Dear Phyllis,
This is the first letter I had been able to sit down and write you from
mostly written while waiting in the airport in
I have settled back into a normal routine in my room in Chiang Mai.
This morning I was at the Mennonite service. I wish you could meet these
people. I never cease to be amazed. They are truly a modern version of
the Rechabites.
(Jer. 35). The Rechabites were a nomadic sect of Judaism in the days of
Jeremiah who went well beyond the dictates of the Pentateuch and never
lived in houses until the Babylonians invaded the land. They were a very
tight sect but because of their obedience to their forefather Rechab, the
Lord loved them and promised, "they would
never want for a man to stand before Me forever" (Jer. 35:19). I doubt
that I could handle the Mennonites in the states. The stories I hear
about legalism and an obsession for externals are horrifying, but the
young people that I see over here are the finest I have ever met. The
worship services are terrific!
They had a baby dedication this morning. Phyllis, that service would tear
you up.
are staggering. Marriages are in disarray. Sex is rampant and the
resultant pregnancies and unwanted babies born are tragic. Obviously no
one group can solve the problems of the nation, but the one thing that
can be said of the Mennonites is that they are doing what they can. That
is minuscule, but the testimony of it is enormous. They have about a
dozen young girls who have come over to be nannies for these babies. And
the love they shower on these little tykes is something like you will
never see surpassed by any mother for her own child.
I could hardly hold back the tears this morning. Every child would be a
front page headline miracle in heaven. All that can be said is that these
tiny one are the survivors of the garbage cans in abortion clinics. That
is many of their contemporaries - by contemporaries I mean in a space of
a few months or weeks of pregnancy - but a significant number of children
conceived in similar circumstances wind up in a
garbage can in the back of some abortion clinic. Why these little ones
were allowed to live, and then be brought to, loved, and nurtured in this
Christian environment is an inexplicable miracle. Many of them are
children of young girls scarcely in their mid teens. Or children of
mothers who are so poor they can't keep one more child. They simply are
an unwanted, unfortunate, product of an inverted society that wished they
never would have been born. What a grim world they were born into!
Dr. Erdman, of
were "BUT GOD" (Eph. 2:4). That is all that can be said about these
babies. They were born into a hideous situation - BUT GOD. In the face of
this gloom, somehow the Mennonites hear about a new baby born that no one
wants, and steps in. But what happens after that would melt the heart of
the devil. The facilities they have are real nice. Not luxurious, but
nice. BUT THE LOVE.! Oh my goodness, it almost makes me cry to see the
total love that these girls pour out on the little ones assigned to them.
Some girls have two babies. Of course they get up in the middle of the
night to feed them, change Pampers, hold them, sing to them, pray for
them. When they are sick, their "mommies" are worried sick just like any
genetic mother. Their whole life is all played on one string - the care
for their babies. That is all they live for.
I see them in church every Sunday. They bring their little babies in
shiny clean, dressed in cute little suits, and ribbons in their hair. I
see them holding their babies during the service, kissing them, and
stroking them. If they are asleep, they will lay them down in little baby
carriers. It is truly heart warming to watch this never ending flow of
love.
The baby dedication this morning was terrific. Each nanny came up with
her new born child. There were four or five that were about a month old.
The "mother" - the children call their nanny's "mommy" - and would give
a brief testimony where her baby came from and how she got him, then she
would read a verse that she had chosen for a theme for her child. Then
the leader had two people from the audience to come forward to pray for
the mother and the child, committing each child to the Lord. You couldn't
add to it. You couldn't make the dedication more real. But then the
leader did something that just blew me away. He had put together an
incredible "power point" (computer presentation). It was a computer
projection on a screen up front. First would appear the name of the
child; then for the next minute there would appear several pictures he
had taken of the child in all settings with his mommy. There were many
scenes of the child sleeping, yawing, laughing, getting a bath, and
always being loved by his mommy. Then the next child would come on the
screen. In the background he had a wonderful Twila Paris song that just
expressed the love of Christ that was so conspicuously being demonstrated
in each child. I was glad the lights were off. My T-shirt was getting wet
with the tears running down my face and neck. Even now tears well up in
my eyes as I try to describe what I saw this morning.
But that is only a small portion of the story. This morning was extremely
touching, but for these Mennonite girls this is their life that goes on
for one, two, three years. These little children grow in their hearts
like a plant in a pot. Their child is their life. No mother
could love their child more and be more attached to that child than these
girls are to the little ones assigned to them.
What happens next is unbelievable, but I have seen it. The day comes when
a family comes from the states to take a new adopted child. The horrible
moment has arrived. Each transfer is different. You can't write the rule
for something like this. But somehow the four of them will go to a hotel
room or some similar place. The broken hearted girl will hand the child
over to its new mother. The confused child looks in wonder as
the only mother he has known turns her back and leaves the room. I can't
imagine how they do it. I would rather die first. But this is the entire
reason they came to
Christ and then turn it over to another family who will take it home to
be raised in the states,
girl goes back to the states empty handed except for the memories of
being mommy to that child for one , two, or three years. It is just like
Moses' mother setting him adrift in the
river will carry that child?
You talk about dedication!!! I can't imagine what it would take to be one
of these nannies. To say these girls are heroes doesn't half describe it.
Oh, the pain must be indescribable. But that is what they signed up for.
They made themselves vulnerable. They took a child in their heart that
they knew, someday would be taken away and they
probably would never see that child again. There was absolutely nothing
in it for themselves except for the horrible pain at the end. But they
are willingly paying the price simply for the opportunity of pouring
themselves out for some unwanted child for two years until another
adoption family can be located.
What I saw this morning in that baby dedication in the backdrop of
abortion clinics was the contrast of heaven and hell. The devil isn't
interested in souls. Millions here in
by-product of erotic lust and sin. But out of this hellish sewer Jesus
has raised up the nearest example of heaven I have seen on this earth.
What the Mennonites are touching is a tiny fraction, but for these
precious lives who are directed this way, all that can be said is "BUT
GOD.".
Maybe that is true for all of us, Phyllis.
Love, Bill
