Gayle in Thailand

November 12, 13, and 14

Emily has experienced the call of God to go and be a Bible worker with the Karen people of LaGlah village! She has visited this area several times with us and knows this village and some of the people there.  Only after much prayer and preparation did she plan to live with a family there, until a small house of her own can be built.

November 12.  Emily, Breck, Blet Jaw and myself prepare to hike out to LaGlah.   Emily will stay with them and teach little by little the Bible truths.  Please pray for her as she steps out courageously to lead these people into truth.

I do not come away from LaGlah village without a tremendous blessing. This day was no exception.  First I am so Thankful for Emily, her talents and the warm reception she has with these people.  Second, we had gathered with 2 families on the side of a mountain slope discussing the building of a simple, small house for Emily to stay in.  Two men told us that they would go ahead and build it as soon as their rice was harvested.  They told us that most of the village would help in leveling the property and building the house.  Even the people in the next village BlahGlow want to help.  One man owns an elephant and will use it to bring the posts in from a far mountain. The head man who lives in BlahGlow, a nearby village, is in full agreement and very happy for us to come.  Land was also given to us to build a medical clinic when we get a full time, long term medical worker. This land overlooks a marvelous view of rice paddies and mountains.   Oh how the Lord has worked marvelously for His cause in this village!

Some of their comments rang through my ears as I walked back to BYT.  “After the clinic and house is built, we want to move our house over very close to it, because we want to be together, eat together and talk together.” Their eyes were bright with excitement and their talk was fast.  They also want a school for their children, even though there is a small government school in that village.  I know God is working on their hearts and I feel so blessed to see the results of the Holy Spirit’s work all around me!!  How unworthy and sinful I am to be a part of this great work! How great God is!  How powerful He is to bring a desire for Him, and change hearts and lives!

November 13:  We visited an older couple in WST.  They had received an audio Bible several months ago.  How delighted I was when the man began to ask questions about the things he had heard on his audio Bible!!  Was he sinning against the Holy Spirit when he got angry or said bad words?  He was very scared that he might be sinning the sin that could not be forgiven?  Do the people in America all know more about God than his people do here?  Do we ever get angry?  How can he stop thinking bad thoughts?  He is afraid that he just does not know God.  If God loves us so much, does he love Satan? Does God ever talk to Satan? These are just a few of his questions that day as we sat and talked together for over an hour.  His house was a small bamboo hut, just large enough for him and his wife.  Their belongings consist of an old blackened cooking pot, a pot of water and a few old clothes, yet, here was a man richer than the king of Thailand, because he was grasping the hand of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

November 14:  ChaPoe, 58 years old and BeeHtu, 48, from WahSueTah (WST), came to our house this morning.   ChaPoe had told us 2 days ago that he needed help to stop smoking.  We had agreed to come to his house the next day, but had not been home.   As I spoke to ChaPoe about the five day plan to stop smoking, I came to the part where you encourage them to go to a close friend who can support you in your crises and pray with you.  It was then that BeeHtu said that he too wanted to stop smoking and drinking and would join ChaPoe.  They would pray together, encourage each other, and remind one another of the treatments and Bible verses to claim.  We gave vitamins and many things to help them through the entire program, especially the first three days which are the hardest.  We prayed with them. Later we delivered the steam tent to ChaPoe’s house and taught them how to use it.  ChaPoe’s wife is not ready to stop smoking yet.  We told her that it would make it extremely difficult for her husband to stop smoking if she kept doing it, but she had just purchased a bundle of tobacco and was not willing to throw it away.  We prayed there for both of them.

ChaPoe is on the left and BeeHtu is on the right.

I plead with you to please please pray for the people of LaGlah and these 2 men.  We took their picture and told them that we would send their pictures all over America and Canada etc. asking the people there to pray for them!  Knowing this brought more courage into their hearts.  I cannot send this out tonight though because the internet is not working again at the school here.  But before the 5 days are up I need to get this to you so you can fall on your knees and pray.

Matthew 28:19 says, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations.”  This is the great commission. We know it well.  It is our duty to go and teach all over the inhabitable globe, because we know Jesus.  Now let me ask you three questions.

