A Crazy week

We have had a busy week to say the least. A village on the other side of the border was burnt out. I first knew about it when a thin terrified lady arrived at my door early in the morning, her baby smelt like cooked chicken. She had run for help. Her husband and one child had died in the shooting prior to the village burning. The Burmese had set her house alight. As she ran, a burning beam came down on the head of the child in her arms, its hair was thick before. I looked at the matted, black mess and said she needed to go to the hospital.... her eyes rolled, "No!" So we prayed and started to cut away the hair. After 1 hour, we could wash and see the size of the wound.... a small gash and skin burn.... the treatment was given. I emptied my bag of clothes, and took some from my extensive (joking) wardrobe. It was not much, but the lady acted as though I had given her gold. She is staying nearby, and we have taken in her older girl, to ease the burden on her family.

Then that night I heard hurried feet up the hill.... "quickly Momo, they are burning our house". The big boys jumped into our car and we went down the border a way... there was a fire raging through the dry grass, tinders flying. When we got to the boy's house, we were too late. Two houses had been burnt. Also gone was the prized motorbike, about 40 sacks of rice,( a year's supply) and a number of animals. About 20 chickens had escaped. So we took the burned victims back home to treat, dropping the rest of the family members around the district to relatives. Just who had started the fire we do not know, but it looked like it had started on the Burma side of the line. Everything is tinder dry, we have not had any rain since mid October. Please pray that we remain safe. We have cleared back a burn area surrounding the school.

We continue to have visitors coming and Jezreel's wife will arrive this week. Therefore we started building a new "little castle" up the hill for the school teachers. God is so good, as He gave us (Via Arjarn Pakdee) a donation to build housing.

Now I will go and pick up three patients from the Sai Yok hospital, to deliver them home to Bong Ti village before night fall. One is a small boy who had allergic reaction to eating turtles... His family are so poor they could not afford rice to eat, so harvested from the stream near their place. He had gone into toxic shock before they came to get me. With the drought, no man's land is a hungry place.

New teacher,old son returns to help

I was surprized and panicked when I picked up email last Monday.... my Phillipino son, Jazreel had mailed to say he would arrive in Bangkok that day; in fact within an hour of my opening the mail!! Through the help of Pastor Jimmy, Jazreel was met and hosted overnight. What a blessing it is to have a "handyman,teacher" on our site.

Jezreel has completed his masters degree in education, and just finished service in Denmark as a missionary. He will assist as an English teacher and dean of boys. His wife will also join us as a teacher and medical assistant until their return to Phillipines in September. Praise God for the relief team when I need it. It frees a little time for us to complete the school registration papers and to breath!!

Baby Johann will go to Bangkok Children's Hospital again tomorrow for a further brain scan and hearing test. Maybe we will be able to get a more accurate picture of his development or disease progression. Currently he is still happy, playful and blind. he can stand, but not sit. He throws himself backward without warning. His left arm is very retarded, but he can clap his hands to the left side! He will start physiotherapy tomorrow afternoon.

We request prayers also for one of our new students, Dang, who will have corrective surgery on Friday afternoon.