Gayle in Thailand

This is an incredible story!

Joyce in QuayCo village

Enjoying a delicious meal, cooked and served by PaJew in LaGlah village

Joyce is telling a Bible story to a little sick patient in the clinic

Valerie’s lovely flute music charms a kicking screaming one year old, who hates the nebulizer treatment. A magical moment!

A lovely oxygen concentrator purchased right here in Thailand at a cheaper price! Thank you Open Circle Sabbath School!

Saying goodbye at MaeSot airport yesterday.

Give freely of yourself to others.

Give them whatever they need.

Give treatment to the sick.

Give hugs to the children.

Give all your love to all the people.

It’s the only time they will get to see God,

And it’s really the only way you can see God!

I want to tell you about the inspiration that my occasional trips to the Philippines brings me. The Philippine youth are full of smiles, hugs and photographs!  My latest trip was only for 2 days, but because of complicated travel it took me a full week.

Flying into Manila

Here is poor TahNahWit.  He is a very sad 12 year old boy from GeGhah village.

I am praising the Lord for Doctor Jack Hamilton and his wife Katie!  Always giving. Always helping. Always loving.  Always teaching!  Even though their lives are desperately busy in Alaska.

Christmas dinner at MeDeLeGwee village

I enjoy these people so much!

This is our worship group in MeDeLeGwee!

I love this part the best – teaching them about the lovely Jesus who can help you when you are afraid or in trouble!

“WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”

“We should be in a position where we may believe that God is willing to do for us more than we can ask or think.  ST May 7, 1896

Here are a few examples of the Holy Spirit at work amongst us!

1.  At the beginning of the Friday evening meeting on health, a young lady from WaSuTa caught my arm and earnestly told me that her father, TeePo wanted to quit drinking.  We know him well.  He is the village drunk!  Never sober, always tottering around looking haggard and wasted.  He had come to the meeting!  I looked at him  sitting in the back against the wall – even now he appeared drunk, but I am so delighted that he was there!  After the meeting this man came to us asking for us to pray for him because he had decided to stop drinking.  He also told us that he had been in debt for 1000 baht and had just paid off that debt.  I was amazed, as this man still smelled strongly of alcohol, his gate was uncertain and unsteady, yet I marveled at the 3 wonderful steps he had already taken toward Jesus.  One:  He desired to quit drinking.  Two: He had paid off his debt.  And Three:  He had come to our meetings and was requesting help!  We placed him in the middle of our prayer circle, laid our hands upon him, pleading with God for him to obtain the complete victory over alcohol.  The next morning BletJhaw and I visited him in his home.  He was sober and his hands were trembling.  I was so happy because I knew that meant he had not taken a drink. We gave him our package of remedies for detoxing and explained that he must take all traces of drink out of his house.  Also it is best to stop smoking at the same time and get the misery over all in one go, if not he would have to go through the ordeal again!  We found out that he and his wife smoke, however the wife told us that she did not want to quit smoking.  We told her that this would make it really hard on him because smoking triggers alcohol and visa versa.  We explained the importance of prayer to him and told him a simple Bible promise to claim.  He said he could do that.  Finally we prayed and I poured out my heart in prayer for this poor man who was going to face quite a struggle and needed Jesus.  As soon as the prayer was finished, the wife quietly got up and went to the corner of the house coming out with her plastic bag full of tobacco. Her eyes were wet with unshed tears, as she handed it over to me!  This was a moment I will never forget – a moment when I felt the power of the Holy Spirit in that home in answer to earnest prayer.

2.  Another man, ChaPoe, in that village had been baptized last December. He was the one who had invited TeePo, the alcoholic and his wife and children to the meetings.  He was embarrassed to tell us but he too had picked up smoking again. (We had helped him to quite about 6 years ago).  Now he is determined to quite again.  He came to all of the early morning united prayer meetings and requested prayer each time.

