Gayle in Thailand

Today is February 17 and we are headed to Kry Co village, which is the furthest away.  We drive the truck today, therefore we can bring a lot of medicine! Weight is not a problem.  It is a good thing we brought a lot because we sure did use it all up.  There was pneumonia, ear infections, bronchitis, high fevers, stomach ulcers, skin diseases, worms, bone and joint problems and on and on.  We do not come to this village as often, because we are concentrating on the villages that want to know more about Jesus and be baptized.  We cannot spread ourselves out any thinner.

The peaceful pig guards the entrance

Though it does not look busy in these pictures, we saw over 40 patients that day. There was one man who never left our side the entire time.  He was the one we took to the hospital over a year ago with a terribly infected gallbladder.  He was so grateful and happy to be with us because his life was spared.

The patients pack in

The children are the most captivating. The precious filthy things!

We ended the day with a prayer for them all and then told them that next time we will tell them a story about Jesus.  They were perplexed about the prayer and did not understand about Jesus.  I hope I can come to this village more often because they know nothing.

Won’t you please pray?!

It is February 15 and we’re going to GeGhah.  This is the village of elephants. The people are a little richer here, but just as desperately in need of good health habits and the gospel as all the other villages.

Entering the village

We have a really nice system of treating patients.  Tucker is the scribe, I treat, and BletJhaw is the pharmacist translator and everything else!

It is the same routine.  We treat roomful after roomful of patients and pray with each group as possible, then we eat their food, and try to have a brief worship. In this village they are not so attracted to it as in the others.

My favorite little house in this village

. . . and the lady who lives there

The people here are usually cheerful, happy and smiling, but there is a lot of suffering, hardships and daily hard work, particularly for the women.  My whole heart goes after them.  Won’t you please include them in your daily prayers?

Today is February 12 and we are going to LaGlah.  It always seems too long since we have been to any village.  I just want to stay in every one all the time in order to be more help to them!

We start out on the shortcut path uphill to the pagoda.  The bulldozer has just come down this way and made a fine road out of it!  This is incredible because in the 5 plus years I have been here, this has never happened!  Now we step onto freshly plowed soil!  What a road! This means 2.5 hours to drive to Meta now instead of 5, but we cannot come this way yet because of the concrete on the other side of the pagoda.

This indeed is a beautiful sight – a bulldozer putting a road in right here.

The people in the surrounding villages don’t like it because they think the roads are being improved so that the soldiers can come in and stamp out opium! Personally that sounds great to me!  The only bad thing is that sometimes they have orders to shoot on the spot.  Two men have already died that way.

This way is very seriously steep for us on foot or wheels.

It is also really beautiful in this spot

Entering the village

Entering ChaDree’s house

ChaDree is enjoying his grandchildren.  Could God be in the process of healing him?  He seems surprisingly well considering he should have died from cancer 3 years ago!

We enjoy the grandchildren also

This is the girl we built a house for and took care of her sick Mother and Father
Just like NawJe, she is so full of thankfulness and said: “I don’t have anything I can give you.  This is all I can do.”  She gave me this beautiful knee (Skirt) that she had made.

Here is the opium queen. Today she has wistfulness in her eyes. She stays for worship and seems to hang on every word! Oh dear Lord how I love her! Please help and bless her!

So many villages Lord, so many people in sickness, distress, ignorance and sin

Won’t you please pray for them?

NeLeeGwee

Today, February 10, we will walk to NeLeeGwee.  I am so excited to go, because it seems so long since we have been there.  Our backpacks are a little heavier than usual because there are over 30 children in this village and many are always sick.

I am so blessed because Tucker grabs all the heaviest bags and places them in his large back pack.  I stuff my bag full, then, while I am doing something else, BletJaw always takes the heavy bags out of my pack and only gives me the light things!  Aren’t they wonderful!!  No wonder I am full of life and feeling great at the end of the day!

Our walk to NeLeeGwee is easier than usual.  The scary bridge that we used to balance across on one slim log, is now a regular solid bridge!  The place on the side of the mountain that used to barely be a path, where you could hardly place one foot in front of another because you would slide down the mountain sideways, has now been dug out and there is a solid path!  Even the weather is delightful with a cool breeze under deep blue sky!  I fairly skip down the pathway.

Entering the dark jungle

The children greet us as we enter the village

The big pig also greets us.

This old lady is too tired to greet us.

She lives just across the mud and filth, from Nawje’s house

NawJe greets us with her beautiful smile

You remember NawJe.  She is the one we took to MeDuGlow who aborted her 4 month old fetus in the front seat of our truck, and almost died of hypovolemia, (Too much blood loss).  Because she knows we saved her life, she is so appreciative of us that she cannot show us enough gratitude and kindness.  She wants us to come to her house to eat after we treat the patients.

The houses in NeLeeGwee are in poor repair, because this village is kind of like the opium capital of our mountain villages.

