Dear Phyllis,
I’m home. You probably guessed that already. My trip to Laos f orm. But this last trip
was dif f erent.
I really f elt marvelous
during my 1,000 km ride in northern Laos Thailand f elt a
sensation that was disturbing. Forty f our
years ago, when I was doing house to house dendo (evangelism) in Mei-ken (pref ecture)
I collapsed with shot kidneys. I had been trying to teach myself
to live like the man who trained his horse to live on f resh
air and exercise. He cut back on the hay a little bit every day until he f inally
got the horse trained. Unf ortunately, af ter
all that ef f ort,
the horse died. That is what I had been doing f or
nearly a year previous, and I was very proud that I could get by on so little –
until I collapsed. Shortly af ter that I f ound
myself in the states f or
a medical f urlough. I had some painf ul
moments passing blood. Urologists in the states told me that I had a kidney
disorder f rom which I would never recover.
Jesus healed me, and I have been in disgustingly good health ever since. But
Monday morning I f elt an uncomf ortable
sensation that was an indicator of a bladder
problem.
I got back to Thailand f ter noon
and took the bus down to Udorn Thani where I get the night bus back to Chiang
Mai. I asked f or a VIP bus, but the gal
selling tickets said all they had that night was a 2nd class bus
with no toilet. The price is considerably cheaper, and I have ridden 2nd
class busses many times. I was a little concerned about an emergency on a bus with no toilet, but I knew it stopped every two hours and thought I could tough
it out.
I had to do some shopping in Udorn Thani, and went to the
huge shopping center at Central. Unf ortunately
the calls to the rest room were getting more f requent,
and I was having a problem with leaking. I thought, it’s ridiculous, but the
only thing I could think of to alleviate that
situation was to buy some sanitary pads. I thought, this is stupid; I’m a 72
year old male, and this is the f irst time I
have ever worn one of these dumb things, and I
didn’t know how to put one in my pants. And then the terrif ying
scenario kept plaguing me, “What in the world can I do on an overcrowded bus
with no toilet, when I can’t wait two minutes?” The only thing I could think of
was to use a bottle. Modesty doesn’t apply in that situation. I bought a bottle
of tea f or
the sole purpose of using the bottle and put it
in my bag.
We hadn’t been moving too long bef ore
the situation got totally out of control. I
had absolutely zero control. My pants were getting very wet with it running
down my leg. And then I started passing serious blood. That was the worst I had
been since my problem in 1964.I thought the only way I could stay ahead of
the curve was to try to preempt the call to the rest room, and started going to
the toilet every 15 minutes – with blood at each visit. Then my body went
bonkers. For an hour my whole body shook like I was having a severe chill. I
thought, “Oh my goodness, this is going to be a ling night.” But by midnight the visits to the toilet got stretched
out to an hour. And f rom 3:00 until 6:00 AM
I was down to three hours. During the long night, I kept quoting Ps. 103:1-3;
“Bless the Lord oh my soul… Who healeth all
thy diseases…”. “Lord Jesus, thank You f or
healing this problem.”
When I got of f
the bus in Chiang Mai the next morning I really f elt
quite well. Friends advised, “You had better go to the hospital to have that
checked, and get some medicine.” I replied, “That is pointless. Jesus has
healed me and I f eel f ine.”
I really f elt that I was completely healed,
but I noticed that day that I was still spotting a little blood. Back to the
sanitary pad. The only complaint I had Tuesday night was that I was shot. I
didn’t f eel like going anywhere, and went to
bed around 9:00 . I thought I got a
pretty good nights sleep except I woke up very early, and had to go to the
bathroom. I was shocked when I looked at the clock to see it was only 10:00 PM . The next time I woke up it was 11:00 and then 12:00 .
But then there was only one more time bef ore
I got up at 5:00 to stay up. By
Thursday all burning sensation was gone and my plumbing is working now better
than it has in years. Praise the Lord, I am healed!
Perhaps I shouldn’t be embarrassed, but there is quite a
stack of cabinet work waiting f or
me. I wonder if the Apostle Paul had to
balance his ministry with orders f or tents.
The f act that he worked with Aquila
and Priscilla would indicate that they had some sort of
a business going (Acts 18:2). I thank the Lord f or
giving me a very f ine shop with some excellent
tools. It is a great privilege to be able to work with my hands in a trade that
I greatly enjoy. Unlike Paul, I don’t make any money. Actually I almost always
work f or a signif icant
loss. Of course, my work is f ree,
but I also pay f or a lot of
the material that I use. I wouldn’t spend so much time doing cabinet work except
the Lord has given me very little ministry. I seldom preach more than once a
month somewhere. That is not a real heavy schedule. I do go to the ladies
prison each week and have some ministry there. Recently the Lord has given me a
Bible study on Friday night. But that still leaves a great deal of
time to be f illed up with something; and the
thing the Lord has provided is my hammer. The girls next door have asked me to make
a f airly large kitchen cabinet. Lord willing I
will get that done early this week. Then I have a large order f or
about a dozen bunk beds f or Dave Eubanks. That
will keep me going probably through December.
Several weeks ago I met a German man who teaches at Mae Jo
University, in this town. The Lord had miraculously healed him of
debilitating migraine headaches, but he said he didn’t know the Lord. I asked,
“Would you like to know the Lord?”
“Yes.”
“If you are serious, let’s
get together each week f or a Bible study.”
When I f irst met Mannf ord
I f elt he was about 2/3 saved. The f irst
night we met to study the Scripture I gave him a 3/4-saved rating. But the next
night when I asked him if he had been reading
his Bible, he argumentatively said, “No! A person could read the Bible all
their lif e and still walk f ar
f rom God. I don’t need to read the Bible.” I
was so mad I nearly closed my Bible and went home. I replied, “Yes, a person can
read the Bible and be f ar f rom
God, but it is impossible to walk close to God and not f eed
daily on the Word of God.” That night he got less than a half -saved
rating. But then the next two nights his stock has soared again. We meet at
Scott and Kay’s home with several others. Scott had recently given Mannf ord
a new English Bible. Last Friday night Scott asked him, “How do you like your
new Bible?” Mannf ord replied, “I don’t like my
Bible – I LOVE IT!” With that I
stood up to shake hands with him, and hugged him. Oh, praise God! If
the Lord opens this man’s eyes and draws him to Himself ,
Mannf ord might be just saved enough to be a
child of God.
Some people wonder at my weird theology, but I make no
apology f or it. In Japan f ore
we can really be conf ident that someone is
really saved. God knows who is born of His Spirit
and who isn’t, but f rom our perspective the
line isn’t that clear. Sometimes, f rom our
perspective, it looks like a gradual process.
Secondly, Watchman Nee said that there is a dif f erence
between salvation and our citizenship in heaven. Being born of
the Spirit of God makes us a child of
God and gets us into heaven, but salvation ref ers
more to our experience here on this earth. Being saved f rom
sin is just as important as being saved f rom
hell. The very Name given Him by the angel ref ers
to His primary work – “Thou shalt call His Name Jesus: f or He shall save His people f rom their SINS.” (Mt. 1:21). If
Jesus doesn’t save us f rom our sins, it is
questionable how much we can count on being saved f rom
hell. AW Tozer used to talk about the “half -saved
cowboy evangelist”. He was right. There are some who are evangelistic and yet
so worldly, and marginal in their walk with the Lord, you wonder how saved they
really are.
But Mannf ord is coming right
along. Other than that it has been a somewhat uneventf ul
week. But Jesus has been with me and I am in excellent health.
bill
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