1. What would have happened to the dear people of LaGlah and these precious souls in BYT and all around us who are hearing God’s call to their hearts to forsake all their bad habits and follow Jesus, if I had not heeded God’s call to come to Thailand 3 years ago?  A more serious question is this:
2.  What has happened to hundreds of other people in my past who have not heard because I was not listening to God’s call and was not going wherever He wanted to send me!  This is a gut wrenching thought to me.
3. What are you doing to fulfill your part of the great commission today!  Are you willing to forsake all and follow Him?  Do it now before it is forever too late for you and the people you are supposed to reach!

I have only known him for 5 weeks, but I see someone who is a born missionary!  I was impressed from the start because he was so excited to actually be here and had no desire to wait around for anything before coming to BYT – not even the rainy season or jet lag!  He arrived in Thailand on the 17th of September and we hiked all the way into BYT four days later!  He got the tail end of the rainy season and joined right in with the more primitive lifestyle, mountain climbing, mud and leeches.

Breck is 22 years old and has just graduated from Southern College nursing program.  He wanted to serve somewhere overseas.  As he prayed about it, the Lord clearly directed him to BYT!  It is very thrilling for me to see a young person who is connected with God, ready and willing to go wherever He sends them.  I see him praying and reading his Bible here morning and evening and I just have to turn away and fall on my face at Jesus feet and praise the Lord with all my heart for sending him here to work with me.  His humble, teachable spirit, adaptability, helpfulness, ready smile and hearty laugh make him completely loveable and a joy to work with.

Already Breck has experienced IVs, suturing, injections and has helped care for many difficult cases.

Breck’s first sutures. He had just practiced the knot-tying on a cucumber a couple of hours ago, then in walks the laceration!

This suture line looks great. It is all healed now and the man is happy and very thankful!

Injections to a man coming off opium.

We complement each other as I have a lot of experience and he has a lot of fresh, up-to-date book knowledge!  It is so nice to be able to discuss patient symptoms and share the responsibility of patient care and stocking supplies.

Breck is a gymnast and says his entire family does gymnastics.  All his life he has tumbled, so it is quite normal for him to spend time upside down.  You can see him on his hands in many different places.  Sometimes you turn around to talk to him in the house and you are speaking to the wrong end!  But he still can hold a conversation!  He turns 30 back flips in a row, from just a standing position on the ground!  I believe this long history of exercise and strength has made him very healthy for the work he is doing right now.

Most importantly, Breck shares our passion to win souls to Christ. He has Jesus love in his heart for these people and he sees the power of the medical work to win the hearts of the people and open the way to share Jesus with them.  He has done worships in different homes and in the church, numerous prayers for the sick, and best of all he has shared Jesus in the homes of those who do not know Him and have never heard the Bible stories.  This is indeed the most thrilling experience of all, which keeps your faith and love for Jesus strong and ever growing.

God has given him a talent for preaching teaching and sharing His Word in a simple yet powerful way that these people can understand.

Thank you Breck

I don’t know how I avoided it all this time, but I have not had to pull any teeth yet.  Maybe many of them should have been pulled, but I didn’t do it!  Sometimes I checked the bad tooth and found infections.  I gave antibiotics until the infection was gone, but then when the patients felt better they did not come back.  Other times the tooth was not bad enough to pull, and just good oral hygiene was all that was needed.  Yet at other times it seemed that ALL the teeth needed to be extracted because they all were so black and eaten up by beetle nut, but I didn’t dare to that.

Good oral hygiene is difficult for these people to learn. You must show them how and teach them just a little at a time.

On October3, 2012, it seemed there was no way around it this time.  RrauDee, a 36 year old female came to our door with a terrible toothache.  I looked at the place that was hurting, hoping it was an infection or to find anything that would make the tooth salvageable.  But alas, the tooth was not infected.  It needed to come out!  She had been unable to sleep or eat for 2 weeks!!  To make matters worse it was the dreaded lower back molar!  This meant the nerve block was more difficult.  Two injections of lidocaine were needed to adequately block the nerves, one to the main nerve in the back of the jaw and one in the cheek line at the base of the gum beneath the bad tooth.  I didn’t mind pulling the tooth, but the nerve block seemed so difficult and totally “un-nerving” to me.  I had watched extractions on YouTube, but hadn’t learned much by them because it seemed they made it all a joke – and this was no joke!  I had studied the book, “Where There is no Dentist,”  which was a huge help, and I knew mentally how to do it.