They did not make PeeEu a new house, but they did give her a new floor – big improvement

We enter ShePaw’s house

Complete with chicken in the dishwashing area

ShePaw has just had another baby, so now her total is 7 children!

The Karen children and young women often like to put a homemade clay compound on their faces

They think it is beautiful. I have been here so long that I think it is beautiful too! Of course I think everyone is beautiful here. It is clay so it must be good for the skin

The children immediately converge – they love us – we love them!

Today we have a special surprise for each one of them! Oh what fun!

This little one was too shy to join the group. She got hers outside

The adorable little twins came in later

Thirty three patients were seen on this day. It always racks my brain to figure out the best way to treat some of the complaints like:

“My brains are rotting out.”

“My blood is all messed up.  It is going around in circles and then I pass out.”

“My body is all out of medicine.”

“I need medicine to gain weight.”

“I fell off an elephant 10 years ago and hurt my foot.  Now that is making my back, neck and shoulders heavy.”

So many strange things, but pretty much everything is from not drinking water, poor hygiene, and poor nutrition.

This small boy has an eye infection. He is patiently waiting for the eye ointment to stop hurting

This lady’s baby is one and a half years old, but it looks more like 5 months old. It has many health problems.

This poor old lady laughs as she tells us she is 200 years old. Her complaint? She hurts all over, all the time

ShePaw’s Mother cooks our food. Today we have eggs, noodles and greens. This is way more than usual. We must be careful and try not to eat too much without offending them, because, remember we are also invited to eat with NawJe and her family

Our worship time is very short this time. The attention span is not very long and distractions are many. Just as we pray the dogs under the house start to fight. It is so loud we have to wait. This is the devil’s method – it happens a lot

NawJe cooked us the biggest most beautiful meal that we have ever eaten in the villages. Greens, eggs, cabbage and eggs, and chili paste. She gave all she possibly could to show her appreciation.  Spoons, plates bowels – everything!

She also gave me a beautiful knee, (Skirt) that she had woven, saying:  “I want to do more but this is all I can give.” I see the love of Jesus in her, as she showers us with gifts of appreciation.  The Lord will remember these precious jewels as His own when He comes.  He says:  “I will spare them!”  See Malachi 3:17

Won’t you pray for them?

He is a sorcerer.   People from our village have called him in because he can do things that normal human beings cannot do. He has power to heal, to change people and turn events etc. He uses water and other trinkets along with incantations and who knows what else?

Several older people in this village have had painful arthritis in their knees for years. I have done all that I know to help them, but the pain persists, so they will try TeeCoo, the sorcerer.

I did not know anything unusual was going on in my village, until this man appears in my clinic doorway last Wednesday. He does not want any medical care, but is just looking around and meeting people. I did not speak much with him because BletJaw was not nearby at the time and I felt strangely uncomfortable around him. He had an unusual appearance and disposition for a Karen man – sort-of big, flashy, pushy, assertive, and in-the-way. I did not like him and felt relieved when he finally left.

The next time I saw him was at Wednesday evening prayer meeting. I thought it was good that he had come to our church. Good that is, until we were leaving and I felt a hand moving across my back. Turning quickly I saw him!

“Oh no!” I thought, and dashed out the door. Karen men NEVER do things like this. I then was involved in a conversation with one of the ladies outside, when I glanced up at the church doorway and there was TeeCoo taking a picture of me from the church porch! Horrors. I excused myself and went to my house.

Taking a picture from the porch.

The following day, BletJaw shared some things that he had learned from the village people. This man wants to marry a gullawah (American) lady. He is able to do enchantments to make a person like him, or he can put a curse on them. He seems to already be on my path! I know God is holding me and that nobody can pluck me out of His hand! With this thought in mind I go to church the following Sabbath day and sit in my usual place with the women on the mat at the left side of the church. I bow my head and pray. When I look up I see TeeCoo sitting directly opposite me on the men’s side, staring at me.

“Oh no!” I thought, and looked down to read my Bible. The next thing I know, he is kneeling right in front of me ready to take my picture close up!

“Oh no!” I thought, and covered my face with my hands. Karen men NEVER come over on the women’s side accept to take up the offering. Quickly he pulled my hands down and took the picture! I looked around the church at the handful of people sitting there. BletJaw and Tucker had not arrived yet to protect me, and nobody present seemed to share my feelings of horror.

I will preach the sermon today on Daniel chapter 4. I have prayed earnestly over it because the sermon has a real appeal and oh how I need the Holy Spirit to convict and convert the precious people of my village.   You see our pastor, our church, and our church members in this isolated spot, are not like any other that I have ever experienced.  Somehow most of the members of this church still use opium, smoke, drink and eat pigs and everything else just like everybody else, and have done so for years. Their names are in the church books here on earth, but they are not written in the books of heaven. This makes our work harder than if there never was an SDA church or so-called members. Working with the people in any other heathen village is easier than working in this one. I have preached lovingly and earnestly. I have also taught simply about health and God’s standards for us. I have pleaded with God to help the people understand God’s health message and really be converted. They listen, but then go ahead and keep living the way they are used to.

