4 November 2012
Dear Phyllis,
Anyone who thinks that the Land of
Canaan is flat doesn't know much about spiritual truth. I have found
it to be a land of hills and valleys indeed. Some of those valleys
are pretty deep, but the hills are equally lofty. For the previous
two weeks we had been walking through a very deep valley, but this
past week we have enjoyed the view from a much higher vista.
We have been married now for 15 months.
The other day a friend asked me, “If you had it to do all over
again, would you do the same thing?” My answer was, “I didn't
have much choice. It wasn't my idea.” Marrying Pammy certainly
wasn't some romantic foray. It wasn't hearts and flowers that
brought us together. For her part, she was a 45 year old single girl
that wanted to get married. For my part, I was an innocent male with
a single goal of serving the Lord. But amazingly, Pammy's description
of what she was asking the Lord to give her, was a detailed
description of me. This ranged all the way from cowboy boots to being
a pilot. I was bewildered from the beginning that everything in me
said “no”, and yet I was confronted with a strong conviction that
she was someone that Jesus had brought to me and it was my call to
accept or reject. Fifteen months later I am amazed at what the Lord
has done. My life is as radically different today as if I had been
transported to a different planet. On the negative side, Pammy has a
strong choleric streak – which is not the most winsome
characteristic for a wife. She is very strong willed, strong headed,
and undisciplined. From a child on she has always demanded, and got,
her own way. To suddenly change that is an extremely challenging
task. On the positive side, she is a somewhat high-class woman. Her
father was a military medical doctor. Her grandfather was a feudal
land owner with many serfs working his property. And she even claims
some distant royal blood from the king of Thailand, But her strongest
positive attribute is her highly aggressive evangelistic passion.
Last week she came home late one night,
and I was furious; until I found out where she had been, and what she
had been doing. There is a lady that I see every morning out walking
her dogs, that has been much on my heart to see her brought to
Christ. How Pammy got tied in with Kim I still don't know, but I was
stunned when I learned that she had spent most of the day with her.
In their travels that day, Kim had taken Pammy to Sarapi, which is a
town about 20 km from our home. Somehow Kim was good friends with a
very wealth family there. Their house looked like the Hurst castle.
The man there was 44 years old and desperately sick. He has been in
bed almost dead for two years. I don't know how she got into it, but
somehow Pammy was was introduced to the man in bed and launched into
a in-depth testimony about Christ. The man couldn't talk, but, going
through his wife, Pammy asked him is he wanted to accept Jesus and be
saved. He communicated that he did, and so she led him in a long
prayer asking Jesus to come into his heart. There were at least four
other people in the room watching this detailed scene of soul
winning. I asked Pammy what Kim thought about all of this. She said,
“Kim is watching”. Man howdy, you can't get a more positive
witness than that! And the shocking thing was that the man called Kim
the next day saying that his heart was filled with joy. It sounds
like he really got saved.
Not only did Pammy share Christ with
the man and lead him to the Lord, but she also went to a church near
that house to talked with the pastor. The pastor has called the man
since then and he promised as soon as he recovers he plans to go to
that church. That is covering all the bases as thoroughly as is
humanly possible.
I was stunned when I heard of this
astounding event in Sarapi last Tuesday, but was further delighted to
see Kim come to our house twice since then. I told Pammy how pleased
I was that she had established such a deep bond with this lady that I
have been praying for for eight years. And Pammy added, “Yes, I am
good friends with Kim, but I have also have become friends with many
of her friends who live in this muban (housing area). Wheeee! That is
terrific news!
She is also good friends with another
lady that didn't make me so happy. Ann lives two doors from us. When
the church moved into the other half of our duplex, Ann showed up at
the door announcing that she was a Christian. She has been a very
consistent member of the church since then. Quite naturally, she and
Pammy have become close. But the more I got to know her and her
family the less impressed I was. Ann is a pastor's daughter and was
raised a Christian. But her family is a total mess. Her husband is
just plain NG (no good)! He is a drunkard and has other women. He has
beat her. She has two teenage sons, both of whom are equally bad, and
a six year old obese daughter. Annie and the daughter, Rubie, are
close friends, but I don't like Annie going over to that house. The
more I got to know Ann, I didn't know whose side I was on – her
side or her husbands? As an unsaved man, I can see why he behaves the
way he does. I was trying to put the breaks on Pammy's relationship
with Ann until she told me the other side of the story. She told me
that Ann was terrible. I knew that, but didn't know how bad. She had
a horrible mouth, bad attitude, and zero relationship with Christ.
Pammy said her whole purpose was to get Ann tied in with the Lord.
Praise the Lord, apparently Pammy's efforts are paying off. There has
been marked improvement. Ann's mouth and attitude have cleaned up
considerably, and she seems to be moving in the direction of closing
the gap between her the Lord. If she turns out to be a serous
Christian, and her family gets saved, that will be a huge trophy for
Pammy. It bothers me that there are so many people that you see
in church every Sunday who have no relationship with the Lord. Sunday
preaching is like water off a ducks back. But Pammy has been able to
go beyond Sunday religion to reach this lady on realistic issues and
is seeing a remarkable change. That is what it is all about.
