Gayle in Thailand

We were scheduled to leave BYT to exchange 2 students at Sunshine Orchard.  Our food was out and so were many medicines.  Another important reason was my visa must be renewed.  Two days before leaving, we again visited GeGhah village to see ChiDah who was dying of kidney failure and heart failure.  I needed to increase her Lasix medication among other things.  When we entered the house, I could sense the smell of death.  This lady was worse!  Her swelling was worse, and she could not stand up.  She did not have long to live.  What a helpless feeling!  Again we prayed with her and explained a little about the love and healing power of Jesus.  We talked a little about heaven, but again it did not seem to be comprehended at all. 

The next day we were called to WST, the nearest village for an emergency. PowWah, 18 years old, just had a baby and she seemed to have a big problem with bleeding, dizziness and much pain.  The poor worried husband was at our door asking us to come.  “Oh dear Lord,” I pleaded, “This is not my specialty, I am so afraid of these problems.  There is no possible way out of here to go for medical help.  I am all they have, but you are my refuge and strength a very present help in trouble!  -and this lady is in trouble– please take control and help me!” 

When we entered the house we found the Mother and baby closed up in a tiny room they call the kitchen.  It was crowded with women “helpers,” and had a hot fire burning in the center.  There is nowhere for the smoke to go, but down into your lungs and into your eyes.  I don’t know how the people could bare it – especially the baby! – It was also very hot.  Many times we had to dash out of that enclosure in order to gulp in breaths of fresh air and rid our lungs and eyes of smoke. True, they had called me because something was wrong, but they were not willing to do anything that I told them, In fact I could not even check her bleeding or message her uterus to cause it to contract etc, because they were so intent on heating bricks in the fire, wrapping them in rags and pressing up into her abdomen.  I could not intervene to help much at all.  She was in intense pain and very dizzy.   I was able to feel her abdomen and found a big bulge out to the right side!  This is NOT good.  I did take some emergency measures, and was able to take her vital signs – which made me even more nervous!  I was able to get the baby to nurse after much coaxing, and we did gather everyone for a prayer.   I believe the family was upset because I gave no medicine for dizziness.  But they could not understand how serious her condition was.  I gave some medicine along with instructions.

The next visit was to DeDee, 20 years old.  She was also very sick.  She was 12 days post partum and could not walk. She was experiencing fever and much abdominal pain.  Because of the unsanitary conditions in which it was delivered, the baby also looked like it was suffering from septicemia.  It had that same dreaded uneven respiratory rate that I had seen before, and a fever!  I indeed was alarmed and gave both Mother and baby antibiotics.  We prayed earnestly.

While we hiked out of BYT the following day my heart was heavy.  I prayed for these 4 people.  I agonized with God to please spare Chi Dah so that she could learn about God before her life is taken away from her.  I knew that only a miracle from the Living God could keep her alive until I returned, and for that matter the other 2 ladies and tiny baby were in just as much danger.  Oh, I had a huge burden for these people.  I would have to tell my friends over the web page that not all things here in the Mountains of Thailand are joyous and miraculous.   Not all the stories thrill my heart and have happy endings.  We are not a full-fledged hospital that can administer any treatment needed like an intensive care unit!

Due to delays, it took us FIVE days to get back to BYT.  Therefore when we finally made our way to GeGhah village the next day to visit ChiDah,  my heart trembled as we neared her house.  No shoes were near the ladder of her house.  But to my joy someone was inside, -There she was still alive!  This is a miracle!  As I asked questions and did a physical exam, it was apparent this lady was much better!  Her swelling had gone down and she could walk!  I told her that I had prayed everyday for her and I knew God was sparing her life so that she could get to know Him and be ready to go to heaven when He comes.

ChiDah and her husband live in this little hut.

Blet Jaw was not with me this time.  I had already asked the student, BeNayHtu to tell her about Jesus.  He sat there in that tiny house and earnestly shared what was in his heart and in his Bible.  As he did, I had to wipe the tears from my eyes, because he had the full attention of the lady and her husband, and the presence of the Holy Spirit was definitely in that dark and dirty room.  It seemed they were now understanding something about the lovely Jesus.  The husband told us that he had been so afraid because he thought his wife would die, but because we came she was getting better and he could not thank us enough – he was so happy.  We told him that it was God who was helping her get better.