. . . So. . . I get up to preach. BletJaw is by my side to interpret.   Five minutes later, TeeCoo gets up and comes right in between BletJaw and I. He puts his phone on the table behind us with the recorder on, then, he walks out of the church. He did not return. Just maybe his heart will be touched if he listens to it, because God really took control of the delivery of that sermon! Praise the Lord!

Tucker was really upset that this man took pictures of me. He went up to the phone after church to try to delete my picture, however the phone was all in Thai and neither he nor BletJaw could figure the picture mode out.

The next day we found out that 2 other villages had called him to come and do his magic healing for them. I plead with God to remove this man and his witchcraft from our villages forever. All the villages around us here are so important and special to me. The pull of the devil on them to continue in their heathenism is so strong, that even after we have been here 5 years, loving them, praying with them, helping and educating these people, they have such a difficult time to understand. I simply cannot bear to have even more concentrated evil come upon them.

I read Acts chapter 13 today about Paul and Barnabas preaching in synagogues and going to Paphos because the deputy of that city wanted to hear about the word of God! Elymas was a sorcerer. He tried to stop them from talking to the deputy about God. He wanted to turn the deputy away from hearing the truth. Mrs White writes about it in Acts of the Apostles 167:

“Not without a struggle does Satan allow the kingdom of God to be built up in the earth. The forces of evil are engaged in unceasing warfare against the agencies appointed for the spread of the gospel, and these powers of darkness are especially active when the truth is proclaimed . . . But the faithful gospel worker need not fear defeat at the hand of the enemy; for it is his privilege to be endued with power from above to withstand every satanic influence.”

“At the present time, when the end of all things earthly is rapidly approaching, Satan is putting forth desperate efforts to ensnare the world. He is devising many plans to occupy minds and to divert attention from the truths essential to salvation . . . But God’s faithful messengers are to go steadily forward with their work. Clothed with the panoply of heaven, they are to advance fearlessly and victoriously, never ceasing their warfare until every soul within their reach shall have received the message of truth for this time!”   Acts of the Apostles 220

Please pray for these Karen people.  Pray that the power of God will go forward in this heathen land. Pray that as the time for our labor grows shorter, our efforts will become more intense, and that there will be no limit to our zeal!

Poisonous caterpillars are really dangerous here.  Many times people will break out in hives all over just from coming in contact with one hair of the caterpillar’s back!  Or worse than that – they could die!  What makes them doubly dangerous is that they are perfectly camouflaged. To me they are the most camouflaged thing in the jungle because there is mostly no motion to attract your eye, and no color to distinguish it.  It is so small, insignificant and camouflaged that I have not even found one to photograph, instead I show an internet picture.

Some of these creepy little creatures actually eject a cloud of their poisonous hairs into the air.  Any that land on your skin will cause serious problems, but if you breath them in it could kill you.  That is why they are known to kill dogs because they are always sniffing around at things.

This poor BYT man, DeaDee, almost lost his hand, and became very ill with a high fever and infected lymph nodes, from a catapillar sting.  He was climbing a tree five days ago, and placed his hand right on the wicked creature.  Even after IV antibiotics and hospital care for 5 days, he still has pain and swelling in that hand.  I saw him again 2 months later and there are still long term disabilities.

This Asian centipede is also a problem.  I have seen them 15 inches long and very fat and strong!  They can kill a small child.  Adults will suffer a lot of pain and may need hospital care.

My point in showing you these things is not to make your fear mount, and your skin crawl, but in comparison, let us see that the invisible sting of poison from the devil is the thing most greatly to fear.  It is far worse, far more camoflouged, and the effects of such a sting could last a life-time and end in eternal death!   We need not fear these earthly creatures that we can see, but fear spiritual wickedness like clouds of poison in the air!

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wicked ness in high places.”  Ephesians 6:12

Let us right now “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”  Let us right now, “Put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Ephesians 6: 10, 11

My heart melts as I hear the pleading voice of Jesus in Deuteronomy 30:19 and Ezekiel 33:11  “As I live , saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.  Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”

God knows how subtle and camouflaged the deceits are that the devil presents. He knows how deep and lasting the effects of the deadly poison that he injects into both old and young, and the final consequences.   He knows how weak and unaware we are as we sink into comfort and indifference.  Oh please let us wake up to our true spiritual condition before God, and search our hearts out before Him, that we may be able to stand against the stinging attacks of the devil.  Let us turn from our lazy indifference and work with all our hearts minds and souls, to reach a dying world during this short period of time that yet remains.  Let us be faithful and stand in the power of His might!

These seventeen days are truly significant!  We always meet with surprises and never know what a day may bring forth, but during this time period things really went crazy on us.

