Gayle in Thailand

It is so amazing to me how our plans can change on a day to day basis, or on an hour to hour basis, and yet it is perfectly alright with us! That is what happens when you lay your plans out before the Lord each day and ask Him to approve it or change it according to His will.

Thursday, January 2, DJ, our neighbor told us that he had met a man in MDG with terrible pain in his stomach.  He told the man not to go to his own village because it is very far away, but to go to QuiyCo Village and BletJaw and I would go and check on him, taking him to the hospital if necessary. (He took it for granted that we would just drop everything and go)!

You cannot trust that you are getting a correct health report from these people.  Sometimes the report you get makes you think it is not too bad, but when you arrive you find out it is a major emergency.  Other times the report sounds drastically terrible, but when you get there you discover the patient is hardly sick at all.  It would be nice to know this time, because it is a considerable journey, however, for the sick and needy, no effort in their behalf is too great.  Let’s drop everything and go!

Friday morning early we drove one and a half hours to QuiyCo village.  There we saw a very sick man indeed! He had experienced extreme pain over a large swollen area in RUQ for eight days.  He said it hurt worse every day.  He had a low grade fever and was vomiting. What puzzled me was that he had just been discharged from the Omkoi hospital just the day before.  The medicine they had given him was only for gastritis.  This was nothing like gastritis.  Something had gone terribly wrong with his liver or gallbladder in the last 8 days.  I suspected his gallbladder because the pain radiated to the back.  This is very scary because with fever and vomiting and swelling like he had, it could rupture any second and then we would be in BIG trouble!  I wished I had IV fluids with me, but I did not carry any.

The three hour trip to Meta hospital was very hard on this man, but in answer to prayer he made it. The doctor did an ultrasound and decided his gallbladder was infected.  They will give IV antibiotics and try to reduce the infection before sending him to MaeSot hospital for surgery.

The poor patient, BiYaSaw, 50 years old, and his wife NaChua at Meta hospital.

RETURN TO BYT DELAYED!

We spent that night and Sabbath at Sunshine Orchard, Sunday morning we were all ready to leave for BYT, when I found a very sick little eight year old girl from Burma.  She was swollen all over her body.  Her stomach was so swollen that the skin was shiny tight.  Her face and eyes were all puffed up.  Her urine output was very low.  She had a dreadful cough and her lungs sounded horrible. She was tender over her kidneys.  I suspected kidney failure due to infection because she had a fever. The worst thing about this poor little child was that she had been this way for one entire year!   This is long enough to totally destroy her kidneys! Her Father was with her.  He said he would do anything I told him to do, because he wanted his daughter to get well.  I surely like to hear that! I took them to Meta hospital along with another patient that I found with a badly infected right foot. These patients were both admitted. I am thankful that God’s timing again allowed me to be here and take care of these two precious patients.

It is way too late to return to BYT today.

Monday morning early we set out for BYT at last.  But as we are driving we hear a funny squeaking noise under the hood.  It sounds a bit like a slipping fan belt, but not bad, only when the truck first starts up.  We decide we will let a mechanic in Meta check it.  Alas, he said that something is loose that holds the fan belt.  It would be dangerous to drive it like that.  They don’t have the part but will send for it in MaeSot.  It will take 2 hours.  OK.  —Almost 4 hours later it is finished.  Now it is too late to go to BYT that day!

Tuesday morning we set out early to go to BYT, but now we hear a strange noise under the hood again.  What is that?! It sounds like a high pitched noise through a pipe.  It is only a faint sound when you first start up.  We are not sure if we should have it checked or not.  One and a half hours drive to MaeSot is not what we want to do, – but – what if it gets worse way out in the isolated jungle, or looses power on a steep incline?  Already it is sounding a bit louder.  Better take it to MaeSot, the mechanics there are good and I trust them.

The head mechanic along with 4 other mechanics in Mae Sot told me that the noise is coming from the engine.  A chain inside the engine slips.  It is not an emergency, I can drive it.  Later they will need to pull the engine out in order to check it. I can safely drive it up in the mountains today.  Wow! Something in the engine slipping really sounds serious to me.  How can something be slipping around inside the heart of your engine and it not be a huge problem?  But they are the mechanics and I am really happy because we still have time to go to BYT that day!  -At least we thought we did!

We discover we cannot take the shorter steeper way that we usually take because part of that is being paved and the road is closed!   We knew this would happen soon, so BletJaw already had directions to take a longer alternate route, which we have never traveled before.  As we turned onto the dirt road, three ladies at the bus stop asked if they could have a ride with us, they are going close to the same way we needed to go.  This is providential, God’s timing again! Because now through hind site, I can tell you we could never have made it by following any hand written directions!  Nothing on paper could possibly describe it! These ladies are riding in the back of the truck.  They bang on the window to tell us which way to turn.  I am glad BletJaw can remember the way for next time, because we are taking so many turns I am totally confused.  We are turning onto smaller and smaller roads.  Finally we find ourselves on an extremely narrow jungle path, the kind that you can expect to fizzle out at every turn.

Now my confidence in the 3 ladies is being shaken because they see a new road angling back to the left and think we should go that way.  BletJaw has to use all his skill to turn that 3 point turn on a sharp corner.  It is on a steep hill with a precipice on one side!  It is a very tight squeeze! When we get a little ways down that road we discover that this is the driveway to a VERY strange man’s house!  His name is YeaPaw.  I have heard a lot about him.  He is very popular around here.  People listen to him and obey him.  Don’t ask me why! He has 6 wives.  One wife died almost a year ago and he said she would come back to life, so he did not bury her, but put her in a covered spot in the back of his house.  (I see that spot now)! Later he brought her to another village, but the people there could not stand it because it smelled so bad.  He puts up many little pretend leaf roof houses for the spirits. He has made up his own form of the Buddhist religion and his own language and letters.  He has also done a few crimes, but gets by with it and remains popular with the people.  On his driveway we feel quite strange and eery.  We need to turn around, and get out of here quickly, but we cannot turn around, the road is just not wide enough.  We have to drive right up through all the little leaf roof spirit houses to the main house and make a dangerous 4 point turn next to the cliff, but we made it.