3.  Now here is a sweet story of a woman who has my heart!  This lady, TreeAu, used to come to our church regularly.  She was a pillar in our church.  She has 5 children, and the 3 married girls that live in BYT, always came to church.  However one day about 5 years ago this lady got her feelings hurt and quit coming to church, in fact she and her daughters attended the Baptist church in WaSuTa instead.  We were heartbroken and since that time didn’t miss an opportunity to invite her back almost every time she came to our clinic for treatment, and also when we visited in her home, but she would not come. So you can imagine our joyful surprise to see her attend our last 3 meetings!  I was so overjoyed to see her come that I gave her a big hug and a kiss.  After the powerful Sabbath sermon, entitled Full Surrender, our entire group got up to sing the closing special music: “I Surrender All,” in Karen.  I was singing in the center of the group.  Because I was singing high alto in Karen, I was concentrating a little bit, however I know the chorus very well and was able to look out at the beautiful people before me.  My eye caught this lady sitting in the middle of the women’s section.  As I was singing I Surrender All, and looking at her.  She smiled a wonderful smile at me and nodded her head while raising her hand.  It was a wonderful moment because I sensed a commitment in her eyes. Tears came to my eyes and it was hard to keep singing because I feel she will return to the Seventh-day Adventist church!

4.  SawSay met us Sabbath evening after the AY program. His voice was shaky and his eyes looked like tears were beginning.  He requested prayers after his baptism.  We wondered if the Buddhist in-laws were upset and persecuting them for this decision. We encircled him and laid our hands on him, praying for his victory and for continued growth with Jesus in the truth and the love of the truth.  SawSay said he was not being persecuted at all, he just was so thankful for what we had taught him and for the joy of his baptism.  He thanked us again and again.  So sincere and happy that the things he once did that was wrong, he now does not do them!

Lovely family doing all that they know is right

5.  Pastor Martin had a real longing for the Baptist pastor from WaSuTa to attend the meetings.  He had been invited two times.  He came on Friday with several people from his church.  At the close of the meeting Pastor Martin asked for those who wanted to learn about the Bible and get baptized.  A young man that he had brought from WaSuTa raised his hand to join our church. He said his wife also wants to join! We continue to pray for the Baptist pastor.

6. A 60 year old man in WaSuTa, BeeHtu, used to be very interested in our church. He attended all the Bible studies we did in WaSuTa, he attended all our church meetings.  His face always showed intense interest, which thrilled me, but suddenly he stopped coming. When we visited him he said that his children and son-in-law are against it.  But he attended our meetings and afterward BletJhaw was able to read him the verses in Matthew 10:37 and Luke 14:26 and encouraged him to come back to church and put God first!

So you see God has certainly given us more than we could ask or think!  Praise His name!

Now that the meetings are over, we have a responsibility to keep the fire burning and keep the people attending church and growing in faith. We really miss Pastor Martin – we are incapable of ministering to all these people properly, but God is capable and will help us. The Pastor advised us to continue the united prayer on Wednesday evening and the 6:30 Sabbath morning meeting.  This will bring power and unity into our church.

He asked us to do a 21-day Daniel challenge for our people where they will do the following for the next 21 days:

*Keep the 10 commandments with emphasis on the 4th and 8th     (Sabbath and tithing)

*Eat only clean meat – no coffee

*Drink 6 cups of water a day

*No TV, radio, or phone videos

*Take time in prayer and Bible

Also we want to encourage the church members to share their faith and invite others to church. They can take the audio Bibles with the messages on them and give them out.

Please pray for our people and for us as we are extra busy now spreading the gospel and giving the trumpet a certain sound!!

“WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”

“We should be in a position where we may believe that God is willing to do for us more than we can ask or think.  ST May 7, 1896

Prior to the BYT revival we had a series of problems, as you would expect.

