2014 in Review

28 December 2014

Dear Phyllis,

Many years ago I was terribly depressed. Everything had been going backwards. It is an iron rule that all missionary prayer letters must be positive but I thought, “for one time in my life I am going to be honest and tell it like it is.” My goodness that was a bad letter. Years later I was talking with a pastor in Colorado who told me that he received stacks of missionary prayer letters each month, all of which go in the circle file. But he said that black letter that he got from me was the only one that he kept in his file, and would occasionally get it out to encourage himself.

The end of a year is a time for reflection and thank God for all He did in the past year. The main accomplishments I can think of in this past years was that we got 365 good nights rest and ate 1395 meals. I preached 6 or 7 messages. I had no invitations outside Kichikun's church, and he took me off the preaching list for six months. I taught English to the children in Sangha's kindergarten for about 45 weeks. Working with the men from Abba House, we made 30 beds. That is about it. A year ago things looked very promising. At one point I was doing three jobs at the same time. I would teach English from 9:00 to 9:30, and then go to Gary's place to work with three fellows teaching them carpentry. Then in the afternoon, I was over to Abba House making beds for a very important Christian project here in Chiang Mai.

For years I mocked those who complained, “I'm getting older”. My reply was always, “Not me”. I was a very young man. My body had not appreciably changed in 40 years and I had all the energy and strength that I had when I was 38. Then in early June the Lord pulled the plug on me. For no clear reason, in less than two weeks, suddenly I was virtually a paralytic. I couldn't dress myself. One night I couldn't walk up stairs. I couldn't get in a car without someone picking up my legs and putting them in. Everyone begged me to go to the hospital, but I refused. Then one night my Dutch neighbor came over and forcefully took me to the hospital. The first night didn't show much, but on the second visit an outstanding doctor correctly diagnosed my problem as frozen shoulder. My right arm was useless, and somehow that was affecting my whole body. He said it would take about six months to clear up. He was right.

I don't know the percentage but it seems like the shoulder is 85% to 90% recovered. But somehow my body got coordinated with the calendar. The calender say that I am 79 yeas old and my body agrees. I have lost 9kg (20lbs) in the past few months. Surprisingly most of that is muscle. My strong muscular body is gone. Now I look like a 79 year old man. Last year I lost two important front teeth so now I look like a hillbilly. I still ride a motor bike everyday. They say you know you are getting older when keeping the speed limit is no longer a problem. Previously it was hard to keep it under 80 kph, but now I feel very comfortable at 60 kph.

One of the most major event that happened last year was the closure of the Nazareth Wood Shop. In Japan I called myself Nazareth Construction Co. and said that our CEO was a Jewish carpenter. In Chiang Mai I called myself Nazareth Wood Shop. Tools have always been the core of my life. With the exception of a few parenthetical periods, I have always had a hammer in my hand, and felt I couldn't live if I wasn't making something. In May we had, what looked like, a hugely lucrative project of making beds. Abba House manager, Pastor Ed, got me into a deal making beds at a record pace. We were clearing $100 a bed profit and making two a day. After the first project of 30 there was an order for 180 beds with more after that. It looked like, for the first time in my life, we might be comfortably solvent, and I was doing what I loved best. Pammy complained about the dust coming from my shop which was outside the kitchen window. I loved my shop. It was the greatest thing in Chiang Mai. But as we were getting into a commercial venture, I took all my tools over to Abba House. Then everything went to zero. Ed's wife had cancer, and he quit Abba House. He was the key, and when he was gone the project more or less stopped. Dave Moore gave me some money for my tolls, but now my woodworking days are only a memory. It is doubtful that I will ever pick up a hammer again.

After to my tools, the next greatest joy was my dog. When we got married we got an adorable little black dog. We called her Black Canyon. She was the finest dog I ever owned. She was highly intelligent, absolutely obedient, and very affectionate. Over the time she had three litters of pups. Out of the last batch there was a gorgeous blond male that looked like a miniature Golden Retriever. He was developing to be a companion with his mother, and both dogs sat with me every morning for two hours as I had devotions. But Pammy's greatest need was a clean floor. We had a great deal of conflict over the years over the dogs. I didn't want it to be said that I loved my dogs more than my wife. Three months ago a man came one day. That evening Pammy told me that the dogs were gone. The floor is clean and we have had no more squalls over that, but there is pain in my heart everyday for my dogs. 2014 was a tough year. It was the year I lost my youthful body, terminated my career as a carpenter and closed the dog chapter in my life.

But on the plus side, Pammy is like a new person. Jesus did something in her heart eight months ago that has proven to be permanent. For the first time she is developing into a fine scriptural wife. That was something that was totally lacking the first two years. She has been wining souls faster than anyone I know. Very much against my scriptural position she has her little flock that come here every Sunday and she is happier than I have ever seen her. There is talk about a major moving forward with her work. She is pleading that I join her in this venture and become the pastor of this new work. At first I said yes, but I am beginning to have serious doubts about the feasibility of what they are talking about. Pakistan is still very much front and center in my heart. 2014 was a year when the vine got cut down to the stump, but if that will produce more fruit for Jesus then I can only thank Him for it.

Arigato gozaimasu, bill

Merry Christmas

21 December

Dear Phyllis,

Merry Christmas, or something like that. I am not sure merry is the right word. I hope your Christmas will be more than just merry. Maybe we should say, holy Christmas, or fruitful Christmas, or Christ honoring Christmas. Those are the things that I feel we should strive for.

Last night at 5:00 PM I was talking to Dave Moore. He asked me, “What are you going to preach about tomorrow?” I replied, “I haven't the faintest idea.” That one floored Dave. It wasn't that I hadn't thought about it, but no subject or verse had come to mind. Actually, I had done a fair bit of praying about the meeting that morning, but my plea with the Lord was that He would speak – not me. If the Lord speaks, spiritual progress is accomplished. If I speak nothing is done. I am praying for the day when I stand up to speak and the Holy Spirit descend on the meeting causing everyone to burst out praying at the top of their lungs crying for mercy. And I can't say a thing. It just kills me to preach my heart out and have half the crowd talking among themselves or looking bored.