January 2, We left BYT to pick up Tarn.                             84 km   or 6.5 hrs drive

January 3, We returned to BYT.                                           84 km    6.5 hours

Tarn is with us for a while so we can learn the Thai language. She is also a great cook!  As soon as she arrived she asked me if she could take over my kitchen! Wonderful – by all means!! She brought a lot of food.  Now our meals are on time, we are not missing meals, and do not have to wait and let the food over-cook, burn or never get cooked because of  patient interruptions.  I am immediately and thoroughly spoiled!

Tarn is enjoying the BYT girls!

January 5, We walked to GeGhah                                         1hour 20 mins walk

We were called to come and check on this man. He is the one who was stomped by an elephant back in August.  I was in America at the time.  He has been in the hospital all this time – over 5 months!  He just came home for a short while.  He cannot walk.  He must go back for repeated surgeries.  They want me to take the stiches out.

There are 30 staples in this wound which stretches from hip to just above the knee. I cannot take this type suture out because it requires a special instrument.

January 6, We walked to LaGlah                                           2 hours round trip

This is the day I got the tick in my eye.  We went see how ChaDree was doing. He had been very sick the last time we visited.  Today we find he is better!  He gets so sick and then so well – Please continue to pray for him.  God may even now be healing him of his cancer!

I told him to let me take his picture because the people in America are praying for him and want to see him! He smiles.

Also we meet BeDee, who is very sick with a liver and lung problem.  She can barely breath and her legs and abdomen are swollen.  Her blood pressure is 190 over 120!

January 7,  We drove BeDee from LaGlah to Meta hospital.  64 km, 4.5 hours

January 8,  Return trip                                                           64 km, 4.5 hours

January 9,  Rainy trip to Omkoi with DJ                            80 km one way, 6hours

See the story of this horrendous trip titled:  “RAIN IN JANUARY”!

Back to MeDuGlow      56 km       3.5 hours

January 10, MeDuGlow to BYT                                             28 km        2 hrs

January 13, Drove to Meta again.  BeDee had a problem. 85 km       5 hours

We have to take a much longer detour now to go to Meta because they are putting cement down again on the Pagoda road.

The problem was that she did not hold a Thai card, and I must pay before they will give her any further treatment.  She had just applied for a Thai card, so the Doctor, who appreciated what I am doing for the people in the mountains, excused me from paying the entire fee!! Praise the Lord!!

Another problem:  The 3rd day of her hospitalization, this lady saw what she called a vision.  It was really just a thought that someone gave her 1000 baht. Somehow this scared her to the point of panic. To her this was a bad omen. She made the doctor let her go home, even though she needed surgery, so that she could have a spirit ceremony to get rid of danger. Her treatment was not completed and she had to return to Meta again!  All their superstitions and beliefs make things really complicated.

This is a spirit shrine house they built in her village to scare the spirits away from her.

complete with chicken blood.

Return trip                   85 km        5 hours

January 14,  To MeDuGlow. 52km  5 hours

Someone came asking us to go to Kry Co village.   KawPaw is 28 years old and has suffered with edema, dizzyness and headache for 3 weeks.  She cannot eat and cannot walk.  I did not have my camera on this day. No picture.

Back from MDG 24km 2 hours

January 15, Patient from NyeLeGwee spontaneous abortion  68 km round trip  4.5hours

NawJe has been in extreme pain all day.  It was late in the afternoon when a man came on a motorbike telling us she wanted me to come and help her.

This is NawJe she is 4 months pregnant and is loosing her baby.

As usual the whole village comes out to watch and wonder.

She suffered extreme pain on the way to the clinic.  BletJaw did not want to go too fast over the bumps because it caused her pain, but he wanted to get her there as fast a possible. Just 30 minutes away from MeDuGlow she delivered a 4 month old fetus, and began to bleed profusely.

As they lifted her out of the truck, the blood just poured out!

It always takes too long to get these patients to a bigger hospital where they can get proper care, but I heard she did make it to Chiang Mai where they have given her blood transfusions.  We are praying for her full recovery.  We got to her just in time, any later and she would have bled to death.

January 16, Friday.  Our pastor does not come here often.  But today he came and visited ChaDree in LaGlah on his way in. He said ChaDree had not eaten for several days and was so weak that now he could not walk.  This is really bad news. We prayed and prayed, then on Friday, I went with the pastor on his motorbike to visit ChaDree. I thought the pastor could explain anointing to him and ask him if he would like us to do that the next day.  The pastor thought that was a good idea.  I had all my medicine with me so we treated all the patients and spent the day there.  ChaDree looked good again!  He was up preparing our meal and was smiling and happy! He really wanted the anointing so we planned to all come the next day, Sabbath and do that.

About the time we were finishing our meal, BletJaw came on  another motorbike to get me quickly because a boy from WaSuTa had gun powder from a gun explode in his face!

I hopped on the motorbike with BletJaw and we drove  home very quickly.  When I  saw JawHtu, age 14 sitting on the grass outside the clinic I was greatly concerned!

He was shocky and shivering. His eyebrows, eyelashes and the border of his hair was burned off.