1. First of all our truck broke at the CV axel twice in a row.  The second time it seemed the new part was too short, but it was the same size as they have put in before – mystery.  Every time we thought it was fixed and drove back to BYT, the 4-wheel drive went out.  Other large things were broken. Finally our mechanic discovered it also had an electrical problem, so we took it to a different shop and they found water and mud in the electrical box.  They got that fixed in the nick of time just before we needed to drive people into BYT.

What in the world is it? They say they cannot weld it because it is not steel, but it is very heavy!

First trip back into BYT with the 4WD working! In God’s timing just before the meetings!

2. What complicated everything was RAIN!  Yes, RAIN every day right up until the Pastor came, and not just a little rain – it started to look like rainy season, we had to drive the long way with great difficulty.
3. It was time for the YiPeng festival when Thailand, and the school next door released    many paper hot air balloons into the air for good luck and Buddhist merit.  Sometimes many monks drive into BYT for the occasion and it is a very loud time with chanting of monks into booming microphones, big fireworks, and loud music.  The full moon night they would do this was Thursday evening – the exact evening when pastor Martin would have his  most important sermon on the Sabbath!!

4. Another thing we were praying about was rice harvesting.  Many people were not yet finished harvesting their rice.  The meetings were a little too early to allow everyone to attend the meetings, because we all know that they would never come if the rice was lying ripe in the field.  How we longed for a huge attendance.  BletJhaw helped a lady harvest and we paid other workers to help so she could get finished and attend the meetings.  We knew God would push Satan back and work everything out so we just put it all in His hands.

What a treat to have Pastor Martin in our midst.  I can tell you that he did not waste a minute, but was praying, studying and working on his sermons.  I never saw anybody work for the good of my people as diligently as he did. I felt like a parent when somebody loves and tries to help their children!  I felt such joy that this pastor would spend and be spent for our people in these isolated villages!

We had a beautiful united prayer group in the church every morning.  Pastor Martin invited the village people to join us.  If the people needed special prayer we would surround them, lay hands on them and pray for them.

As our own hearts became cemented together through prayer, things began to happen!  An all time record was reached in attendance.  Every night around 60 people came.

They sat in perfect attention for almost 2 hours!  There was beautiful special music before and after every sermon.

Brenda Steck played her beautiful electric piano!

Pastor Martin illustrated his theme: “With God all things are Possible,” by performing magical tricks and work on paper, and with fire that seemed impossible to perform.  He used a balloon that did not pop when he stuck 2 pins in it. He would not explain how he did these things, but simply said, “If you want to know how I did this – come tomorrow evening!”

Every night the people came pouring in.  Thursday evening was to be the most important meeting because the truth of the Sabbath and the deceit of the devil would be clearly presented. There would be an answer to the question, who are you worshiping, that would be shocking to many of the people.  So on Thursday morning we again visited all the homes inviting the people to come. We told them this evening was the most important meeting that they would not want to miss it, and we prayed in their homes.

That evening was our greatest attendance of all times!  The bell was rung and BletJhaw and I stood at the door of the church to shake hands with the people and welcome them in.

Unrestrained tears rolled down my cheeks as I watched with amazement the steady stream of people coming up the hill, through the gate and into the church.  It was like I was in a dream that was too good to be true – they kept coming – they came – they filled the church!  Half of them were not church members and many of them had never entered our church, or any other church before.  Some of them were Baptist church members from WaSuTa. There were close to 80 people in our church that evening, and you should have heard the loving, yet cutting truth of our pastor’s sermon.  The people seemed to be riveted in attention, there were no distractions and the Holy Spirit flowed in and among us.  At the end of the sermon Pastor Martin made a call to all who wanted to follow all of God’s commandments including the 4^th, to stand up.  Though I could not turn around and look, it seemed like most of the people stood up.  (By the way the LiPeng Festival did not take place that night – the teachers decided to go home and celebrate)!  Praise the Lord forever!

BletJhaw faithfully interpreted every sermon night after night in an appealing way that the people could best understand.

The next evening was on diet and health. That night clean meats were described along with drinking water and a full message on the importance of good health for communion with God.  There was a call to abandon the habits of drinking, smoking, and opium.