The next day we walked to WST to see the two new Mothers. -and what about that 2 week old baby with septicemia?  They all could have died.   Again my heart trembled as we neared the first house.  This is what we saw!

God has saved PowWah’s life. She is still staying in this smoke filled kitchen, But Mother and baby, (JaRreeA) are beautifully healthy!

PowWah, 18 years old, is well!  She has no fever, no abdominal swelling, no pain and no dizziness

And when we entered the next house this is what we saw!

This is DeDee, age 20 and her baby boy, AuCha. They are perfectly healthy today!

Again and again I have to fall on my knees and cry out my thanks to the most magnificent and awesome God.  The Great Physician who loves to bind up wounds, heal and restore!!!  Oh Lord forever will I serve You.  Forever will I depend upon Your goodness and mercy.  Forever will I do Your bidding and delight in Your love!  By Your grace alone!

We hiked out to LeGlah village again recently to encourage ChaDwee’s family in the Lord.  ChaDwee was still in the Chaing Mai hospital.

When we arrived we were surprised to see so many patients.  After treating them all we sat to talk with the family that we had come to know and love.  Three other men were there that I had met before but did not know by name.  We sat and told the Bible story again.  I was impressed to talk about the Godhead, the entrance of sin and creation again.   As I spoke, Blet Jaw interpreted with inspiration in his voice, I noticed the rapt attention on these 3 men’s faces.  We prayed together and then one man, HeSe, age 37 spoke with Blet Jaw.  He told him that he was baptized into the Baptist church, but he could see that this was the truth and he wanted to become a Seventh Day Adventist like us.  He knew how to read and he also wanted a Karen Bible.  We gave him one and he told us that he would read it to the other people.  He was earnest and spoke a long time to Blet Jaw.  We told him that we would love to come and tell him all the truths of the Bible so he could know and accept what we believe as the Bible teaches.  He was delighted to do that.  The other 2 men also were eager to learn more!

We had brought Karen Bibles to give, and also gave the family an audio Bible, spoken in the Karen language.  Everybody was delighted as they learned how to turn it on, charge it (Either solar or electric charge). 

Here they are listening to the audio Bible of the New Testament for the very first time!

SeHe, so happy to know the truth of the seventh day as it is in the Bible!

Here is Blet Jaw explaining how the Karen call Sunday the beginning of the week and Monday the first day. This puts Saturday, God’s Sabbath as the sixth day. But that is not what God tells us. Sunday is the first day and Saturday is the seventh. SeHe understands!

My heart was light, my soul inspired as I fairly ran and skipped down the steep mountainside in our return to BYT.  Oh dear Lord I breathed!  No mountain is too high!  No mud or river is too deep!  No leech or diet is too miserable!  No continuosly gloomy and cloudy sky is too depressing, when Your glory beams down upon a soul!  This is heaven’t light and it floods the land! This is a miracle of the heart and is more mighty a miracle than the Israelites crossing the Red Sea on dry land!

“I have trusted in Thy mercy, my heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation.  I will sing unto the Lord because He hath dealt bountifully with me.”  Psalm 13:5,6

I love you Lord!

This month surely brings us into a heavier rainy season! Now some of the pathways we travel are small rivers.  Water is everywhere.  Even the grassy places around our house are so deeply saturated with water that the grass sends you sprawling quicker than the muddy descents!  The grass roots have no firm soil underneath them.   Many times I lie down to sleep and still feel like I am sliding down the steep slick pathways.

However, the rainy season and all the disadvantages that go along with it here in BYT has not discouraged the students of Sunshine Orchard one little bit.  I am delighted to tell you that every 2 weeks we bring new students out here to learn medicine and how to share Jesus in the surrounding villages.  I am so inspired by these cheerful, helpful, loving and eager-to-learn students!  They are learning about God in that school and only in heaven will we find out how many good seeds are planted in the hearts of the students there, and how far reaching are the results!

DahBlet and MaSowE came first.  DahBlet told me that because of her work here in BYT, learning how to treat the patients and going out to other villages, she has been inspired to go to her own village and teach her people about God.  MaSowE also wants to go into Burma and tell others about Jesus.