Onward down the narrow road we go.  It is dark now.   At times there is a shear drop off on my side and a high cliff on the other side.  As I look out my window I see that there is less than 12 inches of space from our wheels to the drop off!  BletJaw says:  “This is really a challenge!”  I am wondering if anyone in our truck has the faintest clue as to where we are!  We drive and we drive and we drive, on and on in the dark, one mountain after another.  We are hungry and tired. We see lots of fresh elephant dung.  We even hear a loud bellowing of an elephant at one point. It was very close by, but in the dark we could not see if he was chasing us or not! We know the wild elephants are still around and that they chase motorbikes and trucks.  They don’t like any intruders! Night hawks are swooping and flying all around us.  Bamboo shoots and tree branches scrape our truck on both sides.  The road is so narrow that I pull the mirror in when passing some of the trees. The worst thing about all this is that the little faint noise in the engine that used to be only when starting up, is now a constant noise, getting louder and louder all the time.  It has several different ominous tones to it – but we are supposed to believe it is not serious.  Finally there is a loud banging on the back window. This is where the ladies get out. They say it is not far to the road going to the pagoda.

The three ladies.  Thank you!  We NEVER would have found our way without you!

I don’t know how they can say, not far!  It seems never ending. –And no, I don’t think even BletJaw can find his way on this road again, nor does he even want to!  Now I am just trying to figure out what part of the pagoda road will we turn out on – if we ever turn out on it at all!  But turn out on it we eventually did!  I discovered we still had quite a long way to go to the short cut going to BYT,

I really do not know what time it was when I finally laid down to sleep that night, but one thing I am sure of:  “My times are in His hands,” and I am so safe and so happy there in His hands!

“He has reasons for sending us to the place toward which our feet have been directed.  At that very place there may be someone in need of the help we can give.”  MH 473

“Christ in His life on earth made no plans for Himself. He accepted God’s plans for Him, and day by day the Father unfolded His plans. So should we depend upon God, that our lives may be the simple outworking of His will. As we commit our ways to Him, He will direct our steps.”  MH 479

The song says:  “If all I’ve done in the time we’ve shared is turn you eyes on me.  Then I’ve failed at what I’ve been called to do – there’s something else I want you to see. . . I pray for nothing less than for you to love Jesus more!”

Close to three weeks ago some people came to our house from NeLeeGwee.  They asked us to come to their village because WahPo, (ShePaw’s Mother) was very sick.  She wants to see me.  She was dizzy, could not eat or sleep because her stomach hurt, and her blood was not full enough.  I don’t know what that last symptom is all about but I hear it many times.  They feel like they are drying up inside.

Now this family is the one who had us cut off all the devil strings because they want to worship our God.  ShePaw is real special because two years ago, she had been deathly sick for three weeks.  We knew nothing about it, but miraculously by the guidance of God, we got to her house just in time to get her to the hospital which saved her life.

Now we are hiking out there to check on WahPo.  I really love WahPo.  She has the sweetest most unforgettable smile.  She is always begging me to stay the night with her when I come to visit.  This time I see no smile.  She is lying on her mat – pale, weak, and unable to walk. She tells me she cannot eat or drink.  She really looks sick. I do not know what specifically is causing her trouble. I have no tests that I can run so that I can arrive at a diagnosis. I pray with her.  Then I start an IV, and get her to sip some ORS.  While the IV is dripping I treat all the other patients, and visit another house.  Later they feed us.

It is getting late. The IV has infused and is D/C’d.  We begin a short worship.  During worship WahPo comes out to listen!  When we finally pack up our things and say good-bye, WahPo comes walking out of the house after us, smiling and asking us to come back sooner next time.  She looks like her usual self!  Her stomach is not hurting!  I am speechless as I shake her hand and look into her happy eyes.

I am always amazed at answered prayers!  What a solemn and most reverent occasion it is, because God’s very own presence is so close to us! I haven’t a clue how to describe to you the utter joy and enormous gratitude that swells up within me and overflows like a river!! God is so so good!  He is so powerful and mighty – filling the universe, yet right here with me!

This story only gets better!  About 3 weeks later we have scheduled ourselves to return to NeLeeGwee.  I was not prepared for the welcome I received there!!  WahPo hugged and hugged me.  She wanted her picture taken with me and then she wanted me to get it printed for her so she could put it up in her house.

WahPo:  She wore her incredible smile!

ShePaw also, wanted to be pictured with me.  Suddenly I felt  a Karen shirt being tugged down over my head and one of her newly woven Karen knee (Skirt) wrapped around my waist. She had changed into new clothes herself.  She smiled beautifully for the picture and I told the Lord:  “Oh dear Father, may it be You that they are really seeing in me, and may it be You that they are really wanting.  Please show Yourself to them!”

ShePaw and two of her children

We did everything in the usual order:  Treat patients, eat and have worship.  All of my favorite children are here.  (I must say that all the children everywhere are my favorite ones)!