Worst of all his nasal hairs were burnt off!  I am really concerned. I washed his burned arms and face with sterile saline and plastered Silverderm cream all over the burns.  Then we tried to persuade the Mother to let us take him to MeDuGlow immediately.  She would not do it!  She acted real glum and did not talk to us.  I was beside myself to try to get her to see that this is an emergency. Even though he is breathing OK now, his breathing tubes will swell up later and he will be in big trouble. However, this lady took her son and began walking away with him! My whole heart went out after them!  I prayed desperately! Just before disappearing from view behind our old house, she paused, turned around and said: “If you take him, I will go.”  Oh thank you Lord for her decision.

Once at MeDuGlow I prayed that they would also see the danger and send him to Omkoi.  The nurse that was there called a doctor in Omkoi to ask what to do. She took a picture of the boy on her phone and sent it to him.  They decided to hold him at the clinic overnight and then send him in the morning if he got worse.  I prayed again, because MeDuGlow clinic could not do anything if he got into trouble.  Just before we left, the Doctor called the nurse back and asked her to send the patient straight to Omkoi right away.

I am so glad because I heard he did get into trouble that night.  Hopefully he will be back home soon.

January 16, So our trip to MDG and back that night was  48km  4 hours

January 17, Sabbath

Church in BYT was very well attended with 2 young men from LaGlah visiting. The pastor had asked me to preach that day.  I was so happy for the good attendance and attentive audience.  Everyone seemed to be hungering after truth!  I preached about Jacobs’ ladder – the Holy Spirit was there in power!! I feel there is a small spiritual awakening beginning around here for the very first time!  I am so happy, so very happy!  Afterwards there were several people who walked with us the LaGlah village.

Here is ChaDree and his wife. He looked great and was so happy we all had come for this service. He took it real seriously.

The pastor had never done an anointing before.  He had called someone to ask how to do it.  I only had a small amount of weak olive oil.  The pastor put the oil behind his head and on his arms.  Though it was not done the right way and the oil was not proper, God will bless because it was done with the instrumentalities that we had.  It was our best to offer the Master, and He heard our prayers that day.  His will be done!

After this service, ChaDree said that he wanted to be baptized!  I will try to get to LaGlah study with him every week, to prepare him as best I can.  I could not be happier than I am on this Sabbath day!!

January 18, Sunday.         48km 4 hours

This couple have twins, named:  GaTeeCha and GaTeeDa.

They walked to us from GeGhah village.  GaTeeDa has had extreme diarrhea and vomiting for 2 days, and shows definate signs of dehydration. Her temperature is 105.5 degrees!  It barely came down 1 degree with paracetamol and a cool bath.  A small child like this can die quickly if not rehydrated and properly attended. Away to MeDuGlow we went again!

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We totaled approximately 850 kilometers.   The driving time, is approximately 85 hours and 50 minutes, all in 17 days!  

This is just a rough estimate going from our odometer and watches. I could easily have miscalculated over or under.   Actually 850 km is very little for 17 days, but you have to understand what these roads are really like to know that this much is totally HUGE , because every km is painstaking.  Every km takes prayer and faith to travel there-upon. There are only 2 people in all of America that understand a little about these roads and what I am talking about here.

1.  I want to thank the Lord for placing us here, providing for all our needs, giving us strength, energy, wisdom, and guidance to take care of these people’s needs, physically and spiritually.

2.  Next I want to thank YOU for donating the money so that we can keep going month after month, and enabling us to drive a reliable, great truck! You can see how important it is to our work!

3. I want to thank BletJaw for his dedicated work and tireless driving hour after weary hour on the terrible roads.  Truly this takes enormous endurance!

BletJaw asked me to please thank all of you for your prayers and financial support that made it possible for us to purchase this truck and continue God’s work in the jungle!!!

I have tried to draw a map of our area, but it is not very good.  I tried to enlarge it, but could not.  It is not as clear here as it shows on my computer, so it will be very hard for you to see the names of the villages. Of course this is a crude drawing and not a bit to scale, but maybe you can see roughly the set up of the 11 villages we serve, and the nearest clinics and hospitals.

The following list is the names of the villages in order of walking distance (At a fast pace)!  beginning with the closest village to the farthest.  Please note the abbreviations because when I write, it is easier to abbreviate!

1.  BeYoTa (BYT)

2.  WaSuTa (WST )                   25 minutes

3.  GeGhah  (GG)                    40 minutes

4.  LaGlah (LG)                       1 hour

5.  BlaGlow (BG)                     1 hour 30 minutes

6.  NyeLeGwee (NLG)               1 hour 30 minutes

7.  MeDeLeGwee (MDLG)            1 hour 50 minutes

8.  CoDeJo  (CDJ) (Can only walk to this one)  up to 2 hours, very steep, rugged.

9.  MooDooKee (MDK)              2 hours

10.  KryCo   (KC)                   2.5-3 hours

11. PaThaMooTa  (PTMT) This one we only drive to.

We can take a motorbike now to all the villages accept CoDeJo.  Others we can drive the truck, but that takes longer and is much farther going around than walking to some of the villages.  We usually walk.

