Visa Update

25 November 2018

Dear Phyllis,

Half a century ago Vance Havner was one of the most colorful speakers in America. I had the privilege of hearing him preach a message up in Ashville NC that remains as fresh in my mind as if I heard it this morning. He told how when he was a young boy he frequently would go out to preach on Sunday at distant places, and his father was always concerned that he got home before it got dark. He told how his intense desire all life had been that he didn't want to hang around too late in life. For decades his prayer to God was, “Father, I want to get home before it gets dark”. Now he was in his 80s, his wife had died, the shadows of old age were creeping upon his soul, and it was getting very dark. It was a very serious concern, whether or not God would give him that request to take him home before the sun was set over the horizon. Forty years later I can sit with Vance and share his concern.

For years my singular ambition in life was that I wanted my last lap to be my fastest. The Christian life is known as a race (1 Cor 9:24, 26). In running a race it is alright to pace yourself for the long run, but when you come to the end you are supposed to let it all hang out. When I cross the finish line in life I want to have my head down, pouring all the fuel on the fire, running at top speed. I don't want to close out my journey in a nursing home with my feet on the couch looking at TV. Right now I am perilously close to that. My daily grief is that I am doing so little for Jesus.

If I can't write fresh accounts of amazing things the Lord is doing in using me, at least there is no lack of excitement last week. A month ago I shared with you how I was faced with a serious visa crisis. If the Lord did not intervene in giving me a huge amount of money for a Thai visa I was in immanent danger of being a homeless wanderer again. I said, “My present Thai visa is up on the 26 of November and if I can't get a new visa by then I am history in Thailand”. For the past two weeks we have been desperately trying to figure out how to get a new visa. I had two options but both required a staggering amount of money. A brother offered to give me a huge amount to put in the bank for a bank statement if it was in a frozen account and I didn't spend it. I was deeply grateful for that but time was killing us. The law required that that money must be in the bank three months before I apply for a spouse visa. We went to a visa service that said they could help us but we had to go to Laos and apply there, and that would cost more than than we get in four months. Then we learned that I could get a 60 extension on my present visa. That wouldn't solve the long term problem but would give us more breathing room. I was down to less than a week. We went to immigration to get that extension but we had to a have a letter from our land owner proving that we lived at our present address. Pammy said she didn't know if we had that or how to get it..

Wednesday I went with a brother to the bank to open an account so we could make a deposit for the spouse visa. The bank manager asked to see my passport. I was stunned when the manager said, “Your visa expires today.” “No it doesn't!!! It expires on the 26.” There are two aspects to immigration in Thailand. One is getting a visa. The second is that, once you are living here, you must report to immigration every 90 days. To fail to do that is almost as serious as overstaying a visa with a serious fine. The stamp I was looking at in my passport was the 90 day check, but the actual visa was up on the 21^st. To say I was stunned to learn that my visa for Thailand was up in 5 hours would be an understatement. I had checked it several times and had seen the 26, but 21 was the actual day my visa was up. I called Pammy from the bank and said the visa is up today.

I still don't know what happened but, somehow, Pammy found an old paper from the land owner showing that we lived at this address. Armed with that paper we went back to immigration and one hour before I would have been dead meat we walked out of immigration with a new stamp in my passport that I am good until 20 January.

You talk about a miracle; now there is one. Had I not just happen to go to the bank that day I never would have realiz3d that my visa was up on the 21^st. And if Pammy had not miraculously found that document from the land owner I would have to pay an overstay fine and leave Thailand in 24 hours. And to get a visa to come back would have been extremely difficult.

I still don't know what we are going to do, but having 55 days to work on it is a whole lot easier than four hours. There seems to be one option of going to Laos and apply for a spouse visa there. The visa service here in town has told us that they can get a spouse visa for us there without the three month bank statement required here. If that is true that looks pretty good, but even that is going to be very expensive. But if we can get it, once I have a spouse visa, that is almost as good as a permanent visa with a minimal requirement to renew it each year. Last Sunday I thought the Lord spoke to me when I saw in Psalm 37:3 where He promised “Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be feed.” If that is truly he Lord's personal word to me that would indicate that He intends for me to stay in Thailand and He will take care of our support.

But that trip to immigration was really of the Lord. While there we met two interesting men. One was the son of some Hmong refugees from Laos, and he is now a missionary here in Chiang Mai. I went bonkers when I met him. I said, “Man howdy, I know right where your parents are from and have taken hundreds of Bibles to Hmongs living there.” The other guy was an old man who had been a pilot in Vietnam.. When I told him, “I used to be a fighter jock flying F-86 Saber jets ”, he went out of his mind, and that lit a fire telling war stories.