Last night was weird. I had a lot to do, but fell asleep early with my clothes on. About 1:00 o'clock I woke up so much I had supper and went outside on my balcony to seriously pray about a message for today. I couldn't really get a message, but the verse in Gal. 4:4 – “But when the fullness of time was come God sent forth His Son born of a woman”.

When I got to church I was glad the Lord had not given me a message, as the crowd was something like I had never seen there. We have been running about 10 to 12 for several months; most of whom are half-saved. With the exception of one or two, I doubt that any of them are really serious about following the Lord. But today the place was slam packed with people standing in the back. I asked, “Where in the world did all these folks come from?” They had been out passing out fliers inviting people in that area to come to a Christmas program, and it looked like everyone came with a friend. This was a totally new ball game for me. It meant that I had a room full of people that probably didn't know a thing about Christmas, the Gospel, or anything else.

When was I was introduced I had Ying, my interpreter, read Gal. 4:4. Then I asked, “What day is the 25^th?” A few of them knew it was Christmas. Then I asked, “What is Christmas?” Many people in Japan think it is Santa Clause's birthday. We got it established that it was Jesus' birthday. Then I said this is the #1 day world wide. It is amazing. You can go into any department store in Thailand, China, Japan, England, Germany, and most of the world and hear Christian music like you were in a church. They play more evangelical Christmas songs in Thailand and Japan than they do in the states. They have no idea what it means, but they play it. Every gas station attendant in Thailand has a red Santa Clause hat on.

Then I told them why Jesus' birthday was the most significant day in human history. To illustrate the incarnation I told the ant story. I said, “Suppose you loved ants. There was an ant hill right in front of your house. You went out there everyday, gave them something to eat, gave them names, and just loved to watch them. Then one day you noticed they were going towards the road. You talked to them to warn them, but they just kept going. Then you put up a sign warning them. No soap. You put up barricades and did everything you could to stop them. But they wouldn't listen. Why? If you want to speak to an ant you must use ant language. Now suppose you were God and could do anything. You could turn yourself into a butterfly or anything. So you turned yourself into an ant so you could talk to ants. That is what God did in sending His Son Jesus.” The Bible says that Jesus was God. He is the creator God. But Jesus didn't just show up as a man. He was born just like every baby that has ever been born on this planet. He lived just like us for 33 years. But when the fullness of time was come, He said in His prayer the last night of His life, “Father the hour has come” (Jn. 17:1). I told in detail about the arrest, the scourging, and the crucifixion. Then I asked, “What does all of that have to do with you here today?” Everything. I went back to the Garden and explained the problem with humanity. I said, “I like you people very much, but if you are honest you must admit that what you are on the inside is not the same as what is on the outside. And I can prove it.” “Suppose your heart was a computer and we had a big screen up here. How many would like to plug your heart into this and have everyone see what it is like on the inside?” Then I warned them that God would judge them for what is in the inside, not what they want to look like on the out. Then I explained that Jesus died to take their place. And the only thing they had to do – and the only thing they could do – to experience this salvation was to say, “Thank You. I receive it”.

This is a poor summation of my message. There was nothing in it that you don't know as well as I do. Of necessity it had to be very basic salvation. But we had a very good time. There are times when you feel the Holy Spirit is there in power giving life to the spoken Word. And there are times when the word seems to stick in your throat, and it is like throwing puff balls at rock. Today was probably the best time I have had preaching in a year or more. There were a large number of children there which almost guarantees a great deal of distraction. When I started out I thought, “Oh boy, this is going to be a hard one”. But the children seemed to sit very still and be attentive. At times the Word became so powerful I broke down and couldn't speak. But the thing that was the most encouraging to me was to see tears in the audience. It has been a long long time since I have seen anyone wipe their face.

When the message was over I didn't feel the least bit social, and went straight to the kitchen. Pastor Kichikun came out to thank me for the message. There seemed to be some genuine emotion in his remarks of appreciation. I replied, “God be thanked if anything was done.” That was a wonderful Christmas present. Thank You Lord Jesus,

                              bill

Scott Noble

14 December 2014

Dear Phyllis,

I have found spiritual life to be like the sun moving north and south and the ocean moving up and down. I have found it to be a very undulating experience of fluctuations going up and down. Yesterday Scott Noble invited me to come give a Bible lesson to a group of young folks in his English class. Scott is one of those brothers with whom I had a close relationship, and then things drifted the other way. At the peak of our close relationship, I would easily rate that as the most productive period of my life in the last 20 or 30 years.

I first met Scott at my friends, Dave and Joyce Moore's, Abba House. I had only met him two or three times – and that on the most casual situation – when he stunned me by asking me to speak at his wedding. I have no idea why he did that. Scott was into his 30s and had never been married. He met a girl on a bus in Bangkok, and started a correspondence that developed into her conversion and engagement. The wedding was scheduled for December, and his parents came from America for it, along with some friends from Japan, and many distant places. Scott's first wedding was one of those unusual events where everyone was there except the groom. He panicked, and didn't show up. It is to the considerable credit of one girl's mad mother, and a confused fiancee that they forgave him, and rescheduled another try at it in March. The wedding was in Supanburi, which is an honest 500 km from Chiang Mai.

I rode down there with another missionary, and met a group of pastors who had come from Chiang Mai. One of whom was Kichikun. As we were waiting for everyone to get in the church, I was talking with these Thai pastors; and the Spirit of God was so powerful between us I seriously wondered whether or not I was going to be able to speak. Man howdy, I mean to tell you, we had one more GOOD wedding. I preached in English with a Thai interpreter. But Scott wanted me to preach it again in Japanese so he could send a CD to his friends in Japan who couldn't make it the second time. So while everyone else was cutting the cake, I was in a small room with a video preaching it again in Nihongo (Japanese). That started an amazing relationship.