MooLoPoe and MaSoeThey came next:

MooLoPoe entering GeGhah village. Like many other older students at Sunshine Orchard, her parents sent her to Bangkok recently. They want their children to earn money to bring back to them. However, Bangkok only teaches them to loose their walk with Jesus, and they become corrupted by the world. MooLoPoe told me that she cried every day that she was in Bangkok because she saw how bad the people are. She begged her parents to send her back to the school. We had all been praying for her, so finally her Father came and got her. Now she is so happy to be back at Sunshine Orchard, and so happy to be here in BYT. Her face shines with happiness.

I cannot tell you how heart warming and uplifting it is to see these students kneeling in prayer and reading their Bibles before they sleep and when they wake up in the morning.  Our time together has been well spent in talking with many people in their homes and praying with them.

From left to right: MooLoPoe, 16, ThaThaE, 16, an older woman we were visiting, BeNayHtu, 24 and DaKooSay, 17.

I sat there thrilled to hear BeNayHtu tell an older couple in their home in WST about the Jesus he knew and had experienced!

Experiences:

1.

OLayWah, is almost 3 years old. She lives in LaGlah village. Her Mother tells us that she pretends to be “TharaMoo Gayle.” Everyday she walks around the village with a bag in her hand. She hands the other children things out of it telling them that she is giving them medicine to help them get well.

2.

This couple have been off opium now for almost 3 months!

3.  A man in BYT, WahNew age 32, has been off opium now for 3 months.  He also stopped drinking alcohol for 2 months and now stopped drinking coffee for the last 2 weeks.  He came to ask us to pray for him because now he cannot stop smoking.  Please join us in a special prayer for this man.  Satan  delights to come in like a flood, chaining these poor people to their habits.  I am so glad that Jesus tells us that when this happens He Himself will lift up a standard against him!

4.

I asked what was wrong with the back of this little boy’s head. The Mother told me that when he was born she was unconscious for 3 days. The lady that was delivering the baby thought he was dead. Everybody thought he was dead, so the lady stuck a knife into the back of his head to pull him out.

I told this Mother that God saved their lives because they are so special to Him.  He wants them to know Him.

5.                                                                                                                                

This lady of GeGhah village is dying.

Her legs are over twice their normal size and over a plus 4 pitting edema.  Her stomach is swollen along with her whole body.  She is in kidney failure and heart failure and it is hard to tell which came first and for what reason.  I did have lasix with me and other treatments along with vitamins, but it seems too late.  To make matters worse, I must walk out in 2 days.  Would I find her alive when I got back!  We tried to tell her about Jesus, but she seemed not to understand.

6.                                                                                                                                

We visited this older man and his wife.  he had infections of the mouth and gums.  We gave him antibiotics and tried to teach him how to care for his teeth.  We knew he had an interest in the Bible so we brought him an audio Bible and showed him how to use it. He told us that he did not know or understand anything.  The only thing he really wanted to know is God.  Has anyone in America seen God.  How can he really know God!

7.

 This is CoDaJoe village.  It cannot be accessed by truck or motorbike.  This was the first time we were able to go there.  It takes one and a half hours of rapid walking.  There are only 3 houses there, however our walk in was needed.  The people suffer from  malnutrition.  Each one walks about lifelessly.  Their faces are pale.

This young man’s abcess on his foot had the most pus in it of any abcess I ever cut and drained.

This is one of the 3 houses in CoDeJoe. You cannot get to any house without wallowing in ankle deep mud mixed richly in cow, pig and chicken dung.

Since I have lived in BYT this rainy season, I can see how an impoverished diet affects your life.  For a while here we have only had yellow beans covered in mold, rice and occasionally greens from the gardens of the villagers, or some we picked ourselves.  I have always had loads of energy and am used to feeling good.  But on this diet I found I was tired and struggled to keep hiking out to the villages.  This poor village of CoDeJoe needs lots of good food and cleanliness.  Something must be done!

8.

This brings me to my next wonderful experience!  Travis!

Travis has been up here twice now, bringing Medicine and FOOD! He really is an angel of mercy! My energy is back and I am even more determined to bring better food to CoDeJoe!

Travis told me that he really enjoys the ‘adventure’ of driving his motorbike to BYT.  I would say it is more than an adventure.  I’d say it is high risk.  The roads seem impossible to me.  But he makes it every time!  -and when he gets here I feel it is Christmas and Birthday combined!

I am praying that Travis will receive the money to purchase a new motorbike.  This one is worn out.  He uses it for God’s work and helps many people because he is such a skillful driver on bad roads. I am sure the Lord will reward his labors!

Thank you Travis!