In 1959 I was assigned TDY (temporary duty) to a bomber squadron in Korea. Our squadron commander had been one of the leading pilots during the Korean war. He was the most interesting man I ever met in my life. Every night he would hold three or four of us spell-bound at the table in the Officers Club for two or three hours telling the most incredible stories I had ever heard. Talking to that guy in immigration reminded me of Major Wolf, and the Lord reminded me that I have a couple of interesting stories to tell myself. If the Lord has consigned me to a quiet life as a retired missionary living in Chiang Mai with a Thai wife, at least I can pull from a file stories of past events that may be interesting to some. I have written two books that probably will never be published and this could be a third, but – if I have nothing fresh to share with you each week – maybe I could recount past events of an unusual life that Jesus has privileged me to have. Some of these may not be too spiritual but some might find them interesting, and - in all - the unmistakable hand of Jesus is clearly there. This is not an autobiography (I have already written that) but just a few things that I have experienced that are not common to everybody. They are too many to share in one letter so I will spread it out over a few weeks unless something happens in the mean time.

Singha continues to be a great blessing to me. Pammy is leading people to Christ on almost a daily basis. But apart from that the only voice I have is writing to you once a week. This week it was the excitement of getting extension to stay in Thailand,for another 60 days. But if there is nothing else to write about, maybe next week I will start reviewing a few noteworthy events that happened along the road up to here.

Thank you for your prayers, and if you speak to Jesus this week you might remind Him that He has a servant who needs to get a new visa to stay in Thailand in the next 55 days. Hoping to see you next week.

Arigato gozaimasu, sayonara (thanks and good bye),     bill

4 Relationships with Christ

18 November 2018

Dear Phyllis,

This morning I had a rare privilege to preach. The Lord laid upon my heart to speak on the four relationships that we have with God, as the sons of Adam.

Apart from what we have from Moses' account of creation and the first 2,000 years it is difficult to form any clear understanding of what interaction God had with His created being. Obviously some men knew God and had a relationship with Him. Adam certainly knew God as his creator and it is interesting that humanity had a firsthand witness of creation all the way to Noah. By drawing a time line we see that it is possible that Noah's father personally knew Adam. Noah was the first recorded man born after Adam's death.

Abraham obviously knew God and enjoyed the unique testimony as a “friend of God”. In Abraham we see the genesis of a unique covenant. God said would uniquely bless the decedents of Abraham and multiply his seed. We have a very restricted historical account of Abraham's seed up to Joseph and Israels migration to Egypt. The book opens 400 yeas later when Moses appeases and the exodus. At Sinai God made a covenant with Israel as they would uniquely be His chosen people. And the rest of the OT is the recorded history of that relationship. But in all this God appears to simply be known as God the creator.

When Jesus appeared He introduced us to a radically knew relationship. Jesus told us, “When you pray, say, Our Father”. This was radically knew. God was never known as the Father in the OT.I never really thought about this until I read Bilquis Sheikh's amazing book I Dared to Call Him Father. Bilquis shared her search for God and how she was diligently studying both the Koran and the Bible. She desperately wanted to know the true God. In her search she noticed that Jesus had instructed us to address God as Father. In her search one day Bilquis wanted to speak with God and said “Father”. With that the Holy Spirit fell upon her and she was born again. This was almost blaspheme in Islam to address Allah as Father. This term is utterly unique to the NT and we are indebted to Jesus for bringing us to that point. The reason the NT is different from the OT is that in before Pentecost, there was no such thing as the new-birth.. John was the first one to share with us that the only way that a person could be the son of God was to be born of God (Jn. 1:13). And by virtue of the new-birth we literally are born of God and naturally should address Him as Father. There is a direct linkage between our birth and His Fatherhood, and no one who is not born of His Spirit can factually call Him Father.

The third relationship we have with God is that Jesus is our Brother. It is highly significant that after the resurrection Jesus told Mary to go tell His brothers that He was alive (Jn. 20:17). That is the first time Jesus used that term outside of His immediate family. This is underscored by Hebrews 2:11,12 where we see Jesus addressing us as brethren. In that He is fulfilling the promise made in Ps. 22:22 and the statement Jesus made at the end of His prayer in John 17:26.