You can see MeDuGlow (MDG)to the East which takes 2 hours by truck on a good day. Then on to Omkoi is another 2.5 – 3 hours north of MDG.  Add another 4-5 hours to get to ChiangMai hospitals.

To the West is Meta Hospital.  The shortest distance by truck is 4-4.5 hours, but with construction we go another way entirely which takes much longer. (We go north from PaThaMuTa and wind northward, ending up north of Meta). My map shows Meta to be very close to the Pagoda, when in actuality it is the same distance as it is from BYT the long way around to the Big Pagoda!  My paper was too small.

Meta Hospital to MaeSot is another hour and a half.  Total distance from BYT to MaeSot is about 5.5 -6 hours.

If you draw an imaginary line from BYT, past LaGlah village, to the Big Pagoda, you can get an idea of how much quicker it would be to drive to Meta that way!! That pathway is impossible to take a truck on right now. When we walk all the way out during the rainy season, this is the way we go. This walk takes 6.5 hours.

Tuesday, January 6, we walked to LaGlah village. The next day we took a patient to Meta hospital that I found in LaGlah with a bad liver and terrible lungs.  She had edema everywhere – four plus pitting edema on the legs.  Her BP was sky high.  Because driving that way is so terribly long, we spent the night, and came back here the next day – Thursday.  We had promised DJ, our neighbor that we would take him to Omkoi for surgery on his arm Friday.  He has a fatty cyst that I refused to cut out, because it was too big and painful and needed surgery and tests for cancer etc. 

In the meantime, I was having a problem with my right eye.  At first I thought I was getting a sty on the upper lid, but by Thursday when we were getting ready to drive back to BYT I told BletJaw and Tucker that my eye hurt really badly and I felt I was getting a massive infection because my right ear and neck hurt along with a pain in the right side of my head! In fact the entire right side of my head hurt, but when I looked in the mirror, I looked normal.  So I thought it must not be too bad.  I have never, (that I can remember), had a headache!  Anyway, BletJaw looked at it and said:

“You have a tick in your eye!”

Tucker looked and saw it also.  Me, without glasses, looking in the mirror could never see such a thing with the naked eye.  We drove on into BYT and after many patients were seen, BletJaw finally had time to attack that tick with my suture forcepts and a flashlight.  Sure enough, just under my eyelashes on the very inner rim of the upper eyelid, smack up against my eyeball, he pulled a tick out!  That thing came out with a big hunk of my flesh!  Ouch!  We magnified the creature and took pictures of it.   I am pretty sure that I got this tick on our walk to LaGlah Tuesday. The weeds are tall and spread all over the trail.  I am short, so they were face level for me, therefore I concluded that I must have retained that tick for 3 days, which is the only reason we could visualize it now!

Sorry. I don’t mean to gross you out, but see the hunk of flesh in his mouth!  I was so surprised that my camera could zoom in on such a TINY creature that could inflict such BIG pain!

Thursday night it poured with rain all night long. This was a shock! I thought that somebody must have frozen me in time, and I had gone to sleep, and not woken up until 6 months later in June when the rainy season starts.  But now it is January and not supposed to rain at all, let alone pour out buckets! Friday morning we decided to still take DJ to the hospital because we had given him our word, but we knew it would be a challenge.  Only BletJaw and I went because there was DJ and his wife.  Nobody could ride in the back due to the pouring rain. We left at 6a.m.

The BYT road was in the process of being plowed, but now in the rain this meant disaster, as the soft freshly plowed dirt makes deep horrible mud.  Thirty minutes out, we could not make it up a red mud mountainside.  Our truck went sideways and every which way but up the steep part and then slid right off the road into a deep ditch.  We were high centered toward the front of the truck, even though our truck is raised.  There it sat at a crazy angle and the rain continued to pour down. 

The only difference between today’s rain and rainy season’s rain is that today it is cold along with the rain.  At least in the rainy season you can be wet but warm.  

Well, I headed out with the remote control in hand to crank out the winch!  When we purchased the front bumper with the winch in it, some people said they thought I did not need it because I hardly used the big winch on the Mitsubishi, but I thought that even if it pulls us or somebody else out of a bad place one time, it would be worth having it!!  Sure enough!  It got us out more than once today, and it was well worth it!  This time there were trees to tie off on in the right places.  We almost pulled the first tree down, however, because it was a very hard pull. We had to tie it to another tree as we got farther along, but praise the Lord He got us out.  BletJaw and I worked like team-work, barefoot out there in the oozing mud and fridged rain!

“How long Oh Lord?” I cried when we came across one miserable, mangled, mud-rutted hill after another.  “How long will we have to endure these terrible roads?” 

I did not get very good pictures of this because of the rain

Winding the cable back in.