Scott would come to my house, almost daily, asking me to sit on a stool, and tell stories and preach messages in Japanese to send CDs to his friends in Japan. That was more Japanese preaching that I had done in years. Scott was an English professor in Maejo University here in Town. He would frequently have me come to his English classes to share Christ. That was nothing but just pure evangelism.

Then he started an English Bible study in his home on Friday night. That was one of the most blessed times of my life. About 10 or more students would come. We would start at 6:00 with pizza or sushi. Then we would get started with the Bible study by7:00 and go until 9:00, when they had to be back at the university. Those times were indescribable. The Holy Spirit was so much in control, at times, I felt like I was listening to someone else preach. Oh my goodness, the Word had power. Those meetings were very much like what I was talking about last week where no body wanted to go home. One night Scott thought, “That is odd. Why is Bill stopping now? He just got started.” Then he looked at his watch and saw it was 9:00 o'clock. One night, one girl almost got a whiplash when she looked at her watch and saw what time it was. Scott said the amazing thing was that the meetings didn't even quit in the truck. As he was taking the young folks home, they still were going high speed talking about the Bible. Needless to say many were saved. Those were some of the finest meetings I have ever had in my life.

At the same time Scott was also teaching English in the ladies prison here in Chiang Mai. It was there he met Gena Crain. I told you that story several months ago. Gena was an extremely high profile event where she had shot and killed her husband. It was huge news here in Chiang Mai, and even in the Bangkok Post newspaper. I heard it was on the international wire services and CNN. Scott would see Gena in prison every week, and she would argue about the Gospel. Then one day she told her the testimony of the North Vietnamese general who died of cancer an unsaved man, went out into eternity, met Jesus, and came back healed a born-again Christian. That one rocked her. I had just got back from Saigon where I had stayed with General Thadam for five days. She asked, “Could you have that man who knows the general come here to speak with me?” The next week I went with Scott to the prison, and that started another major major moment of my life. Gena was one of the finest converts I have ever dealt with in my life. I spent two years going to the prison every Wednesday with Scott disciplining Gena.

It was at that time that Scott used to ask me to go next door to invite his neighbor from New York to come to the Friday night Bible study. I really didn't like that man very much, and he thought we were crazy. I said that is one fellow that will never get saved. That was Paul. You know the story of Paul. Scott sold his house to Paul, and Scott's wife, Kae, was talking to Marisa one day about Buddhism. Marisa got saved on the spot, and that drove Paul into the Kingdom. Paul is very close to the number one Christian man that I know today. All that fruit; the kids from the Bible study, Gena, Paul, and a host of others, are fruit in Scott's basket. I happened to be there standing on his shoulder at the time, but the fruit goes in his basket.

But nothing stays the same. The end of the school came and the kids went home. The Bible study was never got started again. Scott got dismissed from his job at Maejo. The tremendous opportunities dried up. All the good things we had going for us went south. Things started to cool down between Scott and myself. The devil got between us and the original chemistry was gone. We are still friends but the tide is out.

That is the way it goes. But even in low tide Jesus is working. Let's stay with it and give it our best shot for Jesus today.

                                     bill

Revival

7 December 2014

Dear Phyllis,

The other day I asked Paul, “How was your service Sunday night?” “Oh, Great! We had a great time. The service started at 5:00 and we got home at 2:00 AM.” I roared, “Impossible! You can't have a service that goes on for 9 hours” Paul replied, “No, the only reason we got home at 2:00 was because the kids had school the next day. If it hadn't been for the kids school we could have gone longer.”

I have always said the thermometer of a church is the parking lot. If the janitor is locking the door, and the church parking lot is empty at 12:15 Sunday morning, you know the temperature inside is pretty chilly. But if 1:00 o'clock comes, and the janitor is impatiently asking the believers still hanging around in the sanctuary to leave, and there are still six or seven cars in the parking lot, the temperature is pretty warm.

Revival is a popular subject in many churches, but revival is something that man cannot schedule, you can't work it up, and you can't organize it.When the Spirit of Christ chooses to visit His church you have revival, and without the presence of the Holy Spirit you have religion. And religion gets old pretty fast.

There are several concepts of revival. One is an intense sense of conviction of sin with confession and repentance. One is a major increase in church attendance. But the one I like is an intense sense of love among the believers. Revival is when no body wants to go home. It is like having a date with your girl friend and you dread going home.

I knew a pastor who loved his wife so much, they would have a date each week. He would reluctantly take her home, and have a length goodbye at the front door. Then he would run around back, and go in the back door. Then they would get down together, and thank God that they could stay together all night in bed.

Revival is when no body wants to go home. I have known it three or four times in my life, but it is unusual. One time I have mentioned before is in Simpsonville,SC. We were having meeting Saturday night in the home of Perry and Pam Sanders. There was no explanation for it. It was just chemistry. Ricky Smith would play his guitar and I would open the Word of God. But, oh my goodness, the atmosphere in the place! The indescribable level of fellowship. The intense love that each one had for everyone in the room. At midnight no body wanted to go home. We used to say, “Wouldn't it be great if we could do this on Sunday morning.” But that never happened.

I have mentioned Gotthold Beck and Kichijoji to you many times. I would say that Gotthold, unquestionably, was the most successful missionary in post-war Japan. He started out in Kichijoji, Tokyo, around 1965 with a handful of university students that he gathered by teaching German in their school. In 30 years that work had gone the full length of Japan, and international, with, conservatively over 2,000 to 3,000 believers. It wasn't the expansion of the work that was impressive, but the character of the meetings. I was in very few meetings in Kichijoji, but they were famous for over crowding. The auditorium might have held 200 folks on a normal occasion, but any Sunday there were over 400 jammed in that building, including the hall, the stairway, the bathroom, the kitchen, etc, and another 20 standing outside that couldn't get in the building holding umbrellas worshiping Jesus. It was unreal. In 1986 we were in Ikoma, and started going to the Kichijoji meetings in Kobe. Man howdy, were they different! I never saw anything like it. The work started in Sister Koyama's apartment with about 8 to 10, but soon they were in a community building with over 100 in attendance. The thing that amazed me was, after the two hour meeting they would have a meal together, and at 3:00 in the afternoon there were still about 2/3 of the folks sitting there at the tables with their Bibles open fellowshipping in the Spirit. Later when they got chased out of that building at 3:00, they would go to other believers homes, and frequently, several would come to our house, and fellowship until midnight.

