A few weeks ago, a
team from Valley Rim Association in Arizona partnered with us to do 4 days of
mobile clinics in the far reaches of Isaan.
They brought a team of doctors,
nurses and children’s workers - 9 wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ with
wonderful hearts of service and unity for the task ahead of us. Our first day was my most memorable, so that
is the story I will share.
Several months ago,
a woman from Loie showed up at our little house church plant in Plang Yao. She shared with us that she was a relatively
new Christian and had moved into the area for the purpose of bringing her
family to Christ. Her name is Aunt
Wi. She had heard about our gathering
from someone in the market and she found her way to us. She told Doug that a missionary couple in
Loie had led her to Christ. We were
pretty amazed by her bold faith having only been a Christian for a short
time. We looked into it and we did not
have any IMB missionaries in Loie. Over
the course of a couple of months, this woman, indeed, led several members of
her family to Christ so we decided we should find out more about this
missionary couple. She gave us their
name and phone number and Doug gave them a call. After a long conversation with the M couple,
Aunt Wi’s story suddenly became more amazing.
Aunt Wi was a house
helper for the M family who had moved to Loie from where they had been church
planting in the south. They have 5 children under the age of 12. Aunt Wi was not a helpful house helper, she
often came to work drunk and would sleep through her work day. Since moving to this area the M family had
little other contacts to share Christ with so they decided to pour their lives
into this seemingly worthless soul.
Although Aunt Wi’s help in the home was minimal, they did have plenty of
chances to shower her with the love of Christ.
After several months of very challenging encounters, Aunt Wi finally
gave her life to Christ and was radically saved. After being discipled for a very
short time, she felt the need to go to her family in Plang Yao and share Christ
with them so she moved away. The only
convert of 2 years of work for the M couple, moved away! As Doug and the M couple talked more about
their struggles to find people willing to talk to them about Christ, a decision was made to add their city to our
September mobile clinic schedule.
Tuesday, September 16 was the day chosen.
As we arrived in
their city the night before, we saw immediately Satan’s claim on this
city. There were statues and paintings
of 7 demons everywhere as we drove in.
When we arrived at our hotel, the key chain was a replica of the mask on
these demons. It was evident we were in
for a battle the next day when we were to share the Gospel with the children in
the English camp and the patients at the mobile clinic. We began to have an understanding of what difficult
odds our M family was up against as they tried to make a difference in a place
so dark, all by themselves. Many prayers
were raised that night as we went to bed and in the morning we awoke with a
sense of God’s Presence with us for the task at hand.
When we arrived at
the school where the clinic and English camp would be held, we saw the heads of
the seven demons painted everywhere, even on the playground. The
bathrooms were even shaped and painted the same. When I walked into the room where we were to
teach the children, I was overwhelmed by what I saw. On one side of the room was a giant Buddha
figure with pedestals for offerings all around and the other side of the room
was an entire wall painted with a mural of the seven demons. I felt my chest tightening at the oppression
of it all. But, I knew what God wanted
me to do. With Buddha at my back, demon toilets on the side and the
a huge Buddha mural in front, I began to teach 120 children about the God who made the
world. We sang songs about how God made
the world with His hands and how all who believe in Jesus could be called the
children of God. We all but shouted the name of Jesus as we sang. We
taught them how they could know God. We
taught them how to pray. Over half of
those dear Children prayed with our evangelist.
We don’t know what the future will bring for those children, but we pray
this, their first encounter with Christ, will bring them to true faith when
they are adults.
At the clinic we saw
220 patients. Each of them hearing one
on one, the Gospel story. 15 people
responded and now our wonderful M couple
with few contacts now has 15 people to follow up on that have expressed an
interest in knowing God. Of those 15
people, 7 of them actually prayed with our evangelist. This was a truly amazing day. Only a move of God could bring about such a
thing in a place like this.
As we drove away
that day we rejoiced in our vans for the privilege of seeing the power of God
in such a dark, dark place. We were
moved to pray for our M family and their work ahead. We were also so very glad to bring God’s
light in that very present darkness.
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