                . . . But Today We Worship God!”

ChaDwee and his lovely family

Oh thank you Lord for the best day ever!  My heart overflows!

We had gone to LaGlah village just 3 days ago, do we really need to go back up there again today?

But wait a minute, DJ, our neighbor was telling us that a man there was sick with bleeding and abdominal pain.  He did not get to see us 3 days ago.  He said they wanted to become Christians and wished to see us!  In that case, count me in – Let’s go!

It takes a little over an hour to walk to LeGlah village.  The rain accompanied us as usual.  Upon arrival we found 10 or more people waiting for us.

The man, ChaDwee had stomach and bowel problems.  Many witch doctors had treated him.  He had done everything they told him to do.  He had paid all his money to them and then had to pay with pigs, cows and chickens.  He was fed up with them.  Nothing they had done worked.  He had gotten physically worse, and now he decided he wanted to find the God of heaven that we worshiped.  There is sometimes a Baptist pastor in that village, but ChaDwee did not want him.  He had seen the way we treated the patients with such love and happiness that he wanted to worship like the Seventh-Day Adventist of BYT!

 As soon as we entered the house, ChaDwee went to DJ with his arms out and asked him to please take off his devil strings which were customarily tied around each wrist.  This is a great victory because the Buddhist people all receive these strings from infancy.  They are to keep evil spirits away and bring good luck. It is thought to bring terrible calamity if you cut them off.

We sat and got to know this lovely family and explained many things about God from the Bible, in the beginning how the world was made and the sin problem with Satan. They sat spellbound as we told of Jesus coming from His beautiful home in heaven to live on this earth. We told about His life on this earth and how He helped people, healed the sick and taught us how to live and how to get ready for His coming.  We told them about the glories of heaven and how Jesus cannot wait to have us all live with Him there because He loves us so much.  DJ told them all about the Sabbath, how the Catholic Church changed God’s day of worship and why we keep the seventh day.   We sang, and we prayed.

ChaDwee looked at the picture of the monk on the wall.  People hold the leading monks in great reverence here.  Now ChaDwee said, “I feel like taking that picture down off the wall and tearing it up!”

This man, ChaDwee, has turned his entire family away from heathenism to serve the living God! Pictured with him is NawDahBlet, who interpreted for me that day the beautiful story of Jesus! We are all so happy!!

I had examined this man and found out he has a very bad problem with his bowels.  He has a mass low down in the abdomen.   Perhaps he has cancer.  He needs surgery.  He has even gone to Mae Sot three months ago, but they did not help him.  I did what I could, but had a special prayer with him, claiming the Bible verses and asking God to heal him if it be His will.  Please join me in praying for ChaDwee that God will heal him if it is His will, to show him the power of God, and to reward his faith. 

ChaDwee, gathered his family together, his wife, and all his children and their families, from three different homes, eleven people in all that want to follow Jesus!  What a beautiful sight! Yesterday they said, they worshiped the devil, but from now on they choose to worship the true God in heaven!   Pray for them all, please.  Satan hates to lose his captives, but God has powerfully drawn their hearts to Him and they have responded!

1. 

This is SiMoan just 2 days after his hot and cold treatment. This does not show the smile for ear to ear, because the camera kind of surprised him, but he was so thankful because the next day the terrible pain in his knee and ankle had vanished and his swelling was gone. He had climbed the mountain all the way up to the place where you make a phone call – quite a climb. Oh praise the Lord with me for His healing power and answered prayers!

2.   Three ladies came to our house one week ago with long term illnesses.  One lady had suffered for 12 years, another for 9 years.  We treated them as best we could and gave vitamins and natural remedies.  Then we told them about the God in heaven who only can heal us and that we love to pray to Him and ask Him to help and heal.  After the prayer one lady looked at me and said, Oh please come to our village and help us know about that God!  We need your help.  We do not know anything about that!  She is from a village close to the Pagoda.  One that we have not visited yet because it is so far away.  We can only do so much, but I am determined to visit them and pray for help to reach more villages! 