Five years ago we got a request from a pastor in Laos asking if we could supply him with Bibles. I went over to Laos to talk to the pastor. When I asked him about the number of souls being saved, I couldn't believe the astronomic figure he gave me. I asked him three times, and got the same number each time. A few months later I was taking a team over there to supply him. His English was quite limited, and he was using his niece for an interpreter. When I was with them, I told the niece, “The last time I spoke with your uncle he told me that XX number of churches were being started each month. Is that true?” She asked him again, and he came up with the same number. I asked the girl, “Where are all these believers meeting, and what are the meetings like?” She said that believers were being saved in a wide area and it was difficult for them to meet each Sunday. Some had to travel a considerable distance. Therefore they would get together once a month in a designated place at 6:00 and go all night. I said, “Unbelievable!”. The niece was 23, and told me that she wasn't able to hold up all night long, and usually flamed out around 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. But the meetings would run for 12 hours straight. That is what it is like when you can't close a meeting, and Christians refuse to go home. To the pastors credit, may I also add, he used to be a helicopter pilot in the Lao Air Force, and spent a year in prison for his faith. When he was in prison he dedicated himself to spend the rest of his life serving the Lord. And the Lord has given him a marvelous harvest.

In all honesty, I must explain that the meeting at Paul's' church was not the usual worship time. This is the beginning of the Karen Christmas season, and the meeting started with a meal and a great deal of singing. But still in all the intense craving for fellowship was dominant.

In Thy presence is the fullness of joy. Thank You Jesus,

                                                                                             bill

Global Recordings and Joy Ridderhof

Dear Phyllis,                                                                                                  November 30, 2014

Last Tuesday we were invited to attend the75th anniversary of Global Recordings and the 15th anniversary of its being in Thailand. Gospel Recording (the original name) was started in 1939 by Joy Ridderhof. Joe Carroll used to say, he wondered why most of the great men of God that he knew were women. Joy Ridderhof was certainly one of the greatest female men of God of our time. She started an organization that has undoubtedly reached a wider spectrum of people with the Gospel than any organization in history.

Joy first went out as a missionary to Honduras in 1930. She contracted Malaria and was forced to return to the states. Being unable to get back to the mission field, she had a great burden how to reach the souls in Honduras that were dear to her. The movie industry and recording industry was just expanding in the 1930s and she learned of a studio near her home in Los Angels that would make recordings for individuals. She invested her life savings of about $25 to make a recording of the Gospel to send back to Honduras to play to her friends that they might get saved. It was through this initial investment that she got the vision of making recording in different languages to be a means of witnessing to people in difficult areas, that otherwise had no chance of hearing the Gospel.

I first met Joy when I was with Joe for their annual Bible conference in Los Angeles in 1964, and later became a reasonably close friend. I was sitting with her one night on the porch of her home that was very close to the center of downtown Los Angeles and asked her, “How did you ever get this place?” She said that was her fathers farm. Her father's farm was what is now the center of Los Angeles, and that was the headquarters for Gospel Recordings.

From the original concept of making records on 72 RPM black disks, the technology of recordings evolved in some ingenious ways. If they wanted to reach unreached tribes in remote places on the earth, they had to have some means of being able to play these recordings on something different than a phonograph or a record player. It is pretty hard to buy batteries in the heart of the Amazon or the Tibetan plateau so they had to have something non-electrical.

The simplest means was what they called the talking card. It was nothing more than a piece of cardboard folded in thirds. There were no wires or anything electrical in it. On the bottom third there was a small pin (post) where you could place a record. You stood the rest of the card board up like a tepee with a small needle on the end of one side. You could place that needle on the record and spin it with your finger and it would talk to you. The one side of the card board acted as the speaker. You could pack hundreds of these cards with records in a box, carry them in the heart of the jungles, and naked savages could hear the Gospel in their own tongue. That would so intrigue them that they would spin those records listening to the Gospel by the hour.

They had another high tech device that was no less ingenious but bulkier to carry. They had a small wooden box with a turntable on it. Inside was a simple gear mechanism that you turned with a crank on the side. There was a fly-wheel inside that regulated the RPM of the turntable. No matter how fast you turned the crank the speed was always the same. On top of the box there was a arm that was very similar to the original gramophones. On the end of the arm there was a small speaker with a needle on the end. As you turned the record, the needle would make the paper speaker vibrate that would produce the sound. You could hear the recording quite clearly. In remote villages these talking boxes were tremendously popular as people would listen to the Gospel in their own native language by the hour.

Producing the records was the trick. This required an army of courageous missionaries. A recordist missionary would go into an area that was totally unreached by the Gospel and locate someone who was bilingual in both the language of the recording and the tribe they wanted to reach. The recordist had prepared scripts of messages he wanted to record. He would have the native speaker read those scrips and record what he was saying. There were a number of messages that they would record ranging from the story of sin, the Cross, the resurrection, coming judgment, creation, the Flood, etc. The recordist would get these messages recorded in the language he was targeting on a portable tape recorder. He would send that tape back to Los Angeles where technicians would take it off the tapes and make records out of them. The records were very simple plastic disks made by volunteers in Los Angeles that would get shipped back to the country targeted. Missionaries could then carry those records and the talking cards or boxes into remote areas where these tribes or minority groups lived and distribute them. The natives were delighted to have these miraculous talking gadgets and play the records to hundreds of people by the hour. To date Gospel Recordings (Global Recording) has reached over 6,000 tribes with the Gospel message. Can you imagine that? The Lord alone knows how many million have been saved through these simple records.