“Well,”  I said with authority and confidence, (which I did not have)!  “This tooth must come out today!”  I had all the right instruments, but lacked the proper syringe.  I drew up the lidocaine in a disposable syringe and placed the instruments on a clean cloth.  Next I knelt down in front of the patient and sent up a most earnest plea to God.  “Please dear Heavenly Father, You have never left me and You are with me now.  I need Your help.  You must pull this tooth because I don’t know how to do it and I don’t want to do it.  Thank-You so much.”  Now I was calm and step by step, just as it was written in the book, I successfully blocked the nerves and pulled the tooth out!  It all worked perfectly as if I had done it many times.  The patient was not in pain and was so happy to get rid of that offending monster.  I was filled with joy that God faithfully, once more, had supplied all my needs.  Indeed it was not I that pulled that tooth – it was God!

The inspired words of God’s servant, Ellen G. White says:  “God is able and willing to bestow upon His servants all the strength they need and to give them the wisdom that their varied necessities demand.  He will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him.”  AA 242

Two weeks ago we walked to LaGlah village and spent Friday and Sabbath with them!  We had Friday evening and Sabbath morning  worship, followed by a church service. What a blessing and how totally thrilling it was to hear that 5 more households in that village want to join us in keeping the Seventh Day Sabbath and worship the true God!!!!  Here is one of the precious families!  May God multiply His work from this village to another and another and yet another  is my most earnest prayer!

This sweet family is so happy and eager to learn!

Satan is already staging his attacks.  ChaDwee, the 62 year old man who was the first to ask for us to teach them about God in this village is in Chiang Mai hospital.  Though he has recovered considerably, he still has the mass and is receiving radiation and chemotherapy.   SeHe, the man who seems to be the most earnest of all to follow Jesus, has suffered hardships.  He only has 2 young sons.  His wife left him several years ago. Presently both his boys are desperately sick and in the hospital.  Also our Bible worker there has become sick and is not able to be with them for a while.  Please pray as never before that Satan’s power will be broken and God’s work can go forward with power.

We need full time workers in this area, not just visitors.  If you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit working more and more powerfully upon your soul to spend your life working for God here in the mountains of Thailand, please do not hesitate to respond to God’s call.  Come quickly.  Learn the Karen language well first, then you can fit in where it is so desperately needed!!  I know God is calling on at least 2 hearts right now.

Remember the story of Emily slipping on the bridge over the quicksand?  She barely got her leg back and did not get her shoe back!

Well, two weeks later BletJaw and I returned over that same bridge because we must go to NeLeeGwee village.  Someone was very sick there.  I was apprehensive as I approached, remembering how dangerous it was the last time.  It must be worse now because the rain had not let up.  This time my apprehension was well founded, because the small area of quicksand was now sprawled out over the pathway as well and the river was wider.  Instead of a bridge there was one small log that was floating alongside of the posts, held there only by the flow of the water.   Beneath that muddy water was the horrible quicksand growing wider and deeper as the mudslide on the mountain behind it sent down more mud.  BletJaw went first so he could encourage me across.  Little did I know that his “encouragement” was taking a video of me in my struggle!

Here is the mudslide

My journey across. Sorry but the computer will not load the movie taken of this event.

…And don’t forget, we must come back this same way at the end of the day!

As I look back upon the rainy season experiences, I recall the great mercy of the Lord!  He has carried me upon His shoulders for sure. In 31/2 months of rain our walking time averaged a minimum of 26 hours every 2 weeks. -And that is NOT your “stroll in the park” walking.  During that time, the more mountains I climbed the more energy I had!   Even after the 7 hour hike back home I was so happy, enthused, and ready to take a bath and cook our evening meal.