A nice crowd has stayed for worship.  BletJaw and I begin with prayer and then just a short story about Jesus.  I have brought the one picture of Jesus blessing the children.  I tell it the way Mrs. Ellen G. White writes it in Desire of Ages, and I have a picture of Jesus blessing the children. The appeal is that this Jesus is the very same Jesus today.  He loves you children just as much as He loved those children long ago. He loves the Mothers and the Fathers too.  Even though you cannot see Him today, or sit on His lap and listen to him tell stories, He is right here with you, and the stories we tell from the Bible are His stories to you.  He wants to bless you too. I ended by asking them if they would like me to pray for them that Jesus will bless them right now.  They really did!  After the prayer, WahPo came and took up the picture.  She sat staring transfixed on that picture for a very long time.  The children all came around her.  I can never take pictures of these incredible moments of time, but came close to capturing the rapture of the moment in this quick photo.

There is power in a Bible picture! There is power in the Bible! There is power in a prayer! This power is ours to claim for the saving of precious souls!

Truly they are not loving me more, but loving Jesus more!

The medical work and the gospel go hand in hand.  That night as I had my own devotions I came upon this quote from Desire of Ages page 87:

“Jesus worked to relieve every case of suffering that He saw. . . As He relieved their sufferings, the truths He taught were associated with His acts of mercy, and were thus riveted in the memory.” 

Dear Lord, You have relieved the suffering of these two ladies, please rivet your truth in their memory today.

I had a lovely present this Christmas. BletJaw gave me a Karen shirt. That was good enough, but what made it even better is that he had the pastor’s wife make it. But even way better than that was that he and his wife had the same shirt and wanted me to look like them. To me this is a huge compliment! Thank you BletJaw and WahNeePaw!!

Jonathan is a real sweetheart and best of all he loves me! He has just had his first birthday December 26 and was dedicated on this day at the MaeSalit church. He has had to be in the hospital twice in the past for lung problems, but we pray he will quickly grow out of that. God bless you Jonathan!

The poinsettias grow wild and beautiful here in BYT from September through February.

Poinsettias grow into tall bushes here. Some are almost like trees. All you have to do to grow your own is cut a twig and stick it in wet dirt until it roots than plant it where ever you wish! Merry Christmas!

Every month of the year is a beautiful month for flowers here!

December is cold, but January will be even colder. The people really do not have enough warm clothes. When I run in the early morning I see them sitting around an outdoor fire to keep warm. BletJaw and I have resorted to the same morning routine! When I say cold I am talking about 58 or 60 degrees! That is very cold to us.

The solar system. All eight panels on the roof!

They brought the wrong size cabinet the first time. It was twice the size!  It practically fills the store room up!  There is only room for one medicine cabinet.  It is like a giant piece of artillery and heavy as lead!

Now they brought the right size and we can fit both of our cabinets on that wall.

I gave a lady an IV while treating the other patients in NeLeeGwee. After it was D/C’d the children had the best time playing with the tubing!

This one had the tubing wrapped around his neck several times.

They also love to walk on their home made bamboo stilts. They run and they jump on them! The very small children could do it well, even on the slippery, muddy slope in the rain!

There is an old lady in the village of NeLeeGwee, who lives in this little tin house all by herself.

When you ask her how old she is she will tell you – 190 years old! She said she doesn’t know why she has not died.  Here is her sad sad story…

Nobody seems to know how old they are around here, especially the older people.  This lady has no children and no family.  She spends all her time alone.  Nobody cares much about her. She looks like she never bathes. She is filthy and always has the same clothes on.

She barely gets enough food to exist.  When she was young she had a child out of wedlock.  This is looked down upon by the Karen and rightly so.  However this lady herself must have been ashamed because she killed her baby!  Then she married a man but they could not have any children. The people of the village all said that it was because she had done wrong and she was being punished.  That is why they do not help her.  Her husband died a long time ago.

We visit her every time we come and bring her food.  One time she really wanted something sweet.  Another time she wanted ‘MaMa’ (Noodle).  When it gets warmer if she is still with us, I will give her a bath and clean clothes.  She is loved by God the same as any elegant, popular person.  My heart aches for her.  The rainy season is hard on her as is the cold season right now.

Good news!! Several villages have worked together to make a roadway wide enough for a truck up the shortcut way to the pagoda! We took the truck out that way for the first time last week!! It saved us 2 hours off our trip, but the road is ruff and very steep. With 4WD low we barely made in places! But we made it!

Guess what? This is ChaDree’s new baby granddaughter. Her name is EhPo – meaning: Love small one.  She is eight days old in this picture.  Now that family has 4 girls and one boy.

This is ChaDree’s daughter with her new baby and only boy.

This is her husband and middle girl. The 2 older girls were not around on this day.

This is where you get your drinking water when you stay in people’s homes. Everyone has these earthen vessels. They say it keeps the water fresh and cold. The ladle on the top is made from a coconut shell. I don’t get the feeling it is too fresh because you never know what you might ladle up in that coconut shell! Many floating things, but it is cold!

More to be added later,

In His Care,

Gayle

Travel is a huge part of our work here.

I have talked so much about our truck, that some people tell me they think it has personality.   (I do too)!  It has done such an astounding job of hauling all the materials for our building and making it on impossible roads!  Truly we spend an enormous amount of time in that truck struggling along.  God picked this truck out for us and it is a great truck. To me it is just like the horse, named ‘Old Charlie,’ which the Lord picked out for Ellen G. White.  When the Lord picks out the transportation for you– it is always good!

But now I want to talk a little bit about the motorcycle!

It has not been given any credit at all, when in actuality we use it a considerable amount of time, and don’t know what we would do without it.  It doesn’t have an easy time of it either.  Actually the going is never easy, whether you go by truck, bike or on foot.  That’s just how it is here.

This is a cold December morning ride into MeDeLeeGwee just last week. We put on anything we could find to try to keep warm.

I am never the driver of the motorbike – I always ride behind.

Now let me explain the ride!