Of course, church planting and lasting evangelism is much more involved. Mission organizations, like Wycliffe Bible Translators, and New Tribes Mission, send in missionaries who reduce the native language to writing, then translate the Bible in that language. From there Bible are printed and serious, evangelism, and discipling takes over. All of that is necessary to get the Gospel to the nations of the world. But for those small tribes and unreached areas where the population is too small to print Bibles, this is about the only way of getting that message to those people.

Joy Ridderhof was an amazing woman of God. GR has carried the Gospel far beyond anything that we could have imagined. Let's do our part in telling our neighbors who speak our language about the wonderful salvation of our Lord Jesus.

                                               bill

Miscellaneous News

23 November 2014

Dear Phyllis,

This is one of those days when I have nothing to say. There are a number of small news items, but nothing especially spiritual. One thing I should mention is that about a month ago disaster struck when my computer crashed, and I thought I had lost everything, including some priceless photos I had taken from all over SEA, west China, and Pakistan. After I took my computer to the computer shop to get it fixed, Singha told me I shouldn't have as they would rip me off. I gave him the slip from the computer shop and asked him to take care of it for me. The first thing was when my friend, Pascal, showed up with a beautiful new computer for me. I was speechless. The next thing was when Singha told me that the computer shop had called him saying my computer was too old and they couldn't get a new part for it. Then one day Singha came with my computer fixed. They had ordered a new part. To my utter amazement, everything was still intact on the computer. So actually I lost nothing but gained a new computer out of the deal.

Physically, I suppose I am somewhat better. The last time I wrote I said I was at about 65% normal power. That has moved up to 70% or 75%. My whole body was shutting down as I was getting no exercise. Last week I started out walking 1 km a day. At first that was quite difficult, but it is getting better everyday.

My friend, Gary, came to see me Wednesday for the first time in many months. Nearly a year ago, the doctor who owns his shed, asked me to make a difficult stairway for him. I promise to do that, and ordered the material 8 or 9 months ago. I went to the job site a couple of times to get started, but the building wasn't read yet. Five months ago, when my body flamed out, I assumed that was the end of my carrier as a carpenter. But Wednesday Gary said the doctor is still waiting for me to do that job. I told Gary that is Impossible. But he suggested that he would do all the work if only I would show him how. It would be like life from the dead if I could get back to driving nails. I told Gary I was willing to give it a try, and I am supposed to get back to work next Monday.

Two weeks ago I told Singha that I thought our system of teaching the kindergarten children English was very inefficient, and the best way would be to leave out the interpretation, and emerge the children in a system of total English. The first thing that surprised me was when he told me that several of the kids had gone on to expensive private schools where they had to take an entrance exam, and five of our children had scored the top in Chiang Mai. That gives their school a five star rating. Sangha and his wife accepted my suggestion, and started a new class that is English only. This is in addition to the 30 minute that I have at 9:30 every morning. At first they stuck on two more hours so I was there until noon. You want to try something challenging, just get seven 4-6 year old children in a room and keep them entertained for two hours. I was really tired when I got home at noon.

We had a fine Thai sister live with us for two or three months eight months ago. Janice is Thai, but has a masters degree from a university in England, so her English is pretty good. There were some problems, and she left us about five months ago. Monday evening I was surprised to see her out front again. She had just moved in to a ridiculous situation and panicked. She was tremendously relieved and grateful when I gave her a green light to come back for a while. So Janice is with us again.

The biggest news is Pammy. I'm sure you have heard the story about the Arab and the camel. On a cold winter night a camel stuck his head in the tent of an Arab and asked for permission to at least have his nose in the warm tent. Then he asked for his head. Then his front legs. At last he got his whole body in the tent. At that, the Arab protested and said there wasn't room for both in the tent, and for him to get out. The camel simply replied, “No, I am here. You get out.” I am dealing with a Christian camel.

When we were married I told Pammy what the Bible had to say about a woman place in the church – (silence). I have always said I would never allow her to be a pastor again. But she has been winning souls at the market and wherever she goes at an unprecedented rate. She wanted to have a church service here at our house. No way!!! I told her that I have no objection for her to nurture those she is bringing to Christ, but I would not allow a meeting here. One Sunday she came back and said the unsaved grandfather at the house where they were meeting put them out. She had no other place to go but here. Okay. But the house began to look more and more like a church. I am determined to stay loyal to Kichikun, even though I am off the preaching roster. Each week I would come home from Kichikun's church and see four or five of Pammy's new converts having the time of their life at 2:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon. Church is the greatest thing in their life. They love every minute and don't want to go home. Pammy is giving them very good teaching, and they are enjoying the Lord like I haven't seen in a long time. If God is blessing like that I am not going to step forward to stop it. At the same time Kichikun's church is getting perilously close to dead religion. Kichikun is a faithful pastor and is very orthodox. He is a good teacher. But I don't see any life in the church. It has been a long time since anyone got saved, and I seriously doubt that those believers are growing or going on with God. No one is excited about Jesus. Last week I asked Pammy what she had shared with her people that day. It was superb! Pammy's group is very small and still in the embryonic stage, but at this point it looks to me like the best show in town. I have told her that if she grows big enough, and I pull out from Kichikun, I would be willing to step forward to be the pastor. I have no objection for her to do what she is doing right now. If we could make this a sister church of Kichikun's that would be best. I have gone past the line of what I said I would permit, and am very close to being the Arab with a camel in the tent. But if this camel is so singularly blessed of God I really don't want to close it down. If Jesus is moving, Lord please don't stop.