3.  A lady, PePaw, came from GeGhah village one and a half hours walk from BYT.  She was so happy we were home, because she was terribly distressed with lung congestion and had toiled up and down the steep mountainside with an incessant cough and shortness of breath.   Her lungs did indeed sound terrible, so  together with the usual treatments I gave her a hot foot bath with the cold towel to her head to try to relieve the congestion and teach her how she could do it herself.  While in the  process she told us she had no idea that things can be done to help you feel better.  She said:  ” We all just wait at home when we are sick to see if we will either live or die!”  What a sad position these poor people are in.  No hope when sick, so hope of heaven.   We prayed with her and told her a little about our great living God.   She seemed so happy as she trudged all the way back home again that day feeling much better. 

4.

 Coe came to our doorstep a while ago, suffering from the worst case of asthma that I can remember seeing!  I trembled as I saw the dark blue color of his lips.  He could not speak which is a real big danger sign!   Oh his lungs could collapse any minute!  Quickly the usual medication and breathing treatments were done.  Next we gave a hot foot bath with cold cloths to the neck and head.  After 2 hours of treatments he was much improved.  We asked him to spend the night at our house so we could watch him, but he did not wish to.  We prayed earnestly for him.  The next morning he returned to thank us.  He looked good and was 80% percent better – thanking me for saving his life!  I said:  “No, I did not save your life, God did!!

5.  A Thai school teacher from next door, KrewSomSoon came to our house for the second time.  I had treated her for a problem with her nose.  It gets red, swollen, itchy and bumpy!  What a horrible condition to have!  I have no clue sometimes what to do, but pray.  That day I thought it must be an allergy of some sort, so I gave all the vitamins that are particularly good, like B complex, zinc, multiple vitamins, etc. for 2 weeks.  I listed the things to avoid eating.  One main thing is meat, coffee, tea, and asked her to taper off those things, and listed other common allergies she could try avoiding one at a time.  I gave her beans and a herbal tea to help her get off meat and coffee.  Her stomach bothers her a lot and I gave her ginger. I told her to return in 2 weeks so we could see how she was doing.  We prayed for her and she left.  

In 2 weeks time she came back thrilled.  She said that she had never been so well in all the years she had this problem.  She had been to many doctors in Bangkok and spent a lot of money, but nothing helped.  Now  she looked and felt so much better.  The amazing part that makes me want to cry to think about it, is that she earnestly asked us to pray with her!   She is a Thai, Buddhist, teaching the Buddhist religion at the school just next door to us, and asking for prayer to the God in heaven!  

Even now tears are going down my face to think of these wonderful people and what God is doing for the people here.  There is an awesome God in heaven who knows and cares and leads each day so we can do His work.  How can we reach all the people?  Jesus is coming so soon.  I see hearts reaching out everywhere to find Him!! 

Please be prepared for the tremendous story coming up next!!!

Emily is 23 years old.  She has lived in Thailand/ Burma for almost 4 years.   Her life is dedicated to God and the Karen people of Burma and Thailand.  She has served faithfully and unafraid in the interior of Burma for about one year, teaching at an SDA School during a time of unrest and danger from the Burmese and DKBA armies.  Living there requires a 2 day journey in and out with all her belongings on her back, and sleeping in the jungle overnight. This journey truly takes fortitude, strength and great courage as there are soldiers, and land mines where you least expect them. She has faced much hunger, cold and weariness. The journey had to be repeated every 3 months for visa updates. 

 Recently Emily took the 4 month training at AFCOE (Amazing Facts College of Evangelism) in California.  Upon returning to Thailand she has been faced with many opportunities and locations to serve God.  How thrilling it was to me therefore when I asked her to come and work with me, that she was so quick to respond positively.  So far she has visited BYT three times. I must tell you that I am 10 times blessed when she is here!  Her quiet, humble, unassuming, yet cheerful ways are a joy to live with.  Our hearts beat together with love for the Karen people and burning desire to lead them to heaven.  She visits in their homes, eats their food and understands their ways.  She can speak so much of the Karen language that her Karen Bible is her only Bible here, and she has conducts entire worship services in the Karen language!

One day Emily and I decided to walk to NeLeeGwee village which is about one hour’s walk from BYT.  Blet Jaw was taking some time off so it was just Emily and I.  I had a difficult time finding the right pathway out of the rice paddy, because there are many trails leading out in different directions to different villages.  I am so used to following Blet Jaw that I am sorry to say, I did not concentrate on directions.  However, we finally joined up with the right trail.  I knew it was correct because we came to a huge landslide off the side of the mountain which I clearly remembered.  A stream flowed by the base of the landslide and I noticed the sticky light colored mud rose dangerously high underneath a flimsy tree bridge which spanned the distance of the creek.  Only one thin tree was used as a handrail for balance.  As I neared the end of the bridge I heard a gasp and saw Emily lose her balance almost in the center of the “bridge,” and her right leg went deep into the mud.  It was true sinking sand and very scary because Emily was barely able to pull her leg out of the sticky muck – minus her flip flop!  We took turns digging down deep for it, but with no avail.  Covered with mud we retraced our steps back to BYT, Emily with only a left shoe.