1. When you first get on that thing, you had better trust the driver or your in for a bad experience because you are committed to whatever decisions he makes.  Your life is in his hands.  You will definitely follow every move he makes.
2. If he takes a wrong turn – so do you.
3. If he drives too fast for conditions – so do you.
4. If the road surface changes and he makes sudden turns in the sand and loose rocks – so do you.
5. If he hits the mud and slips and slides – so do you.
6. If he hits the puddles and gets wet and dirty – so do you.
7. If he selects all the right lines you could really enjoy parts of the ride, but if he chooses the wrong line and goes down – so do you.
8. I have discovered that even if he does not go down, there are some extreme road conditions where I have just flipped off the back, doing a complete 360 off the bike all by myself.  How that happens I do not know, but it has happened 3 times so far.  Yes the motorbike is a rough way to go.
9. If it is cold – you freeze.
10. If it is hot – you love it because it stirs up the breeze,
11. If it rains that is completely miserable, plus you worry about all the medicine and all your stuff getting wet and dirty.
12. To sum it all up it is truly painful the way you get knocked about.  Every bone in your body is beaten upon.

Compare this with our journey through this life:  A journey to righteousness!

1. I cannot help but think how much like our life’s journey this is.  In this journey there are just 2 drivers:  Satan and Jesus.  If you pick the wrong driver you’re going to have a bad experience and go down, but if you are committed to Jesus and put your life in His hands you can trust Him fully.  Following every move He makes, you cannot go wrong. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5,6
2. He never takes a wrong turn, but shows us the path of life.  Psalm 17:11  and leads us in the path of righteousness Psalm 23:3 If we take a wrong turn without Him He seeks that which was lost, and brings us back! Ezekiel 34:16
3. He does not go too fast or too slow for conditions. His timing is always perfect. (Galations 4:4)
4. He takes you through every change in your life, with painstaking effort, even when you hit uncertainties like shifting sand and difficulties that make your journey rough like rocks and gravel He will guide you safely through. “I the Lord do keep it.  I will water it every moment lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” Isaiah 27:3  “Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God.”  Psalm 55:19
5. Many times our way becomes muddy and slippery-uncertain, but He holds up my goings in His paths that my footsteps do not slip.  Psalm 17:5
6. He will not let you get muddy and dirty from sin, for “He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.” Isaiah 61:10
7. He selects all the right lines, teaching us in the way we should go and guides us with His eye.  Psalm 32:8 Even in this life there is joy in the journey!  “Whom having not seen, ye love, in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 1Peter 1:8
8. He never goes down, but at times he allows difficult trials to come to us. If we do not learn to trust Him in the trials, but take our eyes off Him – we will flip off the back – a hard fall awaits us. But God is able to keep us from falling! Jude 24
9. When the people all around us are cold.  He can keep our love from waxing cold! Matthew 24:12
10. He brings the Holy Spirit upon us like the wind that blows. John 3:8
11. With Jesus the rain is the beautiful Holy Spirit.  Zechariah 10:1
12. Our bones are beaten up a lot. “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”  “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”  Hebrews 12:6, 11

Let’s say with David:  “Lead me O Lord in Thy righteousness. . . Make Thy way straight before my face:”  Psalm 5:8

Today, I choose the Lord to be my driver through life!   How about you?

Yes there is great danger all around us here, yet we barely notice it.  What a miracle of divine grace!

Many many times we have walked right in the pathway of venomous snakes.

Obviously these snakes BletJaw has already killed or else I would not get so close with my camera.  Some of the bigger worse snakes  have gotten away, or I have not had a chance to take a picture.

One day BletJaw was clearing out some banana trees right next to our house.  He called me to come and see what two things he had just killed.  There was a short but fat, slimy looking brown snake with yellow streaks down both sides.  Because it was not scaley I thought it looked like a glorified earthworm.  It must not be poisonous I thought. DJ’s wife came over just then and told us that this snake does not often bite people, but if it does – you die!  BletJaw’s angel protected him that day.  He only wore flip flops!

The other thing that BletJaw killed looked like something out of a horror movie.  It was a glorified centipede only with fewer legs. I call it a scorpiopede.  Americans do not have a name for them because they are not found in America, but the Karen call them ‘DahBau.’ Their legs look like iron rods ending in sharp points.  They have a wicked pair of pinchers and grow to about 12 inches long!  Wow!  It really does look hideous, like the way the Bible depicts the 4^th beast of Daniel 7:7.  I am told that when they bite you it hurts much worse than a scorpion sting.  The harmful effect could bring you to the hospital, depending on where it bites, and the age of the person bitten.

The pit viper is quite a popular variety of venomous creatures here.  Many times we have walked right over them, under them or beside them.  I do not even see them because they are so well camouflaged.  BletJaw usually walks in front and is quick to see and kill!  This one bright green variety likes to hide in the tree branches or inside the bamboo fencing which is usually eye level!

This one was lurking in the bamboo fencing.

You can see how close we came to it on this narrow pathway just outside of LaGlah village.

Elephants:

I used to innocently think that the elephants around here were perfectly harmless.  We have petted a few and stood next to many as they passed by pulling heavy loads.  The elephant handlers look perfectly relaxed and perch high upon its neck, kicking and swating with a stick when the beast walks too slow.

I know better now!  Any elephant is potentially dangerous all the time especially when it is not being used. They have an oil gland on the side of their face that at any time can secrete oil that drips down. Here we call it “ThoLaw.” When this happens they go wild, charge, stampede, and run like the wind!