When approaching God I am tremendously encouraged to know that my Brother is closely related to God. When it is unthinkable for me to speak to God or I have an urgent need to know that my Brother has an intimate relationship with God that gives me a unique access. I am not as intimidated in speaking to my Brother as I am with speaking to God.

Going ahead with my message let me say now that the fourth relationship with have with God is by marriage. I believe the Bible is the Word of God. There is nothing in this life more basic than that truth. Throw away the Bible we would have no reliable, detailed, understanding of God. I believe every word in the Bible. It grieves me that there are so many Christians who trash the Word of God and selectively throw out some portions. If indeed the relation Christians have with Jesus is by marriage would it not be reasonable that He should give us some light on that subject? He has but a large percentage of Christians look with horror at it because they don't understand it. Shortly after I was saved I discovered the unusual book of the Song of Solomon. I thought this was a treasure box but I didn't have the key. Since then the Holy Spirit has taught me more through this marvelous Book than any other portion of Scripture. In chapter 4 and 5, in addressing His Bride, we see Jesus emphasizing our human relationship with Him more than any other place. Four times Jesus speaks to us as His sister His spouse (S of S 4:9,10,12; 5:1). This emphasizes the truth that He first came to the earth to participate with us in our humanity. He can call us sister because He is literally our brother having become one of us. He is a decedent of Adam just like us (Lk.: 3:21,38). This underscores the brother relationship we have with Jesus. He came here first to identify Himself with us in our humanity in our brother sister relationship, to enable Him to take us up to identify us with Him in His heavenly position in the Godhead.

The fourth relationship with the Godhead is by marriage. We know this and yet we don't. There should be no Christian saved more than two years that doesn't know that the Church is the Bride of Christ. John the Baptist first spoke of this when he said, “He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom” (Jn. 3:29). He considered himself to be privileged to be a friend of the Bridegroom. In at least two parables Jesus spoke of His relationship with His Bride in marriage (Mt. Mt. 22:1; 25:1). The most extensive discussion we have of marriage anyplace in the Bible is in Eph. 5:22-32; but then Paul added, “but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” and called it a great mystery. The culmination of this is Revelation 19:7-9 and 21:9 where we see the Bride of the Lamb. This is our ultimate destiny.

Any human being should acknowledge that God is there creator. Those who have been born of His Spirit know the reality of looking up and say “Father”. It is a huge encouragement to know that Jesus is our Elder Brother and He is with the Father on our behalf. But to realize the relationship we have with Jesus is that we are members of His Body and the Church is the Bride of Christ. This is the most fundamental point in being a Christian. But it is one that most Christians consider almost offensive. I have said many times, Samuel Rutherford is a man who lived that and unless a person knew the Song of Sol. the Letters of Rutherford would be bewildering to the point of offensive. More than any writer I know Rutherford lived that relationship. There is much in S of S that simply bewildered me. I couldn't understand how Jesus could speak to His Bride in such terms. Many times I said to the Lord, “Jesus, that is wonderful but You are not talking about me.” There is nothing in me that could excite such affection. Then the Holy Spirit showed me that it was not because of who I am but what His heart is like. Josephs brothers didn't deserve his love, but he loved them because they were his brothers. It blows my mind to think that Jesus loves His Bride the way He does. When I look at myself and others around me I wonder, how is it possible? One explanation why Jesus loves His Bride so much is because the Church is the Father's love gift to His Son. Because believers are the ones the Father has given Him Jesus loves them very deeply. The other day I saw a You Tube of gal who died, went to heaven, met Jesus and came back. She told about her own unworthiness and inability to believe that Jesus could love a person like her but when she saw Jesus she was stunned to see that He was in love with her. That hit me with force.

Oh we don't know 2% of it. We know God as creator. If we are born of His Spirit there is something inside us that calls God Father. It is wonderful that Jesus calls us His brothers and we can understand this because he became one of us and we have the the same Father. But oh what will it be like when we are brought into His direct presence and know that He loves us as His Bride.

I don't know if anyone got anything out of this, but thank God, it's true.