                                                                                  bill

    

Paul Almstead and Family

16 November

Dear Phyllis,

Paul Almstead has got to be one of the most unusual men I have ever met. I have never met a man who is more extreme in both directions. I knew him for two years before he was saved. I didn't like him and thought a guy like this will never be saved. If God had a plan to save all humanity, he would absolutely be standing at the end of the line. He had been a correction officer for 20 years, at one point had been an undercover agent for the NYPD to penetrate the Mafia. He had worked in anti-terrorism, an investigative detective, and a number of other dangerous jobs. At one point he applied to go to Iraq to teach Iraq policemen but was red-line for being too violent. He was one rough dude. He was drunk most of his life and womanizing was as basic as changing his clothes.

How he got saved was as weird as it gets. His Thai wife was a devout Buddhist. She got saved in about 20 minutes when Scott's wife told her that Buddhism was of the devil. She practically clawed the eyes out of Paul saying, “You would have let me go to hell, because you went to the Wat (temple) with me.” A couple months later Paul came to see me one day asking what baptism was. I asked,”Why?”. “My wife wants to join the club”. I told him, “Forget it Paul. God has you in His cross hairs and there is no way you can get away.” I have never seen such a transformed guy. As bad as he was in one direction, he is even more so in the other. In anything he does Paul is an extremely intense individual. Things that formerly were a consuming passion with him are completely gone, and serving Jesus is the only thing on his plate now. Shortly after they were saved, Paul and Marisa were going to have a Christmas party for about 18 young people. Suddenly the guest list ballooned to 100. They bought 100 pieces of Chicken, and Paul ate two before the guests came. They were stunned when 200 people showed up. He knew that there were only 98 pieces of chicken in the pot and watched in amazement as 200 people got a large piece to eat. He comes over almost daily telling me of some once-in-every-25- years miracle that happened yesterday. Paul has an unusual intercessory prayer life, and is regularly seeing astounding miracles in lives ranging from Africa to India.

Two weeks ago he told me one that topped them all. His mother was a horrible person. He hadn't seen her in 25 years and had no idea where she lived – if she was still alive. He had been praying for her, along with his prayers for every one else in his family. Totally out of the blue he gets a letter from a lady he had never heard of asking if he knew a Phyllis Almstead. He said that, is my mothers name. “She lives close to me.” Unbelievable!!! Then he gets a letter from his daughter saying that she and her husband are getting transferred from California to the same small town in Florida. He had his daughter to visit her grandmother. Both are unsaved, but I had a crazy idea. “Let's see if we can get your unsaved daughter, Erica, to lead your mother to Christ.” Why not? Everything else is ridiculous. Last week I wrote a letter to Erica explaining how she could lead her grandmother to Christ. The letter is as follows:

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12 November 2014

Dear Erica,

My name is Bill Cook. I am a friend of your father. He has shared with me a little of the trauma you are dealing with reference to your grandmother. To put it simply, what you are dealing with is a very ugly spirit in your grandmother. The spirit is, of course, the person living inside her. Obviously the problem is not her body. When she is gone, and the person inside is gone, the body will be benign in a casket. There are various ways of altering that spirit.

Education is the lest effective. Information will not change a persons character. Knowledge of right and wrong does not give anyone the power to do it. Road signs will not slow traffic. A governor on a car will, but not a road sign. You can tell young people not to look at porno, but that won't stop them from doing it. There must be a change inside.

The best way to change a persons character is by what the Bible calls the new-birth (John 3:1-12; 1 Pet. 1:23). This is what happened to your father. I have known him for 5 or 6 years. At first I didn't like him. He was the type of man that would never be a Christian. For 56 years your dad's life consisted entirely of alcohol, women, and football. I was the most surprised turkey in town when your dad became a Christian. I was skeptical for several weeks. We'll see how this works out. It was hard to believe it was real. But, man howdy, it sure was. I have never seen such a transformation in a man. He hasn't touched a drop of alcohol in 4 years. And he is the most faithful, considerate husband you will ever meet anywhere. There is only one explanation for what happened to him. He is born-again of the Spirit of Christ.

The Bible says, “he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). What happens at the new-birth is somewhat like what happens in a woman at conception. You have two separate seeds – one of the woman and the other of the man. At conception these two seeds come together to form a new life. The life that is formed is one, but originally they came from two separate people.

Jesus told His disciples that He was going back to heaven, but He would send His Spirit back to live in their hearts (John 14, 15, 16). This is exactly what happens to us. That happened to me 57 years ago, and I have been a radically different person than I was for my first 21 years. That is the simple explanation. In reality it is considerably more complicated than that, and it varies very much from person to person. If everyone on earth wanted to be born-again, and said yes to Jesus; and Jesus was ruling in every heart, this planet would be like heaven. The problem is that most people have their own agenda and don't want any interference. If there is anyway we (you, someone), could get the Spirit of Christ to come into your grandmothers heart, and take over, she would be the most wonderful person in the nursing home.

How we get the Spirit of Christ to come into a persons heart; here is the trick. To start with, that is impossible. Jesus is not an injection that we can stick in someones arm. He comes in in His Own time and way. We cannot tell Him what to do, or where to go. He is sovereign He will come into the willing heart, but He will not break the door down if someone doesn't want Him. Over the past 57 years I have seen hundreds of very strange cases. Your dad being one. My own salvation was an odd one.

There are several traditional ways of dealing with people. None of them are infallible, guaranteed to work every time. Sometimes we have people pray their own prayers, and sometimes we tell them what to say. But a verbal confession is usually quite important. If you could get your grandmother to say, “Lord Jesus, thank You for Your Blood that You shed for me and paid for my sins. I accept You as my savior. Please come into my heart and make me Your child, Amen”

If you can get you grandmother to audibly say those words, it would be interesting to see what might happen. It wouldn't hurt if she said them over and over until something happens in her heart.

.I won't promise anything. Your grandmother has a history of being pretty difficult. But if there is anything you could do to alter her spirit that would be the accomplishment of a life time. Give it a shot.