Just beyond MeDooGlow the forest service department keeps a few very large, wild male elephants.  I first heard that one wild elephant had broken loose in the beginning of August.  It was mating season and he had gone mad, broken loose from his chains, and stampeded to our section of the jungle because there were several female elephants in some of these villages.  This had not happened for several years. The people were terrified.  We heard stories of how a woman and her son had been trampled to death along with several others in the past.

At first there were 8 elephants in all that were terrorizing people near the big pagoda which is the way we have to go to MaeSalit.  Every time we planned to go in that direction by motorbike, someone had just seen them right on the road where we would travel. The truck is no safer than the motorbike.  But it is rainy season so only the motorbike can make it. One man from WahSueTah was driving his motorbike near the pagoda one morning.  When he rounded a corner, right in front of him were 3 very large elephants, one of them started towards him!  The poor man was so frightened that he leaped off his moving motorbike and ran for dear life.  Now if an elephant wants to catch you, he can. Big as they are, they can move astoundingly fast.  The man survived, but thought his bike must be flattened.  When he finally got enough courage to return to his bike it was unharmed. That very day we also needed to travel that way. All we saw was big piles of fresh dung on the road.

This mating season lasted from August to the beginning of November!!  During the month of October, three more wild male elephants joined the group of crazed animals.  Now it seems there are 13 in all.  The pastor was so frightened to travel home on his motorbike that he waited for us to go also.  I don’t know what we could have done to help against all those humongous maniac beasts, but we do know how to be instant in prayer and trust in God who is much bigger than a herd of elephants!

Another threat to life here are small insects and ticks which cause all kinds of life threatening diseases.  I will never forget the scrub typhus that took me out of action for some time.  Something else bit me one day recently and I was in agony for 2 weeks, when the pain left there was an itch that was so intense it caused pain.  Try riding on the back of a motorbike to villages in that condition!!

Soldiers in this area are also something to beware of.  I must not divulge any more information on this topic while I am here, but we must exercise much caution.

I seem unable to dredge up even one once of fear for all the things listed above.  The Lord has miraculously saved me from so many things in the past that I would be absolutely denying God to walk around in fear; even though I am careful. And as for those elephants:  If it is God’s will for my life to end under the weight of an elephant, then that’s the way I want to go.  But if it is not His will, 1000 elephants cannot touch me!

I am reminded of God’s Words in Luke 12:4,5  “I say unto you My friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.  But I will forewarn you who ye shall fear:  Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him.”

So here is our great danger.  We have been forewarned by God what to fear!  It is not, beast, reptile, soldier or any other creature that we are told to fear – it is yourself, your thoughts, situations, or people that get you to take your eyes off of Jesus.  The prince of the power of the air is intensely and desperately trying to do just that to each one of us in these last days.

Human beings today have it all turned around, much like the Pharisees long ago that were all caught up in ceremonies and rituals and not the real significance of the sanctuary service.  Just like the Jews that looked for Jesus to set up and earthly kingdom.  We think that is ridiculous. They totally missed the point of these things when it was so obvious.  But think about it, we are doing the same treacherous thing, fearing tangible things, fearing for our safety, fearing the dark, fearing the future, fearing this and that, when all the while the devil is bringing worldliness and compromise to us through situations, friends and acquaintances.  He brings doubt, discouragement, riches, popularity and thousands of other things to knock us off the narrow way.  He brings the cares of this world, and a hectic fast paced lifestyle that makes us rush around continuously with no time to spend “ A thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ.”  DA 83

These, dear friends are the things to be truly petrified of!!  These are the things that will destroy us eternally.  Let’s put fear where it really belongs!

Don’t forget Philippians 2:12 “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

Malachi 4:2 says:  “But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth.”

This week the pastor stayed in BYT with me while BletJaw was gone.  He speaks Karen, Thai, and enough English to help me!  I am so thankful.  It is providential because so many people were in desperate need of medical help!!

I will mention just a few:

First of all a man from LaGlah brought us his small boy who had been sick for a week.  Just the night before he had cried all night with a high fever. I checked him over and decided that he needed to go to the hospital right away.  They live to the east side of the mountain and needed to go to Meta hospital.  I missed BletJaw because I really did not want to drive all that way on the terrible roads, but necessity demanded it.  One section is especially tricky.  It does not even look like a road, only a mountainside with a rock slide. Another place requires 4 wheel drive low to get through.  The trip took 4 hours one way. The boy was admitted. We spent the night and came back the next day.  When we returned we found that patients had come from other villages the evening before and were waiting for us.

Patients streamed in from all different directions this week.  These four lovely ladies and 5 babies from GeGhah village, all needed medical attention.

This baby from GeGhah village responded well to the breathing treatments and medications. He went home the next day.

BrooMoo, the adorable 2 year old who is so used to his asthma and what I do that he comes and stands right in front of me, pulls his shirt up so I can listen to his lungs. He lifts his arm so he can have his temperature taken, and when I am ready he takes the oxygen masks and holds it himself the entire 15 or 20 mins. He kneels and prays with me afterward hands folded and eyes tightly shut, then shakes my hand as he leaves. It is very hard for me to see him suffer with asthma because I love him so much.  He is from WST so they can bring him in for rechecks as often as I ask them to.  He got well in one day this time!

The 10 year old girl in the back is PawNeePah.  She is from MeDeLeeGwee village, 2 hours walk from BYT.  When she first arrived her temperature was 104 degrees and she could barely walk.  The right side of her face was swollen twice its size.  I discovered that her ear, jaw and throat was severely infected.  The Mother told me that she had not eaten or drunk anything for 5 days.  She was in such extreme pain that she could not even open her mouth for me to examine her.  We prayed earnestly for her.

After 2 days of prayer, strong antibiotics, IV fluids, charcoal poultices and forced fluids, I was able to look at her throat.  The right tonsil showed the nastiest, most ugly infection I have ever seen!  Now I was able to get her to drink ORS, yogurt milk, and mushroom soup.  Her strength built up rapidly.  On the morning of the the 4rth day I was able to send her home.