We had to use the winch again the second time, when the steepness of the grade and the depth of the mud, just overwhelmed the truck.  The entire time it is pouring with rain. BletJaw and I are working out there in the rain, and jumping in and out of the truck to steer us out with remote in hand.  It was very tricky, and took a long time.  We were freezing cold and shivering.  My lips were blue.  I reached back and squeezed my hair, which I wear tied back, and the water came out like a faucet!  

After another 45 minutes of intensely difficult driving we came across a fallen tree.  BletJaw had to get out and hack it up with the machete and move it off the road!  It is still raining. 

We praise the Lord that it is only a small tree!

We shivered for 4 hours while driving all the way to Omkoi.  This area is at a higher altitude than BYT and it was very cold!   (There is no heat in any vehicle in Thailand).  I told BletJaw that he was going to drop me off at the small market type shops that sell clothes, as soon as we get to Omkoi.  I would buy us both something warm and dry no matter what it looked like!  He heartily agreed.  I bought a pair of pants, skirt, and hooded jacket for myself and pants, shirt and hooded jacket for BletJaw all for $42.  I was so cold that after the purchase I ran to the back of the shop where the trash and cardboard boxes are, and changed my clothes.  (No fitting rooms here for sure)! Oh how wonderful the dry clothes felt!  Of course they were to get wet again because it is still raining!!  All day long it rained.  I found out after 3 days of rain, that this is a storm that had come up from Cambodia.  

DJ got his cyst cut off successfully and we made our way back to MeDuGlow. 

We decide that we could not make it back to BYT that day.  The rain had not let up!  We stayed in MDG with some people that DJ and his wife knew.  They treated us very well.  The lady asked me to do worship that night.  It was Friday night.  She fed us rice and pumpkin, and gave me a lovely thick blanket to sleep under!!  I was finally warm!  Toasty warm!  Oh how delicious is that?!  I slept, even though my face was still hurting.  I will reassure you that it only hurts because of the location of the bite.  This tick does not hurt like the last one I got on my chest, that hurt for 4 weeks!  Thankfully!  Some of the ticks here can really really hurt. If this tick carries scrub typhus, I will know in 10-12 days. If I get a fever during that time, I know exactly what to take!  I will catch it right away!  Don’t worry.  I think it is feeling a little bit better now, even though I have to blink my eyes very slowly and gently!

The kind lady in MeDuGlow gave me a beautiful knee, (Skirt) that she had made!  Plus she had me to worship again on Sabbath morning!  I did a shorter version of the sermon that I had planned to preach in BYT.  I am sure the people present have never heard of this Bible story and the love of Jesus.  I know God put us there for a reason.

By Sabbath afternoon it had stopped raining!  We decided to tackle the mud again!  BletJaw told me on the way back that he was thinking about our guardian angels.  He was so happy there were 4 of them with us – one for each of us.  He knew they were pushing us up the hills, and holding us back, going down.  He said that is all we need is for the angel to just blow a little and we will make it up!  He is right! I told him that I am sure they are blowing right now!!  He would not agree with me, but he has developed into an excellent driver.  He humbly prays and trusts God all the way! I am so thankful for him.

When we came to the first place where we had been stuck, there was a truck stuck in the same ditch!  He had been there since the night before. 

Seems like you cannot help but slide in because of the camber of the road.

The bulldozer came to get him out while we waited.  We could not drive past him because we would have hit him.  The angle of the road was cambered towards him, and close on the other side was a steep ravine!

This is just what we had looked like the day before!

We discovered that the bulldozer was there because a group of student monks and their teachers had visited the BYT school and were trying to leave that day. Because they are such VIP’s, the tractor was hired to accompany them out safely! It sure helped us get back in that day!   

Finally we got home, still cold, thirsty, hungry and tired.  

PS.   1.  We did not get a cold or pneumonia from our exposure to the cold!                           Praise the Lord.

         2.  My eye swelled up, got red and puss filled.  I used Terramycin ointment,                then 16 days later I had an opportunity to see an ophthalmologist in                        MaeSot.  She treated me with lots of drops and medicine for “dirty                          eyes” and an infection.  I’ll be back to normal shortly.

We go through sickness, pain, weariness, hunger, cold, heat, and discomfort. We are attacked right and left by the enemy of souls who with art and cunning, devises every way to thwart our progress. We are worn out and tired of the conflict, but it wages on and on.  It seems to human eyes that our work is only held together by a fine, thin thread.  At any minute that thread could snap and there would be nothing left. We could so easily crumble into oblivion!

Today seems to be the ultimate climax. But the verses I just read keep ringing in my ears:

“Men ought always to pray and not to faint.”  Luke 18:1

“Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall REAP if we faint not!”  Luke 6:9

REAP!!  What a glorious word that is!!  May there be a plenteous harvest of reaping over here in the jungle mountains!  Let us take hold of His strength and we shall not faint nor be weary!!  And who is holding onto that thin, fine thread? Why God Himself!!  Think about Ellen White’s vision of the “Narrow Way.” Christian Burdhal relates this vision through song, you must get it! Who was holding onto the cords? — God was!  And what did the cords represent?  —our faith!!   FAITH friends, If our faith fails we won’t make it!  That’s what is holding us together in His hands, and God supplies more faith each day as we exercise and use it, until the fine thread is strong and as large as our bodies!