                                       bill

Visa Update

11 November 2018

Dear Phyllis,

A couple weeks ago I violated a personal policy of sending out a mid-week prayer letter mentioning my need of a Thai visa. Since then a couple of things have happened. After I wrote that letter, a thought came to me of asking a major mission here in Chiang Mai if they could help me with a visa. I honestly thought I had a very good shot at going that route. I had had a relationship with that mission going back 55 years. What I was asking was well within the parameters of reasonability, but I was genuinely surprised when my request came back negative. That leaves my options very limited. The best and most stable visa would be a spouse visa, but that isn't simple. I have two major obstacles. One is finance and the second is time. In order to get that visa I have to show that I have $15,000 in a Thai bank three months prior to my application. I have neither. Two weeks ago we went to a visa service here in town to see if they could help. We have been there twice and I have no idea what will happen. Pammy keeps saying, “It looks good. They say they will help us.” But I have absolutely no idea what that means. Personally I feel the situation is pretty dire. I was considering going to Laos and come back by plane. By doing that I thought I could get a three months tourist visa, but it is doubtful that I could convert a tourist visa for a spouse visa. And I later heard all I could get by going out and coming back was one month. At the moment the strongest option looks like going to Japan. I had a life green card for Japan but lost that five yeas ago when I didn't return to Japan before my reentry permit expired. Now I am down to a three month tourist visa in Japan that I can get on entry; and I really don't need more than that because I have no home, no ministry, and no invitation to help anyone in Japan. All Japan would be is a stop-gap measure to an uncertain, unknown, future.

Pammy is not particularly concerned about my future as she has a strong desire to leave Thailand to go to another country as a missionary. Japan looks wonderful and going to the USA is even better. The problem is I can't take my wife away from her home in Thailand to go with me to an uncertain future where I don't even have a place to sleep for myself.

The other day the sister of my friend, Pastor Hanook, in Pakistan wrote me a letter expressing her desire to come back to Thailand. She was just here with YWAM DTS, but that was only for three months and she had to leave as soon as that course was over. Her main goal in life is to get out of Pakistan at any cost. I wrote her a lengthy letter about the strange ways of the Lord. I told her the bottom line was the will of God. I told her the best and safest thing a person could do is to place your life in the hands of Christ and trust Him to direct your future.

But I warned her that by doing that there was no guarantee that every thing would turn out well. I said, “You might surrender your life to Jesus and disaster would strike”. Following Jesus does not mean we just got on the Rose Garden Special. Realistically following Jesus is to walk the way of the Cross. And that means death. Things didn't turn out well for Jesus. Even until an hour before His arrest He was still pleading with His Father for a possible way out. There times in the garden He prayed, “Father if it is possible let this cup pass from Me” (Mt. 26:38-44). But it didn't work out that way.

When the Hitler invaded Holland at the time of the 2^nd WW the Germans were rounding up all Jews to exterminate them. Corrie ten Boom's family did something very courageous and dangerous by taking in Jews to hide them. They prayed earnestly that God would protect them; but the day came when they were betrayed and Corrie and her sister Betsei and father were imprisoned. Again they prayed earnestly that the Lord would protect them but Betsei and her father died in prison. Protection never came. It was the worst case scenario. I have had that many times in my own life when I have been up against a terrible situation and begged God to help me, only to see the worst case scenario fall on me.

But if Jesus had been delivered and didn't die a horrible death there never would be salvation for us. And if the Lord answered the ten Boom family prayer we never would have heard Corrie ten Boom's wonderful testimony that has blessed millions for six decades. And had the Lord heard my desperate prayer for deliverance time and again I never would have walked the road He has led Me on for 60 years. How I thank God for the multiple disasters that have fallen on me. All I can say is “As for God, His way is perfect” (Ps. 18:30).

Following Jesus certainly does not mean that you are going to have a wonderful soft time. It means that you are going to have a lot of heart arch.. But His way is best.

Having gone through multiple heart-wrenching experiences in my life, it is not with a great deal of enthusiasm that I look forward to another uprooting. At this point in life I can't say that I look forward to shouldering my backpack and step out as a homeless wanderer again. This morning in church the pastor's message was on Psalm 37:4 – “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of our heart”. As I meditated on that verse I wondered, “What is the desire of my heart?” I thought, “Well, the thing I would really like is a Thai visa and continue to stay here”. And then I honestly thought, “NO! That is not the desire of my heart”. The thing that I desire more than anything else is that Jesus would be glorified in my life. If that means walking the streets as a homeless man then Lord let me do it worthily and with joy.