The other day Pammy told me a story
that I had previously heard but didn't really register. About five
years ago she was at a swimming pool with a friend. Her friend had
brought her five year old son and seven year old niece swimming. The
little boy was a good swimmer, but the girl didn't know how to swim.
She should have been in the wadding pool, but when no one was looking
the girl went to the far end of the deep pool and jumped in. No one
saw it or knew how long it had been; but a few minutes some boys saw
the girl laying still on the bottom. They dove in and brought her to
the surface. But it was too late. The people in charge of the
swimming pool didn't want a big scene that someone had just drowned
there, and had the girl's body carried to a remote corner that would
not attract attention. The poor aunt went out of her mind. There was
no pulse or any sign of life. A man began to desperately give her
mouth to mouth resuscitation. Pammy told him to quit and let her
pray, but he stayed with it. The girl had been dead for at least half
an hour or more. The body was clammy cold. Pammy had been desperately
crying to the Lord to restore the girl back to life. Then she went
over to lift the dead girls arms in the air. When she did this, the
girl took a deep breath and came back to life. Now the aunt was out
of her mind with joy,
Friday night there was a big Christian
deal in town here in Chiang Mai – Bless Chiang Mai. I had heard
about it for a few weeks but was not planning to go. Friday night is
supposed to be Bible study night and the directors of Annie's school
had promised to come. Pammy suggested that we take Singha and Lec to
the meeting in town, but I was opposed. Predictably, Singha and Lec
were late and I thought that settled the issue. But as we were having
coffee Pammy mentioned the meeting. I was surprised when our friends
said, “That is a good idea. Let's go.”
I was not prepared for what happened.
This meeting of Bless Chiang Mai was billed as a three hour prayer
meeting to basically pray for Chiang Mai. I said, “Ya. Sure.” I
could not imagine a mass rally actually being a prayer meeting. It
was! It was something like I have never seen in Thailand and I can't
recall a similar event in Japan.
Seven hundred years ago Chiang Mai was
the capital of the Lanna Kingdom and the king built his castle and a
massive moat here. Historically the moat with much of the brick walls
still exist in the center of town. The Taphe gate is the largest
central gathering place in town, and this meeting was packed with
3,000 Christians gathered there to pray for Chiang Mai and Thailand.
It was nearly 8:00 PM when we showed up and I was stunned to see a
high ranking Thai military officer standing on the platform up front
pouring out his heart for this city. For the next hour and a half I
sat there in tears watching Christian leader after leader stand on
the platform to pray for this city and country. The time was
interspersed with appropriate singing and a few remarks but basically
it was a time of prayer. Apart from “thank you” and “praise the
Lord” I scarcely know a word of Thai. I have little idea what was
the nature of their prayers but by Pammy's frequent “amens” I
gathered it was pretty good.
Linguistically I couldn't give you an
analysis of the meeting but spiritual the impact was tremendous. As I
watched person after person stand there and plead with God, all I
could think of was John's promise of Jesus that He would baptize us
with the Holy Ghost and fire (Mt. 3:11). That is the best description
I can give of them – they had been baptized with fire. Their hearts
were burning, and that caused a corresponding fire in my heart. This
was no evangelistic rally, but the presence of the Holy Spirit was so
strong that I thought it would be possible for Singha and Lec to get
saved there. I have no idea what was going on in their heads but I
was surprised to hear them audibly join in with what was going on on
the stage. Obviously they enjoyed it very much.
At 9:30 they encouraged everyone to go
over and lay hands on the brick walls of the old city and pray. Tears
poured down my cheeks as I joined the thousands there laying my hands
on that wall to pray. My mind went back to the time when Daniel
McGilvary first arrived in Chiang Mai in 1867 to bring the Gospel to
northern Thailand. It took him nearly two months to make the trip
from Bangkok and the reception of the Gospel was hostile. Some of his
first convert were Lao conscripts who had been brought from Laos for
forced labor. At one point McGilvary himself was arrested and some of
his early converts were martyred. E-mail was very slow in those days
and they didn't have direct flights to Los Angeles. Those people were
real heroes. They were the giants.
During the course of the evening they
wanted to have special prayer for missionaries and asked all
missionaries in the crowd to stand. Pammy kept pushing me, “Stand
up.” But when I compare my luxurious life with the real ones I am
too embarrassed to get in that line. But my heart was bursting within
me as I witnessed the fruit of the sacrifice of those who have gone
before.
Oh hallelujah!!! The fire has been lit!
The Gospel has come to Thailand. The Lord has His church in this land
and He has a number of marvelous servants baptized with the Holy
Ghost and fire. Oh may that fire reach millions!
Last week was pretty good. Pammy may
not be pulling down high grades for being a quiet, passive, follower;
but, considering the way the Lord has made her, maybe He has given me
a good thing. Thank You Jesus. And thank You for letting me live
here.
bill
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