Visa Run to Malaysia

18 April 2010

Dear Phyllis,

Well this past week has been an interesting one. This has been Songkhron in Thailand which is the Buddhist New Year. This is the Thai shogatsu (New Year). This is the biggest holiday of the year where everything closes down for a week and everyone goes home. That would be alright, but the main event of Songkhron is that it is one week of a huge national water fight. It is impossible to go anywhere without getting doused with water. This is particularly dangerous on a motor bike, as you are guaranteed to get a bucket of water in your face about every kilometer. Hundreds of people are killed every year by accidents caused by this merry-making.

 Our Burmese workers on John’s house are off for one week. On the 24^th I had to leave Thailand to get a new visa, so John suggested that I go a week early. That was a very good idea. I missed the water fight in Thailand, and didn’t slow things down on John’s house. If I am not there no one else knows what to do.

 My trip started off very excitingly when I got on the wrong bus. When I leave Chiang Mai, the bus is usually waiting at the boarding area half an hour before hand. This time I was surprised that it wasn’t there, so I waited in the terminal until about ten minutes before bearding. When I went back, the man there told me to get on the bus the bus that was in the boarding dock. I was surprised when they didn’t have a bus girl to show me to the proper seat, as always, and it seemed to be free seating. Then the bus pulled out five minutes early with very few passengers. I was more than curious, but the alarm bells began to ring when I saw it wasn’t going in the right direction. I asked several people if this was the bus for Bangkok. No. One gal seemed like a bus girl and understood enough English to recognize my plight. She looked at my ticket and talked to the bus driver. Five minutes later she told me to get off and she got off with me. Panic time! I’m in the wrong part of town and my bus was supposed to leave five minutes ago. I was desperate to get any kind of transportation to get back to the bus terminal, but she kept telling me to wait. Finally a tuk tuk (a small three wheeled taxi) showed up. She told the driver to take me back to the bus terminal. When I got there everyone was in a near panic. She obviously had called them and they were holding the bus for me. But then there was a problem with my ticket. Apparently someone else was in my seat. The bus girl finally let me ride in the crew quarters on the lower deck. Actually that was a better seat as I had the two seats all by myself, Thank God for the first miracle!

The eight hour wait I had in Bangkok for the train for Malaysia wasn’t too bad, and the ride down to Penang was uneventful. It is about a 22 hour train ride from Bangkok to Butterworth, which is the train stop for Penang. Then a 20 minute ferry ride over to the beautiful island of Penang. This was my third trip down there for a visa, so it is getting to feel a little bit like home.

The visa service told me that it was impossible to get a one year visa without a statement from a Thai bank that I had $10,000 in an active account. I have heard this before, but the Lord did a miracle a year ago in giving me one year visa when everyone told me it was impossible. So I asked the visa service man to try for a one year visa, and if that didn’t come through I would accept a three months visa. He was so sure it was impossible that he was reluctant to take my request to give it a shot. Jesus does miracles. Praise God, Jesus is still in charge of handing out visas. He opens doors and no man can close them. And if He doesn’t open the door, there is no way you can pry it open. When I picked up my passport from the visa service the next day, the man who had made my application just shook his head and said, “You are very lucky.”  Not really. I just work for God.

I had met a man from England on the train briefly. He was staying at the same guest house where I stay and was also applying for a Thai visa. That night, as I was eating supper at the restaurant in the guest house, he was seated at the table next to me. He was the typical low class foreign man, of which there are hundreds (perhaps thousands) in SEA. He was the type that I really didn’t want to share Christ with, but I was convicted that I hadn’t been more aggressive with a Norwegian family that I met on the train. Most of those men are rather unpleasant, but this fellow was somewhat friendly. After talking for half an hour, he very politely asked me if I would loan him some money. He said he had left his bank card at home and didn’t have money enough to get back to Thailand. This is extremely dangerous. The chance you will never see your money again is about 90%. But I have been in tight spots myself and know what it feels like if what he said was true. He wanted $75, and I had that much. I told him that I would loan him the money on one condition – he must listen to me explain the way of salvation. That is pretty expensive witnessing. But he was more than delighted to listen to me explain how God did an insane thing in sending His Son to die for people who were totally unworthy. And all we had to do to be saved was to accept what God is offering us. When I handed Simon the money, I said there were two things necessary. First of all I had to have in my heart a willingness to give it to him. And secondly he had to accept it. He certainly understood that and had no trouble stretching out his hand to accept my money. I told him to get on his knees in his room that night and honestly talk to God asking Him to show him the gift of God and work in his heart to be a follower of Jesus. He seemed to have very poor comprehension of what I was saying, and I had little expectation that much had gone into his heart. But we exchanged e-mail addresses. If things work out in the next few weeks I want to do some serious follow up. He promised to return my money as soon as he got home. We’ll see. 

My first morning in Penang, I went straight to the railway ticket office to buy a ticket back to Bangkok. Sold out. I couldn’t get a train until Sunday that would get me back to Chiang Mai Tuesday morning. I went back to the Banana guest house/visa service and asked if they could get me on a bus back to Bangkok. I was pleasantly surprised that the bus connection is actually better than the train, but slightly more expensive. The difference in price was well worth it if I could get back to Chiang Mai by Sunday night. That way there would be no delay on John’s house. Praise God I got home by 6:00 Sunday evening.

Jeana Crane wrote me the other day asking if I would tell her again the story about the man who got saved by smoking up a Bible. I hadn’t thought about that story in years but I must have shared it with Jeana some time in the past.

Khou was in his mid 20s in around 1980 when he escaped from Laos and got to Thailand. But unfortunately he got stuck in a refugee camp, which is little better than being prison. Thailand doesn’t want refugees, but there are hundreds of thousands on both sides of Thailand who have fled from Burma, on the west, and from Laos – and formerly Cambodia – on the east. Many of these refugees get stuck there for several years only to get repatriated back to their former country. There is virtually nothing to do inside these refugee camps.

Khou was a smoker but couldn’t get cigarettes inside the refugee camp. Somehow he did get a Bible and used the paper to make his own cigarettes. In time he smoked up one entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. He wanted to get some more paper but didn’t know where to get it. Khou had a girl friend who told him that a missionary was working in that refugee camp who would give him a Bible, but the condition was he had to go to a Bible study to get one. Simply to get some more cigarette paper Khou started attending the Bible study.

This time the Word of God went into his heart rather than into his lungs. Jesus came in – not smoke. In time he was soundly saved, and swam the Mekong River to go back to Laos to witness to his parents. That was over 25 years ago.

I first met him in 1999 when I was on a Bible run taking Bibles into Laos. We had some things to give him, and he had some things he wanted us to carry into northeast Laos for him. He met us at the bridge when we crossed over from Nong Khai. He had a car and we made the exchange in the car as he drove us the 20km to Vientiane. It was noon when we got to Vientiane so he took us to a restaurant for lunch. It is generally unwise to discuss the things of the Lord in public places but as Khou was sharing his testimony with us it took all the restraint I had to keep from shouting. That man is slam filled with the Spirit of Christ.

From time to time I have heard about him. He is one of the leaders of Campus Crusade in Laos and one of the truly top men of God in that country. It is a wonder that he hasn’t been killed. His witness for Christ is fearless. It has been a couple of years since last I heard Khou or even thought about him. If my unlikely friend Simon gets saved through the $75 I loaned him that will be a good investment in eternity.

 Lord Jesus, make Simon another Khou who gets saved through the most unlikely means. Lord, if You do that, that will make my trip to Penang doubly worthwhile. And thank You for the miracle one year Thai visa.

Gratefully,   bill