At this point it seems my life has been reduced to a situation of eating, breathing, and finding a place to sleep. When you are faced with a scenario of leaving home with no certain place to go that is about what life becomes. And then I thought of an interesting event that happened in the life of Gladys Aylward. She was an incredible missionary in China in the first half of the 20^th century. She told of a time when she and a Chinese doctor set out to go an an extensive dendo (evangelism) trip in west China. They were traveling deep in the mountains near Tibet. One day at 3:00 in the afternoon they were in a desolate area miles from any town. Gladys was concerned where they were going to stay that night. She expressed that concern to the doctor and suggest they pray for a place to stay. The doctor replied, “No that isn't the problem. The problem is who are we going to talk to today about the Lord?” She was worried abut a place to sleep and he was concerned about witnessing for Jesus. This morning I thought, “Well that shoe fits my foot”. The upper most concern of my heart is finding myself on the street again and looking for a place to sleep. Where is my burden like the doctor - “Who can I reach for Christ?'. As I honestly meditated on this dilemma I came to some unanswered questions. What am I doing serving Jesus as I sit here in Chiang Mai? In all honesty my life here has been reduced to eating, breathing, looking at You Tube, and sleeping. I have pleaded with Jesus to give me a dish cloth. I would joyously wash dishes for Jesus if he would give me that chance. For years I have begged the Lord to give me a preaching or teaching ministry. But Jesus as singularly closed that ministry. Apart from teaching 100 kindergarten children English for 30 minutes each morning and writing one letter to you every Sunday, my life has been reduced to eating, breathing, looking at You Tube, and sleeping. And maybe in two weeks I might be looking for a place to do that.

I want to serve Jesus and if I can do that by walking the streets then Thy will be done. Father, let Jesus be honored in me and may Your will be done in my life. Lord, please do it.

                                                   bill

Fifteen years ago a friend asked me if I would make a tree house for his children. One day as I was walking a mile to buy 50 cents worth of screws to make the house I was feeling sorry for myself thinking what bad shape I was in. I was the only missionary in town that didn't have a shinny Toyota or a beautiful new Honda bike. I had to walk to buy screws for my friends tree house. As I was walking, the Lord spoke to me and said, “I am giving you the privilege of walking in Jesus' shoes.” Jesus didn't have a Toyota or a Honda bike. He had to borrow a donkey to ride into Jerusalem. He walked just like me. I said, “Lord thank You. That is a great privilege to walk in Jesus' shoes, but if You want me to wear them You are going to have to change the size of my foot. Jesus' shoes don't fit my feet.” They are still awfully tight; but thank God those shoes do fit a little better today than they did 15 years ago. That is progress.

General Information

4 November 2018

Dear Phyllis,

Nothing major has happened this past week and I have nothing significant to say. This will not be one of my better letters. If it is a D letter, then praise the Lord. All I have is a few scattered thoughts.

The Lord has led me to an unusual church. I have mentioned Beulah Christian Church to you before. It was really amazing how I found it. Pastor Kichikun's church, where I had gone for seven years, closed and I was searching for a new place to go. A very dear friend had recently started a new church and I decided to try that out, but got lost. As I was wandering around, I went past a church with the name Beulah Christian Church that looked like it might be it. I went in and asked, “Is this James' church?” No. Wrong one. I was 30 minutes late all ready, so I decided to stay anyway. My goodness, it was good! I thought I would give it one more shot just to see who they were, and I have been going there every Sunday since.

Beverly (I don't know her last name) is the missionary who started that church 30 years ago. Last week Pammy and I were over to her house for a couple of hours of fellowship and I am impressed. She is one more highly unusual missionary. Actually she is very vanilla-ish but must have been married to an incredible man. Her husband, Daniel, has been gone for six years so I will have to wait for heaven to meet him. Daniel was a minority boy from Burma who got to Thailand in his early teens for education. He was clearly saved and got involved with the Morris family who were the most famous missionaries in Burma and Chiang Mai. After he finished high school the Morrises sent him to the states for education, and while he was there in Bible school he and Beverly met and were married. They came back to Thailand and did amazing work, mostly in Thailand along the Burma boarder. As Beverly was describing some of their work to me the other night, it sounded like they cleaned out whole geographic swathes of land that became totally Christian. This is something that I have never seen in any country in recent years. J. O. Fraser of Lisuland did it in China, and there are several incidents in mission history where missionaries have gone into heathen places and seen almost 100% conversion. I was in a Hmong village in Vietnam that was 100% saved and Brother Yun of China reported of towns that were nearly totally converted. Fiinney had similar results 200 years ago in New York state. At the time of the Welsh revival in Wales, pubs, theaters, and such public places closed and became churches. Whole communities were massively moved for the Kingdom of God. The Wesley, and William Booth had an enormous impact on England in their day, and the Lord has had His servants throughout church history for 2000 years who have transformed society. But such movements are rare today. What Beverly was describing to me was something that I have not personally observed.