I thank God that Emily’s angel kept her from falling into that quicksand.  It is a very dangerous spot.  She had told me to bring my camera that day, but at the last minute I thought my backpack was too full and it was too heavy!  How I regretted that decision!

But wait.  Let’s ponder this situation.  Did this happen for a purpose?  Were we supposed to be home early this day?

“Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.  Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment?” Matthew 6:25 

Some people have mentioned concern about our food situation way up here in the mountains during the rainy season.  It is impossible to bring much in with us on our backs now.  We did bring some food in on our last trip in the truck, but not enough.  We do have 3 things for sure:  Mountain rice, Yellow beans (gone mouldy already)! and a large bag of oats donated by a man in southern Thailand.   Oats are not grown here and have to be imported. They are hard to find and expensive when you find them.  What an unexpected nourishing treat!

God makes provision for all our needs!  He is constantly supplying me physically, mentally and spiritually.  Now He is supplying food!

The school sends their sick students and teachers up for me to take care of.  They are so appreciative that they send us food!  Two pumpkins, 2 flats of eggs, a box of cookies!

The pumpkins here are delicious, they can be boiled, fried, or made into soup.

“SouAuJewTha’ was given to us. It is slightly sour, but good. It is high in vitamin C.

Many banana trees and pineapple plants grow around our house.  When the fruit is just about ready to pick the village people come and pick it.  They need it more than we do, but this one is just about growing into our house!  I think we will eat these delicious bananas.

Just when we were missing vegetables, we were shown a little weed in our back yard.  The karen call it SiCoeMiDau, which means horse hoof greens.  It has a round, fluted edged leaf.  You can eat the leaf, stem and roots!  They taste like parsley only just a little bitter.  I know it must be good for you!

Can you see SiCoeMiDau in this picture?

You simply go outside, pick, wash…

…and eat.

 In end times Jesus says our bread and water shall be sure, but in Thailand it is rice and water.  Right now He has sent us much much more!  The windows of heaven are open always!  Thank you dear Father in Heaven! 

It always seems endless, whether traveling by truck, motorcycle or on foot.  It seems the difficulty of the path condition multiplies the distance.  Once you have reached your destination, the pathway still continues … there is always more beyond.  We have now made this walk in and out of BYT several times.  Each time the rain has made the road conditions worse.  When we return to BYT the surrounding villages still must be reached.  Our walking and backpacks continue three days a week. The paths seem longer, steeper and more difficult each time because of the constant rain.  We are sinking in the mud, soaking wet from rain and sweat, struggling onward.  The storms and the rain make our way so toilsome.  The backpacks add to the strain.  We are cold when we treat the patients in the village because we are wet. Why do we do it?  Why go to such lengths?  Why not rest and stay dry and comfortable?  .…I will tell you just 2 stories out of many to explain why!

1)      Three patients came to our home at a time least desirable.  We had just arrived from a long hike back to BYT from the main highway and just couldn’t wait to drink water, take a bath, eat food and sleep – in that order.  But we had been gone and these patients had just walked a great distance from MeDaLaGwee to see us and were so happy that they found us.    We treated them, and all but one left.  Sixty- five year old GeeWah sat cross- legged on the floor as if he had not received everything he came for.   As I looked at him I discerned something about him that longed for much more than medical treatment.  He asked Blet Jaw a couple of questions and as I cooked the evening meal I could tell that Blet Jaw was explaining many things about the Bible to him.  They talked for a long while.  Later Blet Jaw told me that this man did not know anything about the Bible, but wanted to.  He knew some people who kept Sunday.  Blet Jaw had explained the seventh-day Sabbath.  He had talked about the truth of the Bible beyond any other book.  He explained that no person is to be believed unless what they say matches with what the Bible says. He told him that the love of God and Jesus is so great for us that Jesus chose to come down from heaven and die for us, so that we could be saved from sin.  His conversation included many wonderful topics of forgiveness and heaven.  This man was wistfully looking to heaven that day and a seed had been planted in his heart.

