I do not know what I will do from day to day, or how to do it! All I know is that God knows what He is doing with me, and I can trust Him entirely. Each morning when I wake up, I go out of everything that is mine, and I depend upon my miracle-working God who does know. I am practicing the presence of Jesus as I go through my days. God is right here – right now! So comforting!
March 22: I landed in Thailand Wednesday, March 22 and on Friday, March 24, I returned to BYT. I had travelled in America for 7weeks. It is always thrilling for me to return and mingle with my people again. What a privilege is mine! How can I thank God enough for sending me out! Here is how He occupied and filled up my first few days
March 25: Sabbath, I preached on “How to be Saved!” The church was quite full. Shining faces greeted me. Oh how I long for them to come to an understanding of God! After church we had a church meal together. Always rice noodles with curry.
We had planned to go to MooDooKee and visit Bli. But the patients poured in, there were teeth to pull and breathing treatments to give.
Time is running away! This time of year, the people are burning their mountain sides where they will plant their rice. It is even hard for us to breathe because the air is so dense with smoke. I am appalled at how many people, old and young have high fevers, coughs with mucous, and headaches and sore horrible throats. Medicine is running out!
It is a little after 2 p.m.We still can make it to Bli, but on the way we must check 2 patients. An old grandma, burning up with fever, and suffering abdominal pain.
She will not go to the hospital and just as well. She hasn’t long to live. I claim a quote from CS 528 as we talk and pray with her and her family:
Next, we pass the house where a lady lives that was bitten by a green pit viper snake just 3 days before I left for America. BletJhaw told me that she had spent almost 2 months in the hospital. Wow, that is unusual. The green pit viper is poisonous, and very painful, but they usually stay only 3 days in the hospital while receiving antivenom. When I entered her house, I was shocked to see that they had cut her legs all up trying to drain the poison. I’ve never seen it so bad! She had been bitten 3 times, therefore received a lot of poison. Poor lady can hardly walk now. We were able to instruct her to some natural remedies that might help limber that leg up and relieve the pain and stiffness.“Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?” Jeremiah 23:23. Once at Bli’s house we were warmly greeted as usual! We gave him a new hearing aid, (They are only cheap ones here and do not last very long). What a blessing to make our way up the mountain to his beautiful little church and spend time with God in songs, prayer, and Bible study.
“Heaven is much nearer to the Christian who is engaged in the work of soul saving than many suppose!” MS 17, 1908
My first Sabbath in BYT was not over yet! There was Sabbath vespers in our church, then more patients to treat until late into the night.
Sunday, March 26: We are invited to a wedding in GeGhah village not too far away. Weddings are not formal occasions here. Just a simple worship, (If it’s not a Buddhist wedding), with the couple in a place of honor, decorated a little bit. BletJhaw did the worship, but I was not expecting the stunning aftermath of this wedding! Crowds of men, young and old, came into the house and yelling, shouting laughing, even screaming took place, while the couple were asked to do crazy things. There were too many people in that crowded house for me to see or know what it was all about, but just as well! It was not a good spirit.
Next we were asked to check an old man, LeeChray, in the next village for skin eruptions on his chest, arm and back. He and his wife are very old. Nobody knows how old, but neither one can see or hear very well. BletJhaw had to yell into his ear and repeat his words two or three times. It was 5 years ago that we saved the wife’s life. It was rainy season, and she was desperately sick with UTI and sepsis. She should have been in the hospital in ICU! But after IV’s, foley catheter, and antibiotics, by the grace of God, she recovered, a complete miracle of the Lord! Now I look at her. She has no teeth but sits by her husband all day long. Neither of them can do anything or go anywhere. We prayed for them, but nobody could hear it! God hears, knows, cares, loves, and answers!
“Never does the gospel put on an aspect of greater loveliness than when it is brought to the most needy and destitute regions. Then it is that its light shines forth with the clearest radiance and the greatest power!” 7Testionies 226
A few days later we did something that we’ve never done before – helped our neighbors burn their rice field on the mountainside! Kind of scary as the fames raced up and around engulfing the entire mountainside. We finished up by hiking the top of it, putting out the flames around the border. I did not swat at the flames because I would have fallen in! The mountain was so steep it was enough for me just to climb straight up it!
March 30: Got called to go to NeLeeGwee village and see a grandma, LePo. We know her well. We took the motorbike the short cut way which is very technical through the rice gardens and on the narrowest strip of path winding between the precipice and the bank! Nerves of steel for sure! The mountain is so steep and rough. BletJhaw is a great driver – must trust the driver! We cross the water 5 times through the rocks, but never wrecked by God’s grace! I was sad to see LePo so weak, dizzy, and faint, I even thought she might need hospital care, but she refused. Her vital signs were good. I had no idea what was going on with her but did the best with what we had brought and prayed earnestly. I saw slight improvement before we left, which was very encouraging! Many people here suffer from the fry smell. (That’s hard to explain, but it is very real to these people – some even die of it)
Of course, now we must return the same way we came only straight down hill! Hang on! No way I could video that descent! So much joy in my work. How boring it would be in America!
There is not enough space or time to write about everything in this day-to-day life, just know that God is in control and in His presence is fulness of joy!
“Nothing in this world, no earthly favors or enjoyments can take the place of the presence and favor of God!”