The baby pictured here is her brother, SoChi.  He is a small 9 month old baby with pneumonia.  His lungs sounded like a freight train full of heavy cargo and pulling straight up a mountain.  You could not get lungs to sound worse than that! They could even collapse. Oh how we prayed for him! I gave him Sabumol and several breathing treatments. In only 3 days his lungs were almost clear and I was able to send him home!

This is SoRaChi! He lives in MeDeLeeGwee .  His Mother and siblings are pictured above.  He is love at first sight. I believe you already adore him! He is 6 years old.

This week SoRaChi came to see me with 2 other small boys from the school next door.  He walked right up to me and promptly proceeded to take off all his clothes.  There he stood before me looking up with pleading eyes, his skin covered with sores from head to toe. I have treated this boy numerous times before.  Every time he gets bathed regularly and uses the fungus ointment he gets well, but at home he has no bath.  He only plays amongst the pigs, chickens and cattle until his skin becomes dangerously infected.  His sister DIED of this same problem 4 years ago.

I am determined to get him well.  I take him under my wing and become a Mother to him.  Everyday I call him from school, pray with him, feed him nourishing food and give him a warm bath with lots of soap.  Then I clean his skin with a mild solution of distilled vinegar before using the clotri/beta ointment for fungus.  I wash his clothes with chlorox and hang them in the sun.  In just 4 days he is amazingly better.

SoRaChi after his first bath – ointment in hand. The sun warmed him and helped his skin.

Later we were able to buy new clothes for him.

In just 5 days he is almost completely well.  But alas!  Now there is school break for one week and he will go home!  We went to MeDeLeeGwee and visited his parents, asking them if they would consider sending him to Sunshine Orchard where he could be in school and stay clean and well.  They were willing to do that, but told us to ask him what he wanted to do.  Of course a 6 year old only wants to go home because that is all he knows. We gave them bar soap, laundry soap and ointment.  I cannot wait to see him when he gets back to school.  I want to keep him in my home with me.  Maybe in a little while he will love me and trust me enough to live with me. Please pray for him that he may win this fight against dirt!

Here’s the whole family. Right now they are all well!

Another man from GeGhah village came this week with COPD, (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).  He walked all the way from LaGlah village.  His skin was pale, his lips blue and he was so short of breath that he could barely whisper.  I quickly gave him puffs from a ventalin inhaler along with other bronchodialators.  He also had an enlarged liver, twice the normal size which was very painful to palpate. His condition needed hospitalization.  I was ready to take him but he had nobody to go to the hospital with him.  The pastor told him that he would go to LaGlah and get his son, so that by morning we could take him to MeDooGlow.  We prayed with this man and he went home.  When the son reached him the next morning, he refused to go!  Apparently the inhaler had helped temporarily and because he felt a little better he did not want to go.  This happens a lot.  I will continue to pray for him.  I am sure I will see him again.

Pewah, one of our beloved neighbors 62 years old, was very sick with sinusitis this week.  She did not come and see me for several days.  By then she had a fever and a splitting headache along with cough, congestion and fever.  She had not eaten or drunk much water either.   I gave her IV fluids for 2 days, and encouraged her to breath steam and drink more water.  We put hot moist packs to her sinuses and prayed with her.  In 2 days she was well and eating again.  She is very happy and thankful for the treatments.

I feel very inadequate each day and pray for God’s wisdom in treating the sick and all that I do.  I am only an old nurse with ER experience.  I do not have the knowledge of a physician, but I know I am the very best one for these people.  Why? Because I am the ONLY one here to do it! Some people could reason that these patients would have healed up that fast anyway, but I don’t believe that for a second.  I know God has miraculously healed them in answer to prayer.  He comes again and again with “Healing in His wings.”

Oh, Lord, You are everything to me!  My heart overflows with gratitude to You!

PART 1

I have come to the conclusion that I am no longer happy unless I am sharing Jesus with others.  There is nothing else I want to do.  My one burning desire is to reach as many people as possible right here at home or in any direction that the Lord sends me.

Friday, December thirteen, the pastor, BletJaw and I, took off on two motorbikes for DeeADay village.  Now this village is in TAK province about 2 hours motorbike drive from BYT.  BletJaw and I were on one motorbike and the pastor carried the large rainbow bag of medical supplies on his bike.  I had packed a lot of medicine because there are 4 villages close to DeeADay, and we planned to spend the entire weekend there.

I was really anticipating a wonderful time at that village.  I remembered the last time I was there 2 years ago.  The people were so loving and appreciative of every drop of medicine and every single stammering Karen word that I could speak.  I feel very sorry for these people because just two months ago, their lay pastor who had taught them for several years, had gone to America.  They are very sad. There is only one old man who lives 2 villages down from them, that can read a very little bit of the scriptures, but they cannot understand it.  They go to church and sit down, but they do not know how to worship.They miss the lay pastor, and saddest of all, the lay pastor is miserable in America, it is nothing like he is used to, and there is nothing for him to do. Here he did so much for God and for his people, but he cannot return until he can get a green card which may be 2 or 3 years.

The sad little DeeADay SDA chruch.

As we completed our 2 hour motorcycle ride into that village, we were greeted with great silence.  Nobody was around.  The lay pastor’s house was empty and looked very forlorn; the house next door contained one gloomy looking lady who seemed to have a begrudging, difficult time preparing rice for us to eat.  It seemed we were a great inconvenience.  I  treated only 6 patients that afternoon.  The last patient looked at me and said:

“She can speak Karen, but she doesn’t understand a word I say.”