I would recommend that you read the Book of St. Mark (that is the 2^nd book in the New Testament), before taking on your grandmother. And maybe pray to ask the Lord to help you before you try dealing with her. If you have any questions, please feel free to write me. Your dad and I are rooting for you.

bill cook

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I have never heard of anything like this. But Paul told me the night after he sent my letter to Erica they went to a special meeting at their church and heard the speaker tell how he had been a unsaved evangelist leading many people to Christ for four years before He himself got saved. If the Holy Spirit would use Erica to lead her grandmother to Christ, that would be a new one for me. If that would happen it would seem almost a given that Erica would soon be saved herself. Paul is seeing mind-boggling events daily. His entire family were as big a disaster zone as he was, but now the Kingdom of God seems to be prevailing.

Lord Jesus, let your Kingdom come and Your will be done. Amen

                                                                  bill

Letter to High School Class

9 November 2014

Dear Phyllis,

When I was in high school I was very much a loner. I had very few friends and spent more time riding my horse than running around with the other kids. I can't recall ever having a date with any girl in my class, and I don't believe I ever met one person from my class after our graduation night. Although, from time to time, I have spent a few weeks or months living at home in that area of Pennsylvania, from the fall of 1953 on, I was in some other part of the country or overseas. It wasn't until recent years that some have tried to reestablish contact with me. Inasmuch as nearly everyone is 79 or 80 years old now the numbers have decreased considerably. Two classmates have been saved and written me, but for the rest I have no idea how much light they have had. If most of them lived in the same spiritual vacuum that I was in at home, there is a strong possibility that they know very little about the way of salvation. In an attempt to reach out to them, last week, I wrote the friend who is the class historian, or at least the contact man, for everyone in the class of '53. I was grateful that he sent me a letter saying that my letter to them had been sent out. This was a pretty basic presentation of the Gospel, but I tried to phrase it in such a way that it wouldn't be too offensive and yet give them a clear understanding that there is such a thing as salvation through Jesus Christ.

It is one of the bewilderments of my life that Jesus would reach down to the bottom of the barrel and pick the most unlikely candidate to have the most unique life of anyone in that class. It would be a tremendous joy if I see someone in heaven that was introduced through this letter I sent this week. Enclosed is what I wrote:

4 November 2014

Dear Classmates of'53,

Last week I got a flood of e-mails concerning the passing of two more of our classmates. The class of 53? My goodness, that was 61 years ago. Small wonder the ranks are thinning. Given that the average lifespan is supposed to be somewhere around 75 years, we are all living on borrowed time. Candles have different lengths – some longer and some shorter. But one thing common to all candles is that they all have a beginning and an end. Regardless of the length of the candle, when the wick burns to the end, the flame goes out.

I could wish that we could reenact our graduation ceremony on a stage set for heaven. If we were standing in line going up on the stage, and, to get our diploma, was our entrance into heaven, there wouldn't be the melancholy sigh, “I sure will miss Mary”. If it was only a matter of seconds before the next one in line ascended the steps to the stage, we would look forward for the day when everyone in line got their diploma, and we were all gathered together for a class picture. If life was like that, there would be considerably less sorrow. For myself I am making very poor progress on my way to get to heaven, and I fear I may be the last one in line.

I know to write something like this is offensive to some. Although we all are Americans, there is no doubt that our religions vary somewhat and our spiritual views are not all the same. But one thing that we all have in common is death. For every one of us the day will come when our heart will stop and our spirit will leave.

I know there were some in our class that went into the ministry. God bless the ones that did. I was not much interested in religion when I was in high school, and I am even less interested now. It is true that I have been a missionary for over 53 years, but religion has never been my thing.

I was the most surprised turkey in town when the Lord invaded my life in 1957. My father collapsed of a heart attack the night of our graduation, and died three weeks later. That was my introduction to death. I had never heard of salvation, and had no idea of what happened after death. My quest for an answer led me into spiritualism, and through that I had a frightening encounter with the spirit world. But that didn't help me. Four years later a friend told me that Jesus would change my life if I would let Him. I flat didn't believe him, but to prove he was wrong I said I would give it a try. I lost that argument. After my conversion everything was different, but I never went into the ministry.

After Jesus came into my life, the first job He gave me was flying jet fighter aircraft. It was through that that I wound up in Japan in 1958. And I have lived in the Orient ever since. The reality of Christ was so powerful that I couldn't stay in the Air Force lighting after burners, but had to get out to tell the Japanese the way to heaven.

For the past 12 years I have lived in Thailand. For 15 years I was a Bible smuggler carrying Bibles to Christians in the underground church in communist countries in SEA and China. Traveling extensively in those countries and working with persecuted Christians has given me a perspective much different from those who have never been much out of the USA. Religion has very little to do with it. What we are dealing with here is LIFE.

Both Japan and Thailand are Buddhist countries. They are very similar. Buddhism has no definitive answers about anything. I had a friend in Japan who was a Buddhist priest. I asked him how Buddhism handled creation. He told me that Buddhism does not deal with creation, and the only place he knew of an answer for that question was in the Christian Bible.

The way I explain the Bible message to Thais is that in the beginning there was a God who created everything. He created man in His own image. Man is fundamentally different from animals in that he has a spirit, and man will compulsively worship something. In much of the world, life is a matter of appeasing evil spirits. Originally man was created perfect, but tragically turned against God, and man became sinful. There are no exceptions. All have sinned. Being a moral being, God must judge everyone according to what they do in life. Buddhism teaches that life is a balance and if the good out weighs the bad you might make it. But the law doesn't work that way. I suggest that if there were five stop lights, and a policeman stopped you for running one; protesting, “Look I stopped at the other four lights, shouldn't that excuse me for just running one red light.” Because of our sin all humanity is in bad shape. But God in His compassion doesn't want to fling the guilty ones into hell. To correct this serious problem God developed an unthinkable solution. He sent His Son to this earth to die in place of the criminals. In order to get this forgiveness and a free visa to heaven all you have to do is accept it. Man howdy, it can't get any easier than that! Religion has nothing to do with it.