Every missionary or pastor I know is fishing with the hook and line - one fish at a time. It seemed like what Beverly and her husband were doing was fishing by net and catching whole villages at a time. There was a great deal of persecution, mostly by bad men in the Thai government, but she said the military liked them because they could see what an impact their ministry had on areas in cleaning out raising opium, reducing drugs and crime. They must have had a very significant impact in transforming whole geographic areas. Beverly said at one time 27 of their men were arrested on trumped up charges by government officials and sentenced to 12 years in prison. She said the men were forced to bow before idols and when they refused they were beaten, but ultimately the Christian men won and stated churches in the prison. I asked, “How did you get them out?” She said it was mostly by prayer, as the Lord raised up contacts with the royal family, and after three years, the men were told in the middle of the night that they would be leaving in the morning. That kind of mission work is rare today. Her husband has been gone for six years and Beverly is plugging away by herself with the Beulah church but she still has extensive contacts with a broad base of people scattered in the mountains north of Chiang Mai.

On a different subject, I want to comment briefly about my marriage. By any standard it is ridiculously dysfunctional. But so is Jesus' marriage. If the church is the Bride of Christ and this is supposed to be a marriage relationship, any marriage consular would be horrified by Revelation 2 and 3. When I was first married to Rosemary, I thought a family was like the military with the squadron commander, first sergeant, and enlisted men. It didn't take long before I discovered that marriage is not like that. But then I thought I should run my family with a heavy hand and demand obedience. That didn't work. I recent years I have been bewildered by the tolerance of God. The only attribute of deity that I can think of to explain the Lord's amazing tolerance is long-suffering. The Old Testament, church history, and the Seven Churches demonstrate a bewildering level of tolerance. Admittedly, ultimately every deed will receive its proper reward, but the Lord puts up with far more than I think He should. But, thank God, that also applies to His gracious dealings with me. When I think of what a sorry Christian I am and the shocking level of bad behavior that the Lord puts up with in me, that blows my mind.

Pammy has been good for me. I have grown more in the past four years than I did in the previous 48. I have learned to try to understand her, how she is wired together, and accept her the way God has made her. I have stopped trying to measure her by my template to expect her to be like me. And when she behaves normal – like she is – I don't get mad. But spiritually she is a phenomenon like I have never seen. It is literally a fact that she has a one string banjo and the only tune she can play is soul winning. Winning souls for Jesus is almost like an addiction with her. It is her job, her interest, her recreation and every thing I her being. I can't explain it.

I am not so naive to believe that every person who “repeats after me, 'Lord, be merciful to me a sinner' ”, is saved. I built a church for a church in Oregon that lived with Alice in Wonderland. They were extreme decisionalists. They would report every Sunday how many had been saved the previous week and it was always over 20. There must have been 500 to 600 “saved” in the six months I was there, but I set up 75 chairs every Sunday and only saw two new people come to church. And they didn't stick. No doubt many of those that Pammy sees “saved” every week are like that, but in that crowd there must be some who actually come to Christ. Last week she led two families to Jesus. One was an 88 year old lady. When Pammy met her, she had been in a coma with her eyes closed and her mouth open for a week. Pammy prayed for her and she open her eyes, closed her mouth, and spoke. Three days later she was with the Lord. I was with Pammy Friday visiting the family and they bears signs of seriously following Jesus. Pammy wants me to baptize them.

I mean to tell you she is unusual. Hang the romance. I don't care if things in the home are a little upside down. If she want to go out every day and beat the bushes to win souls for Jesus, I can put up with a little frustration and inconvenience. And she does have a genuine affection for me.

On the visa front, I thought there was one option that looked pretty good and they would be glad to take me in and through them I could get a Thai visa. I was genuinely surprised last week when my request came back negative. I am down to three weeks. If the Lord does not open the door for me in the next 21 days I am out of Thailand. Pammy keeps telling me, “Don't worry. The Lord will do it”.

Last week we went to a visa service that looks somewhat promising. It probably will cost a bundle of money but they said they would help us. If they have means to get a Thai visa for me, whatever it costs, is cheaper than plane tickets. By next week I should have some more clear answer – and maybe a better letter.

Thank you again for your prayers and the privilege of your fellowship,

In the bonds of our wonderful Lord Jesus,

                                                        bill