It seemed she turned away from me in great disgust.  The painful truth of the matter was that she was correct. I can say quite a lot but cannot understand much.  I felt that BletJaw also was disgusted at me.  (When in reality this was the farthest from the truth)!! Oh, dear Lord the devil sure likes to attack my weakest side.  I can be tormented that I do not understand or speak this language well!  I am at the outskirts of every conversation!

Later that evening they are trying to figure out where I will sleep.  The pastor and BletJaw will sleep in the empty house.  The other people really have no place for me.  Finally a little boy brought a couple of blankets and they put me in the center of another hut. Thankful for the 2 blankets I curled up in my allotted space with my thoughts.  I was greatly disappointed at the cold welcome – or no welcome at all.  This is really unlike the Karen people. Worst of all I felt like an outcast on all sides. Other things were also pressing in mercilessly on me just now.

I have learned that when the devil presses me down like this, not to give in to the temptation to believe my thoughts and my senses because Satan, “Is a liar and the Father of it.”  John 8:44. The Holy Spirit worked on my heart telling me that it is always the darkest just before God does something special.  I prayed and read 1Thessalonians.  Now I felt such a deep love and pity for the people in this village.  Next I turned on my cell phone music.  With the ear pieces in my ears, these are the words straight from heaven that the Holy Spirit comforted me with!  The Nebblet family sang . . .

I will change your name,

You shall no longer be called,

Wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid.

I will change your name,

Your new name shall be,

Confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one!

Faithfulness, friend of God,

One who seeks My face!

It is so awesome to walk with God!  Oh how instant is His strength to reach down and pick you up out of the devils temptations of loneliness, doubt and personal pain when you ask Him!

How astonishing when the devil’s lies are unmasked – they had seemed so real!

Oh yes, Lord, I am seeking Your face.  You fill me with joy and warmth in the midst of cold people and wonderfully change my freezing thoughts.  You have sent me here and You have a purpose for my being here – I will trust in YOU alone.  Peace and joy flooded my soul and I slept that night.  I was even almost warm enough.

The pastor had previously asked me to do one worship talk and I had prepared something on the Holy Spirit.  Friday evening worship brought only 3 sad people into that little church building.  Sabbath morning – was the same.  By the time of the Diving Worship, I thought the pastor did not plan for me to talk because he had said nothing, so I relaxed.

Just before the bell rang announcing church, BletJaw asked me what I would talk about.  He said I would do the church service.  I was surprised, but we had time to pray together that God would be with our mouths and teach us what to say, for the Holy Spirit, for the people’s hearts, and for no distractions from the devil.

I now stand before a church group from 3 different villages.  There must be 25 people in all.  (I did not count them).  A child, who had been running around commanding all the attention just moments before, now sat silently.  As I prayed aloud for the dear Saviour to be in the midst of us that morning, I knew He was already there!

I told the story of Nicodemus and how Jesus described the Holy Spirit, and how to be born again.  I read John 14:26 to them of how the Holy Spirit would be their teacher, teaching them ALL things.  So right now even without a lay pastor they can be taught by the very best teacher.  I shared with them Mark Finley’s four steps to receiving the Holy Spirit:

1.  Ask for it.  Luke 11:13
2. Be sure you have an undivided heart to please Jesus.  John 8:29
3. Set aside a time every day to pray with at least one other person
4. Saturate you mind with Gods’ word.  Listen to it on the radio.

I introduced them to the audio Bible that we had brought for them to hear the Word of God.  It has a solar unit built onto it so that it can be recharged without electricity.  They too can saturate their minds with the powerful Word of God!

DaMooPoo at the far left, delighted with his audio Bible. Our pastor Thashee is beside him, then a DeeADay resident next to BletJaw who has had just taught them how to use it.  He will share it with the others.

I told of the power in the Bible.  All the creative power that called the earth and everything in it into existence is packed into the Words of the Bible.  This same creative power will create a love and knowledge of God in their hearts as they pray and claim the Bible promises.

I ended with a story to illustrate the change that is wrought on the heart when they are born again. God creates a love of the truth where once was sin, a desire to please God where once was only the desire to please self, peace where once was chaos and unrest, understanding where once was confusion, and happiness where once was discouragement and doubt.

The child remained quiet the entire time.  The attention of those dear people was not interrupted. I prayed for them and knew that God was working on their hearts.

We left Sabbath afternoon instead of Sunday because the pastor suggested that we go to LaGlah and do worship with them.  We were thrilled to do so.

(By the way, God orchestrated this move, because if we had left on Sunday as we were planning to do originally, we would not have been able to get home because it rained hard all day long Sunday, a cold driving rain just as if it were rainy season)!!

I WILL CHANGE YOUR NAME  PART 2

Two hours of driving the motorbike and two snakes later we arrived at ChaDree’s house.

We have been earnestly praying about ChaDree and how to relate to him now that we know his dangerous, illegal situation in dealing opium. We have concluded that we will not expose his crime and thus humiliate him.  We will meet in his house as usual, love them all as usual and let the Holy Spirit do the work of exposing, convicting and converting.  His soul is much too precious to jeopardize in any way.  God will protect us as He has done all along the way!  So we prayed that we would have the right occasion and the right words to speak.

After all the patients were treated we began worship.  After the song, the pastor asked me to conduct the worship.  I was delighted and presented the beautiful Saviour and His Holy Spirit to them as I had before only in a shorter more simplified version!

Oh how I wish you could have been there to see ChaDree and his attentive face!  It was like a dog when he hears a high pitched squeal, head tilted slightly, fully alert, eyes staring in strict attention, body leaning forward.  We all noted his riveted expression, and sensed his hunger for righteousness and longing desire to hear and understand fully.  We were praying for him!