I recall Deuteronomy 29:8 “I have led you…and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.”  This is the same for my feet!  Usually in the rainy season our feet crack, bleed and rot, but I never had any problems with my feet, not one tiny spot of open skin or aching bone or muscle- though they were exposed to water and mud the entire time we walked!  That is just not normal – that is a miracle. Just as much a miracle is the fact that in over 3 years here in Thailand I have only experienced one day of downtime with a fever.  All the other days I have felt great.  This is no credit to me, only the awesome way God takes care of  us.  The joy in my heart cannot be measured.  Jesus says to me:  “The strength of those who love and serve God will be renewed day by day.” How faithful and abiding He is!

When it is my time to suffer sickness, pain or death, may I praise Him just the same.  Whatever circumstance or situation comes my way in this life, I  have the assurance that it has gone through His hands first and I can glorify God, because  I know I am only called upon to bear it in order to bring the most honor and glory to His name!   Oh we can trust Him fully all our days!

“Dear Lord,” I prayed one early morning, as I sat on my rock in the middle of the fast flowing stream, “Please let me see Your face today. “

• If only a glimpse of Your glory as Moses did after he asked, “I beseech    Thee, show me Thy glory.”  (Exodus 33:18)
• As Isaiah saw You “High and lifted up.”  (Isaiah 6:1)
• As Ezekiel saw, “As it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about…The likeness of the glory of the Lord.”  (Ezekiel 1:27, 28)
• As Daniel did when he saw a “Certain Man clothed in linen …His face as the appearance of lightning.” (Daniel 10:5, 6).
• As the disciples just after the resurrection.  “Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them.” (Luke24:36)
• As John beheld on the lonely isle of Patmos amidst the seven candlesticks. “One like the Son of Man…His countenance as the sun shineth in his strength.” (Revelation  1:13-17)

“To see just one ray of light this day dear Lord,” I prayed.  “This would give me something to cling to when all alone, something to remember when all have forgotten, something to lift me up when I am pushed down, something bright when all is dark.”

Somehow that morning in the midst of the stream, my dear Jesus came near, and in the sweetest rebuke He seemed to say: “Oh, my dear child, Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.  I have shown you My glory all along the way.  My face is shining from the eyes of the old and the young whom you have helped.  When you are alone, forgotten, down and in darkness, please see their faces and know I am there.  Please know that I am the people you see every day.”

. . . Oh dear Lord,  You are so beautiful!

After each rainy season here in Thailand, I have experienced joy over the first open blue sky and dry patches of ground.  This year, however, was different, let me describe the first clear sky day.

On September 5, I had woken up during the night to see the light of a full moon streaming in through the cracks of the split bamboo wall!  The next day dawned clear and beautiful!  After over 3 and a half months of heavy overcast skies with no clear patches and no hint of sun, moon or stars,  this was truly a delight!  I took pictures of blue sky alone.  After practically living in the rain and mud, the clear sky is much more appreciated!  It is certainly true that we do not appreciate the blessings of God nearly as much as we should.  Only when something is taken away from us do we understand more of its importance. This ought not to be so!

Now the rain has persisted but is much less drenching and further apart.  We are excited to pick up where we left off and continue the building project, except instead of one project in BYT we will move ahead on a second project in LaGlah as well!  Soon the trucks and elephants will be able to roll in with supplies to build.  Some things threaten to slow us down, but we will rely on the Lord to work all things out in His way.  It is His project and He will provide!

We plan to build just a house and clinic in LaGlah.  Even though they want a church as well, we are told that there must be 30 members before we can build a church.  I am confident that there will be 30 members in time, as God’s Holy Spirit continues to work on these people’s hearts.  And you continue your most valuable prayers!

I reminisce over the last 4 months.  Thinking about God’s call to my heart to work in BYT during this rainy season.  My fleece before Him was that if I got a 3 month extension on my one year visa, that would be a sign that He wants me  in there.   I was able to get far better than a 3 month extension (Which really would not have been long enough), I got a retirement visa!  No more problems over my visa.  So of course work went on in BYT during that time and what fruit for our labors!   -An entire village interested in the truth, several lives saved, and 3 people off opium!  Just to mention the main things.  Oh how unworthy I am to work for God.  How wretched and miserable I am, but this makes God’s working all the more pronounced, His glory all the brighter and most excellent!  Oh may I not deviate from His perfect will in any way along this pilgrim pathway.  He has simply amazing grace for us all.