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning great is Thy faithfulness!”  Lamentations 3:22,23

Perhaps a newsletter will come out soon to explain to you some of the things that I cannot mention in this country, on the internet.  Just let’s suffice it to say that the work goes on here in BYT.  It is a total miracle straight from heaven how each day unfolds.   We have nothing to fear for the future unless we forget how He has led us in the past!  …And lead us He has!

I am thinking of this clinic and the beautiful new off-road truck parked down the hill.  It is not just here for looks, every bit of its strength and dependability is used constantly on these challenging roads, to transport patients and save lives. These are reminders each and everyday that God holds the chords and He will not let go.

Just yesterday we walked into NeLeeGwee.  How wonderful it was to greet all the dear children!  I really am a Mother to each one of them.  If I could just take some of the dirtiest, scrawniest ones home with me.  I could get them well, feed them good food, teach them how to be clean, and to know and love the Lord. You know, in this place, someone is needed who can just be here and take care of the children. Parents would gladly give them up to us and let us take care of them, because they know they cannot.  But I cannot do it because we hike 3 days a week to the other villages and stay so actively busy caring for patients.  So often we have to suddenly respond to a call from another village to see a very sick patient, and drive them to the hospital.  At times we barely have time to prepare and eat our own food.

BletJaw and all the sweet little children in NeLeeGwee.  They look clean in photographs, but they are anything but clean!

In NeLeeGwee, BletJaw once again brought food to PeeEuw, the old old lady who lives in the tiny square tin house. She is in a sad condition.  Her house has a bamboo floor that is giving away right under the fire place. She barely has a place to lay down on that is not breaking apart. Soon she will just drop to the ground below!  We arranged to pay ShePaw’s husband to build her a new home immediately.  Along with that we will bring her new clothes, blankets and adequate food.

The floor is breaking away. This is Pee Eu’s fire place for cooking – soon to fall through the floor along with everything else!

Soon I hope I can show you her new house and PeeEuw, bathed, wearing new clothes, and a large warm blanket to sleep under during this very cold season.

Next we were taken to a house where I met the twins Mother, PawEe, for the first time!

Her husband is still away from home looking for opium, and she herself is a ‘heroin queen’ meaning she mainlines opium and lots of it. She came home this time only because of a terrible injury to her back, and a nasty infection.  She is filthy dirty.  Opium users do not like water.  They do not take baths. She was in intense pain accompanied by a high fever.  She must go to the hospital.  I had a chance to pray with her!

PawEe’s Mother and youngest child

The next day we drove the truck in and tried to carry her out to it, but she would not allow anyone to carry her.  Instead she tried to walk with assistance, suffering intense pain.  I was so thankful for the new truck, because it is so strong, that BletJaw backed it up the severely steep mountainside slope, where there is no road, so that this poor lady would not have so far to go!

On the steep mountainside

Please help us pray for her and her husband. There is yet hope that they will find Jesus to turn their lives around and care for their 4 beautiful children.

There is so much need everywhere you turn.

I also got a chance to help ChweeCoo today.  He is 42 years old, lives in BYT, and is notoriously the worst drunk in my village, or maybe even the worst of every village for miles around.  On several occasions he has terrified the entire village with his violence and anger.  One night he almost killed his daughter! He has a gun! Just three weeks ago he had us all awake at midnight.  It seemed like everyone in the village was screaming in terror and his angry voice filled the dark night air with bone chilling evil. The commotion lasted almost 30 minutes.

It was after dark that I was called to his house.  He had cut his ankle with a machete while cutting the weeds, high up in the jungle.  In that dark and filthy little house, I was able to pray with him, numb up the cut, scrub it clean, suture it, and give an antibiotic.  I am so thankful that Tarn and Tucker were with me that night.  However, at that time he was quiet, co-operative, and did not appear drunk. I was unavailable the next 3 days, so when I saw him again, the wound was wet, very dirty, flaming with infection, swollen badly, and one stitch was gone.  I cleaned it thoroughly, increased the dose of antibiotic and prayed.  It may not heal and I may have to take the sutures out and let it drain, but I will wait 1-2 days and see if there is an improvement.  We all prayed for him many times.  The next time I saw him the infection was gone!!  Praise the Lord.

ChweeCoo with his injured ankle

Lidocaine injection preceding the sutures.

An update on this:  He is out looking for opium and is not returning.  The sutures are one week late coming out and this means infection again!

These are all God’s children.  The most unlikely ones are not too hard for God to reach! (Isaiah 59:1)! Please continue to pray for a reaping of these precious souls.