God gave me a chance to tell about the change of heart we receive from God when we are born again by the Holy Spirit.  The things we once loved, like alcohol, smoking, and opium, we will hate.  The God who created all things out of nothing can also create in us a new heart and a right spirit.  At the end I asked them if they would like me to pray for them to receive God’s Holy Spirit into their hearts and be born again.  ChaDree was first to raise his hand high!  Oh how thrilling this is to me!

The sweet group we had worship with that Sabbath afternoon. Precious seeds of truth have fallen on them again!  Please pray for them!!! ChaDree is the man with glasses and to the right of him is pastor Thashee.

God wants to do a great work through each one of us, but doubts and fears paralyze us.  If we cling to these lies of the devil, there is great loss, because not only do we grow cold and imperil our own salvation, but also the souls that He wants us to reach could be lost!

Yes, God changes my name continuously so that I can work for Him.  He will change your name too!

“At all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all afflictions, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone, the Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith. Circumstances may separate us from every earthly friend; but no circumstance, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always at our right hand to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer.”  DA 669.4

Oh Amen and Amen!  Thank you precious Jesus!

Just so that you can be in on the action.

The solar system is in!   This is way more than we ever asked for or dreamed of!  Our hearts are full of praise to God!

We met the 2 trucks in Omkoi , last Wednesday, November 20, to show them the way.  The weather is so un-co-operative!  We could hardly believe that just as we got onto the bad road it rained.  The road showed signs that it had rained a lot!  The trucks had to drive very slowly because the batteries and converters etc. must not be damaged!  On one descent I looked back to see the truck with the batteries turned completely sideways, with the two back wheels in a deep ditch.  It came jerking down the hill in that position.  We prayed earnestly as we approached Breck’s corner of terror!  If that were just as wet we all could go over the cliff!  God is in control, and though the devil keeps trying to extinguish this light, God miraculously answered our prayer!  Just before the whole series of downhill hairpin turns – the road became dry, even though the rain was still drizzling down!  Truly we cannot cease to praise Him here!

These guys have driven a lot of bad roads before and say they are used to it, but all of us had to be concerned about this trip.  The part leading up to our building that goes around the church and around our old house and on up is especially tilted and steep.  The front wheels came off the ground in one place!

Here is the heavily loaded truck that the 5 electricians were in. That box on the top is EXTREMELY heavy.

You can see the struggle it was even with all those men to get it up the hill to our house. We must invest in concrete steps up to the house.  The poor patients also struggle up this part.

The plan was that the electricians would work half the night so that they would be finished by noon the next day.  They must move on to Southern Thailand after that.

They worked late into the night with two flood lights running off a generator.  Also note how large this cabinet is.

There is only 2 problems.  The cabinet that you see is way too large!  It was only supposed to be half that size.  Also one of the solar panels broke in transportation.

In our storeroom this cabinet takes up a LOT of space. This side contains all the switches, breakers, inverters and batteries. The other side is empty.

The solar panels fit beautifully on this section of the roof with no overlap!

A truck will come some time next week and replace the broken solar panel, and replace the large cabinet for one half that size.

We thank this team from Chiang Mai.  Mr. Alessandro Locatelli, general manager on the right. His wife is in the center, and the 6 other Thai men are the electricians that did all the work.

The batteries are fully charged and the lights are working!!  They say this system could support a refrigerator, washing machine and rice cooker! However, the sun at this time of the year only lasts on these panels till 2 – 2:30 p.m.  We will see how much electricity this will produce here.  We believe it will more than provide for our needs!  One thing we know, we will have LIGHT!

“While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of the light.”  John 12:36

I still do not know his name and we have not even figured out if he is Buddhist or Christian, but one thing we do know, he is an excellent worker.  He took care of every detail of his work as if it were his own home he was working in.  Whenever we prayed with the patients he always stopped everything he was doing and waited quietly.

The pictures will tell the story:

The shopping is finished and we are headed out to pick up the electrician and go to BYT.  I surely hope we have everything we need!

The very first day it seemed like suddenly wires were hanging down from everywhere!

While there was yet work to do, he did not even stop to eat until the afternoon!

Thursday night he worked late by the light of candles. . .

. . .And a flashlight!

Isn’t it beautiful? He has every box perfectly straight by the use of a level. Even inside the boxes where nobody will ever see, the wires are twisted together perfectly even.

Finally when all the work was nearly completed he had time to show us a smile and pose for a picture!

Our poor old generator worked Thursday night, and the electrician had us turn all the switches on! Suddenly such bright light flooded every corner of our building. I just walked from room to room admiring the bright light! These villages have never experienced such bright light!

I pray they will experience the greater light.  For Jesus said:  “I am the light of the world, He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life!” John 8:12

Friday morning all that was left to do was mount the fans.  The generator was needed to drill 5 holes for each fan.  Alas, the generator would not start!  BletJaw pulled that string until his palm was bruised, but no use.  We brought the mechanic back to MaeSalit that day.  He charged us only $140 for all that work.  He will come back with us tomorrow, November 18 to finish, plus he wants to see the electricians put in the solar system!

Our generator has now been fixed.

Join us in our excitement!  Can you feel it in the air?!  The solar people, a team of electricians from Chiang Mai, are coming to BYT to instal the entire solar system Tuesday, November 19!! They will come in 2 trucks with all the equipment and their  team of electricians!!!  It may only take them one day to install.  They are professional, they are used to working in the remote mountains where the roads are bad.  They will cook their own food, and take care of every detail. They will put the solar panels on the roof top!!  I think there will be 8 panels!! This is really really happening!  It is not a dream! It is not a future plan – it is reality!! It is NOW!!