impossible this situation was for us. I prayed:
“Oh dear Lord, please help us and send 10 strong young men to push this truck up out of here!”
A very simple pleading prayer indeed, but it wasn’t even 3 minutes later when I heard the sound of loud motorbikes. Must be several bikes coming up the mountain, I thought. Louder and louder, closer and closer, until we could see them – 8 motorbikes with 10 young men firing up the mountain all gung-ho and happy looking! BletJhaw jumped out on the road and flagged them down. I pulled the little 3 year old quickly out of the way as they zoomed in one at a time parking those bikes in a small space. Those young men all jumped into position and quickly pushed that truck out. Everyone was so relieved and happy. As we were saying goodbye to the man and his wife, I told them that I had prayed to the God in heaven to please send 10 young men to push this truck! He looked astonished, but I had no time to explain further. May he come to know and believe in the One and only true God of all the earth!
I soon discovered that my backpack was gone! One of those guys must have grabbed it unknowingly in their haste! BletJhaw quickly jumped on our motorbike to chase them down. I had my passport, and a lot of money in that backpack ready to pay salaries, purchase supplies, and buy food for two families. So grand to have a Father in Heaven who loves to communicate with us and answer our prayers. Those guys had stopped somewhere up the mountain and my backpack was brought back!
THE DEVIL ATTACKS AGAIN!
It is evangelism time again! Each year since 2017, (with the exception of one year for COVID), we have had wonderful evangelistic meetings here which have been so powerful. This year through much prayer and planning, God made it possible for Mark Kent, a pastor I had met in N. Carolina last summer, and his wife,Angela, to come and conduct our evangelism. We are all very excited and see the hand of the Lord in our plans. The date is set for December 5-9, and their airline tickets have been purchased. This has been planned since early in the summer. Suddenly, however, we were informed that the Thailand Mission president, and the Union president were planning to come and hold an entire week of evangelism in BYT, and guess when they were coming?? The very week just before ours, November 26-December 2!! (Actually people from the Mission never come here to our isolated jungle, let alone the Union president)! But the timing is the worst thing. We only had one week to try to do something about it. So we prayed, claiming Proverbs 21:1, and the next day we set off for MaeSot to try to meet with the president of the Mission. We were able to see him, but our hearts sank as he told us to just tell the church members that they will have a double blessing of 2 evangelistic meetings in a row this year. That would never work for our simple little people in the jungle. What we had planned would definitely not work out. BletJhaw and I silently sat there and prayed. God will take care of this because success is all up to Him. Finally the mission president called the Union president and tried to explain the situation to him, but the Union president could not fully understand so he asked to talk to me! He didn’t know that I personally live in BYT and have evangelism every year. This one had been approved by the local lay pastor, but not communicated. When the Union president understood that both the pastor coming from America, and I, had put out a lot of prayers and money to make it possible and that it had been planned 5 months ago, he understood and told me what a good job I am doing. He definitely would not want to interfere with our meetings. He was so kind and personable, saying he would love to meet me someday, but for now they would postpone their visit. He wished me God’s blessing.
This miracle is so encouraging to our hearts because it means that God will do great things during our evangelistic meetings. It never ceases to amaze me how many creative things the devil throws in our pathway just before evangelism. This year was certainly no exception, but the Lord has always defeated him! Why shouldn’t we expect Him to because it is His enterprise!
DEE GA LER
DeeGaLer is a 9 year old mischievous boy. He lives in MooDooKey village and one day a month ago, he urinated on a Buddhist idol and did something to the devil trinkets which were centrally located in the village. Immediately the devil knocked him down. He got quite sick and has not been able to talk ever since. He is incontinent of bowels and urine, and very retarded. He cries and moans. He cannot eat properly and drools and spits. He cannot go to school. We were notified of this boy and went immediately to his village to visit him and another sick man.
DeeGaLer and his parents were all wearing devil strings. They profess to be Christians, but we discovered that they know nothing about God. We explained the difference between God and Satan and simply told the gospel story. The strings connect you to Satan. Each person must choose between Jesus or Satan. We prayed with them and returned the next day to bring them food and have a little simple worship about the power of God. BletJhaw told the story of the boy that Jesus would not cast the demons out while the father did not believe in Him, but when he cried out that he believed and asked God to help his unbelief, then Jesus cast the demons out. We told them it is their choice to believe in God, remove the devil strings and turn to Him. Now we are earnestly praying that they will believe and that God will show His glory to this family and the entire village. We will visit again this week.
Please pray for our evangelistic meetings December 5-9, and for DeeGaLer.