Then came the Sabbath with a call to surrender all to Jesus. These sermons are all recorded and I cannot wait to listen to them again.  The good news is that not only will the media team will produce these sermons on video so we can show them to others, but they can cut out the English and record only the Karen part of the sermon for our audio Bibles so the people can listen to these great truths again and again and share with their friends!

At the end of the Sabbath sermon we went to the river for a baptism.  SawSay and his wife were baptized who had been coming to church for a long time.  SawSay is DJ’s son from BYT.  He had married a girl from another village who was strong Buddhist.  We felt bad about that because in the Karen culture the boy lives with the wife’s family, so this took him away from church and placed him with Buddhist worshipers, and he did not appear to really care about coming to our church services.  We prayed a lot for SawSay.  Almost two years later SawSay told us that when he moved back to BYT he wanted to be baptized.  Now they are living in BYT and what joy to see them both get baptized on that beautiful Sabbath day!

Reaching the unreached is the most precious work us humans can experience!   Let’s reach out as far as we can all around us because indeed with God all things are possible!

Revival Meetings in BYT

“WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”

“We should be in a position where we may believe that God is willing to do for us more than we can ask or think.  ST May 7, 1896

It is hard for me to believe that this is actually happening!! Pastor Martin Kim arrived at the MaeSot airport, Wednesday, November 14, 2018.  You see I met Pastor Martin at Faith Camp in America last July.  I was one of the speakers there and so was he.  After my third presentation he came to me and asked if he could come and visit in my village! He had heard about the wild elephants, cobras, bad roads and stories about the people there and wanted to see it for himself.  I was very excited to hear this because I had really enjoyed his sermons also, and felt this was providential, because ever since we had Pastor Jimmy do a wonderful series in December 2017, I had been praying for another weeklong revival series this year. Pastor Martin decided that he could come the last part of November. My heart raced with excitement and thankfulness to God!

Pastor Martin told us later that he planned to just pull down a few old sermons to use in BYT that he had preached before, however as we continued to correspond through messenger, he learned that I was going all-out calling in the media team from Chiang Mai to record all of it and also I had invited people to do special music because I wanted to really make an appeal to my people.  That was the time he told us that he fell on his knees and prayed about what to present.  He is a man of prayer and a man of faith.  God really had a plan for him in our mountain village!

The following Sunday we needed to go to the airport again to pick up Alelee, a Philippine girl who would play her guitar and sing for our meetings.  I was so happy to meet her for the first time.  I thought she was pretty courageous to come by herself all the way to BYT.  Before she arrived, Pastor Martin and I went to the market to buy food.  It was great fun going through all the venders and picking out the best vegetables and fruit.  We had a great time riding on the tricycle cart with the food piled up on it. Pastor Martin rode behind and I sat in the front. We had a good driver who pedaled us through the busy market roads to our truck.  The best thing about the food was that I did not have to cook!  DaguaMo had consented to come and do all the cooking!

Yes, let’s get this

Yes. Let’s get this

Raw peanuts! Good idea!

No. None of these!

Sweet DaguaMo did all our cooking – Delicious!

That same Sunday all the guests arrived: Harvey Steck and his wife, Brenda, would sing and Brenda brought her quality electric piano!  Hannah and Jonathan Hill would sing and work on media.  Alelee would sing, and Suwit and Noom from Chaing Mai, were our media team to run the cameras along with DJ’s daughter Sabathip, (Sa).   And so the week began.  We would start the meetings at 5:30p.m. Monday evening.

We divided into two teams and visited every house in BYT and WaSuTa Monday morning, inviting the people to the meetings and praying with them.  I sensed that God had something special in store for our people that week. My heart thrilled and my prayers doubled.

“Oh, Lord.”  I cried out.  “Please do something big this week for my people – much bigger than I could ask or think! Pour out your Spirit as never before Father please prepare them for heaven.”