For those who have already left us, there is nothing I can say. But for those us still standing in line, if we individually checked our pocket and made sure that we have indeed our prepaid salvation, moving up in the line would not be a dreadful thing, but a joyful hope. We were all anxious to get our diplomas, but I'm far more anxious to get to that City, and get to see again some old friends that I haven't seen in 61 years.

Hoping to see you there,

                                    bill cook

May God bless this simple letter to see some to come into the joy of knowing Jesus. Amen?

                                                bill

Weeks Events

2 November 2014

Dear Phyllis,

This has been a semi-significant week, in a different way. Wednesday looked pretty rough. Pammy's motorbike has a malfunctioned fuel gauge. I knew it is unreliable, but it has been fairly consistent that, when it shows less than half a tank it is getting close to empty. Actually, it had been rising slightly, but I knew I was getting in the red zone. I thought on my way back from school I must get some gas. Half way there I flamed out. I left the bike sitting beside the road and walked home. After I got home I took my bike and went on to school to tell Sangha why I missed class that morning. He said that he would get some gas and later pick up my bike for me. At 1:30 that afternoon he did show up with his son, and we did successfully get the bike home.

Paul has asked me to write a short daily devotional for his Facebook account. I had written three, and Wednesday afternoon I sat down to compose another one. Before I started to write, I thought I would first check my e-mail. While looking at e-mail, something weird happened to my computer. The You Tube video I was looking at suddenly began to repeat, repeat, repeat itself and the courser had disappeared. There simply was no courser, so I couldn't turn the computer off. I was not on Windows program and have had some success in flat turning the commuter off without destroying anything. I took a chance and turned the computer off. Then I turned it on again. Blank screen. Nothing. The computer had obviously crashed. I thought, “Well, it looks like the Lord has expressed Himself what He thinks about my writing.” I have been using computers for 18 years. I sit down to write a devotional, and for the first time ever my computer crashed.

The phone down stairs started to ring. All the calls coming into this house are for Pammy. I waited for her to get it, but she didn't. It rang again and so I called her. She said “Let it go”. But whoever it was must be desperate. After ringing for at least ten minutes I went down stairs to answer it. It was our new Christian. Nok's, daughter. Pammy said she couldn't go downstairs to speak to her, but have her call on Pammy's cell phone. At last I realized Pammy was seriously ill. She was so sick she could hardly move. She begged me to take her to the hospital. I said, “Of course I will take you to the hospital, but first let's pray”. Then I prayed as non-spiritual a prayer as it is possible to get. The words were proper, but it was little more than talking to the wall. To my utter amazement, suddenly Pammy said, “I feel much better”. I never saw such a dramatic change in my life. Pammy said she was so sick that she got her tongue stuck between her teeth and couldn't pull her tongue back. It must have been spiritual. There is no medical problem like what she had. But two minutes of prayer fixed that. Amazing! It was almost frightening to realize that Jesus was indeed in the room, He heard me, and healed her so suddenly. She was fine.

I took my computer to a computer shop, and they said it looks like I lost all the data on my computer. I had hundreds of National Geographic quality pictures taken from all over SEA, China, and Pakistan, plus all my correspondence, and several years of PB letters. I really didn't want to lose that. And it would cost $65 to fix my computer. The Lord knows.

Wednesday was a bad day, but the Lord stepped forward the next day. In the afternoon, I was up stairs reading a book, as I had nothing else to do, when a dear friend, Pascal, showed up. He got out of his car with a large package. He had bought me a brand new, top-of-the-line lap-top computer. This is easily the finest computer I have ever had, and one like I never dreamed of having. For thirty minuets I was literally speechless. To say “Thank you” seemed so totally inadequate that it almost seemed insulting to say it. I wept in appreciation.

Pascal is one of the biggest events that has happened here I Chiang Mai in the past year. About 15 years ago he came from Holland to Thailand as a young man in his mid 20s. He came from a non-Christian family, but, for no clear reason, the only book he brought with him was a Bible. He married a well educated Thai lady and started a successful school for children. In the providence of God, he found himself living next to a missionary who led him to Christ. Kent was the leader of our Wednesday morning mens prayer fellowship and brought him to that meeting. He was such a quiet fellow, sometimes we wondered whether or not he was saved. I had known him for several years but had never heard his testimony. When Kent left the country, the numbers of our meeting dwindled down to where we were thinking about quitting, but Pascal voted for keeping it going. We decided to make him leader.

About that time two things developed. Pascal was a tremendous loner, but he started hanging out at Paul's house quite a bit. This must have had a major impact on him. Since being saved Pascal had never gotten involved in church attendance. His church should have been the Community Church, but he seldom went. And water baptism had never been a subject he had given much thought to. Paul was concerned that he had never been baptized, and started earnestly praying for him. When Paul finally broached the subject, he was surprised to find Pascal very open and interested. Around last March Paul baptized Pascal in a lake near here. It is hard to say what lit the flame, but Pascal is really on fire for God today. A few months ago Paul got involved in helping refugees escaping from North Korea, and Pascal joined him in that ministry.

The other day Pascal was talking about their most recent trip to take supplies, Bibles, and Gospel material to 30 some North Koreans who had just arrived in Thailand. His face was just shining as he was telling us that story. Then he said, “and coming back I was just UNBELIEVABLY BLESSED”. That was a remark uttered by a man who had entered into the inner circle of friends of Jesus. What he was trying to share with us is something that defies expression. There is nothing in our English language that adequately communicates the joy that comes from knowing and serving Jesus. For many years Pascal was just a fill-in-the-squares Christian, but today he is so overwhelmed with the joy of the Lord he is beside himself to know what to say.

It sure is fun serving Jesus,

                                          bill

PS: This letter was typed on my new computer.