Just yesterday we hiked out to his village, and KryCo village.  All in all it took us 6 hours of walking and 4 hours of village work. That day we met in GeeWah’s hut.  Blet Jaw had an opportunity to ask him if he had a Bible.  The man thought he had a Bible, but pulled out a small worn out book that had rosary prayers from the Catholic Church in it.  “No,” said Blet Jaw, “this is not a Bible.” 

The man took him over to the religious wall of his house, typical to many Karen homes.  On it were Catholic pictures of Jesus, Mary the mother of Jesus as a saint, the Thai king, and the shelf where they offer food to the spirits. GeeWah told Blet Jaw that they are supposed to pray to Mary.  The man pulled out a ragged page with the 10 Commandments written by the Roman Catholic Church. 

A beautiful moment when Blet Jaw explained God’s ten commandments versus how it is written here by the Roman Catholic Church.

Blet Jaw sat with the man and explained the 10 commandments as God has given them to us, and how human beings have tried to change it.  He pointed out how it differed.  He also told him that we only pray to God, not Mary the mother of Jesus.  She is a human being just like us.  She is not God.  Again he had the opportunity to teach this man more unchangeable truths of the Bible!  Again I could discern the man’s heart being drawn out after truth!

2)      Chtwee Coo, 36, came to our house for lower back pain. He asked us quietly to please pray for him because he had just returned from a detox center and had quit using opium.  Pray we did!  Later we visited him in his house and discovered that his wife also had gone with him.  She had used even more opium than he did and had a harder time getting off it.  So far they have gone several weeks without using opium!  We prayed with them again and encouraged them in the Lord, giving them a verse to claim in prayer.  ChtweeCoo came to church two times since.  Oh how all heaven rejoices when those whom the Father draws to Himself, actually come!  Please pray earnestly for him and his wife!

Oh precious Jesus, no price is too high to reach these dear people for You!  No other joy is this great to overpower our own discomforts and suffering and make them seem as nothing!  Oh precious Jesus, the pathways are endless. Beyond these paths we travel, lay yet more and more villages, unreached and untouched by Your messengers.  These pathways lead to sickness, suffering, hopelessness and those without a Saviour.  Oh where are the workers who will help travel these paths and search out the lost sheep before it is too late?  GeeWah, ChweeCoo and his wife are just a few examples of the fields that are ripe and ready for harvest.

I received a startling message from my friend who has been working in Thailand, but just recently took a furlough to America.  He states:

“We are in a great battle and it is only by the mercy of God that we are not all destroyed by the enemy.  We have heard many shocking things since we arrived in the U.S.  Pray for our people in America, they seem powerless against Satan’s attacks.  The Bible tells us that “…The love of many will wax cold.”  We are surrounded by it.  Many seem to be uniting themselves with the world.  What a blessing it is to be struggling in service to others on the front lines away from the worldliness and selfishness.  Service and obedience to God is our only safety.”

And you, reader, where do you want to be when Jesus comes through the corridor of the sky?  -In your living room with your friends, comfortably eating and planning your own agenda?  Or emptied of self and out traveling the pathway that God has mapped out for you? Reaching the people that only you can help before it is too late?

Oh dear fellow Americans, I was once unconcerned about missions too.  I heard the reports in America that this gospel message had pretty much been taken to the entire world already.  The satellite evangelism had done a great work and millions have heard about Jesus.  This indeed is true and evangelists have done a terrific job and still are – but there are yet more endless pathways beyond all that.  God has a great work for you to do! You can pick just any mountain and any pathway here and find those who do not know God. Don’t think you are unprepared and need more schooling.  You already know way more treasures of truth than these poor people.  You have something huge to share.

Oh please fall down on your knees at the feet of Jesus and let your heart be broken for a world in need.  Tell the dear Saviour that you will give your time, your strength, your entire life to do His work wherever He directs.  In going where He leads and doing His work, you will find the love of Jesus flooding your own heart for the people He sends you to save.  You will find salvation for your own heart and will discover blessings from heaven filling you with joy overflowing.  You will say with Paul, “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you!”   

-Yes, the pathway will soon come to an end and we will all be gathered together around God’s throne.  The dear Karen people here, and those you have worked with, will thank us, as we all “cast our crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power!”