Mrs. White says:  “In talking about His church God says the members are to find their happiness in the happiness of those whom they help and bless.”  Acts of the Apostles 9

SeHe on the left side of Blet Jaw and BoPe, (ChaDwee’s wife) on the right. Their faces beam with happiness because help is on the way!

 Oh this is so true.  Today was Sabbath.  Two people hiked all the way to BYT in the pouring rain from LaGlah village because they wanted to attend church.  After church they came over to our house and we talked for some time.  SeHe told us that he has already prepared a place to build a house.  Could they please have somebody come and live with them and teach them about God?  They cannot keep coming to BYT because it is too far and not everyone can walk that far.  They told us that almost the entire village wants to know God the way we do.  They also pleaded for a medical worker.  They cannot donate any money, but they can work hard and help build the buildings.  Again my eyes filled with tears.  How wonderful tears of joy are!  We already have a Bible worker to fill the need, and I know God will supply the medical worker! 

 The harvest is ripe, the doors are wide open here, not just in this one village.   Let’s press forward with all efficiency, power and might that the Lord gives us!  I am so overflowing with joy that I can hardly stand it!  Surely the words of Malachi 3 are so true that God will pour you out a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it!

Today has been a lovely Sabbath day.  I preached the sermon today about prophecy and the great truth of the Bible.  Coe, a 49 year old man was there for the second week in a row!  He is the one who has suffered from severe asthma attacks two times now.

After church he came to our house with ChweeCoo and his wife DahBlet.

You can see the pure joy on their faces.  The couple on the right have been off opium for several months now and don’t even desire it!  They are encouraging Coe, on the left.  He has gone 5 days without opium!  He has come to us to find out how he can sleep at night.  It is very hard for him at night.  I gave him vitamin B complex with some excellent vitamins and minerals I found recently and we prayed together.  I will try to get a portable steam bath unit up here so that he can sweat off the poison. 

This village is changing!  More and more sense their need to be free of the habits that chain them.

To end the Sabbath day, we were sitting in church.  It was 5:30 p.m. and suddenly there was an interruption.  Apparently there was a student at the school who was unconscious.  They wanted me to hurry and come. 

On my arrival I found a 10 year old boy, HtuSaw.  He was in and out of consciousness.  The history was vague and eveybody had a different story.  I could not tell what caused his problem.  It could be a seizure, but at present he was hyperventilating and blowing off too much carbon dioxide.  I placed a plastic bag over his mouth so he could rebreath.  This seemed to help, but his blood pressure was 78/40!   Not good.  His pulse and respirations became dangerously low.  Some of the church people came over at this time and we all prayed together for this boy.  I dashed back to the house and grabbed an IV and adrenalin.  Again I felt so uncomfortable about being stranded outside of medical help.  However, the Lord reminded me that He was enough!  Hadn’t he healed all those other people! 

I only had two 20 gauge cathalons to start the IV with and the first one blew.  Because this boy was in shock, his veins had collapsed.  It seemed the entire school and teachers were pressing around me.  I knelt down right there amidst the strong Buddhist people and prayed that God would help me start this IV.  Now I was able to get the IV started without a problem.  In went the fluid.  I injected adrenalin two times 15 minutes apart and repeated the blood pressure.  As the pressure came up, the boy regained consciousness.  He was hungry and someone brought him something to drink.  Later he sat up and as I watched him over the next 2 hours, he indeed was better!  I discontinued the IV and told HtuSaw,  “Good night and God bless you!”

Now I have good friends in this school.  They have observed first-hand how God answers prayer!   

I am so happy to be working here.  My highest joy and utmost pleasure is in doings God’s work here.  I am so weak and insufficient, but God is everything and does everything!  I will never understand how it works I will never understand His love, but am always reaching out for more!   Please, together with me let us do His work wherever and whatever it is and press together till He comes!