Happy Thai New Year, and God plays SongKran

Our visitors have safely gone back to Bangkok, and we are relaxing around the keyboard. One of Bilay's friends came to ask if I could go to pick up his estranged wife and children. We have been praying for this to happen, as they split when she was baptized... Praise God, that his heart has mellowed over the past 4 months. So off we set, through road blocks, etc. As usual, the soliers were put to sleep prior to our arrival (putty in God's hand), so an uneventful trip.... in five minutes we had laughter and joy in the car all the way home!

Then the rain came, and came. The gutterings could not keep up with the water flow, so a flood resulted. Wet children, no power, the setting for a disastorious night. God kept us through it all.

Today is a cleanup day.

God's protection in border night

It had been a lovely Sabbath day, peaceful and worshipful. As the sun set, my visitors and I prepared to go for a leisurely bath in the local lake. The kids were all excited as they were waiting for full darkness, no moon.... we were playing capture the flag for the first time. It was DARK!!!

The kids had a ball, and were still playing as we came back from the bath. All the lights were off... shouting and laughter;stubbed toes, skinned knees. They were making so much noise it drowned out the other noises of the village. We were alarmed to have a special blackout in the total village.... to meet a special check point and to see running policemen in the area below the church...

We wre told the whole story... some not desirables had come over the border on the pretext of selling beef in the village, but really trading land mines and guns. They had been intercepted by the locaal volunteer police group, who summoned the border police backup.... gun shots had been exchanged, and most of the intruders had escaped, hidding in the darkness in and around the village. My kids played on, knowing nothing.

Quickly we rang the worship bell, turned the darkness into candlelight (The electricity supply to the village had been knocked out in the shoot out) and counted kids. Two were missing, without explanation. I re-arranged the sleeping of our visitors, so that everyone was together in the big dormitory. Then Jezreel, Kum and I went cautiously out into the darkness to find the kids. many hours later, everyone was sleeping safely, two with sore backsides and ringing ears from Momo!!

It could have been so nasty, but God protected us in the game of Capture the flag.... We could have had accidents in the darkness, with police bullets. but no police came onto our campus. It was real, it was tense. Our visitors got little sleep. One lady from Tokyo wished to return to her home the next day. But June and Jaynie have bravely stuck it out. They are enjoying the peaceful contrast of the following day. God is good to show us how He protects those who call on His name.

One week closer to Jesus returning

Last weekend we set of in high spirits, to visit Pastor Dang in his mountain village, 4 hours south of us. We had 16 students, one guitar and three teacher/doctors in one green pickup truck. We drove to the seaside at HuaHin, and watched Leeda jumping the waves like a little child. He had never seen the seaside before!!! Then we drove up through two police check points to the border area. God is so good to us, that we had to stop to ask directions from the police, they never asked us anything!
Great disaapointment as Pastor had gone off to a meeting, forgetting about the arranged dates of our visit. ( My blunder was that I had not cross checked with him prior to leaving). However we stayed, leading worship for a family, doing a health visit with another, and celebrating life with the nearby Baptist Bible School. Something encouraged Momo Cat to go home early, so after Sabbath had gone, the family loaded the car, returning in the cool night to Bong Ti. God was good in that we safely arrived just after midnight.

On Sunday morning the dreadful news came to the school. One of our young church members had died in an accident. The bamboo team had finished loading their truck at Wakado, and were heading toward the masin road. Two of the boys were sitting on the front bumpers, directing the drunk driver through the undergrowth. The truck hit a thorny patch, swiped the 15 year old off the truck. He was run over, dying instantly.

When we got news , we went straight to the house for worship with the family. We preached, we cried with the family and then we were the hearse for taking the body to his grave..... why the haste? You see, when we are away there is no one to treat the body, no one to embalm, no car to transport them to the hospital, no one to financially support the family funeral. We were missed!

In the meantime, Dr Sharon and I decided that baby Johann needed to be circumcised, as his very small penis was malformed at the foreskin. So he is now recovering at home. We did the surgery at home also.

Dr Sharon is experiencing the frustration of language gaps as well as meeting some of the prejudice against our Karen people, by so called professionals.... Its not only me!!!