Oxygen Please!

26 May 2013


Dear Phyllis,


In flying one of the most dangerous things any pilot faces is hypoxia – lack of oxygen. This is the cause of blacking out when pulling high Gs. In tight turns, because of centrifugal force, the blood is drained from the brain and pools in the legs. When the brain is deprived of oxygen, several things happen. The first sign is eyesight. The visual nerves are the most sensitive and dependent on oxygen. The next is hearing, and the last is consciousness. Blacking out in dog fighting is not serious because as soon as you pass out you naturally ease up on the stick and regain consciousness. But if you pass out at altitude because of hypoxia there is no guarantee of recovery.


We used to have to take chamber rides every three years. A chamber ride is to go into a room-size tank where they pump the air out of it to simulate various altitudes. The reason for that is to familiarize pilots with their personal symptoms of hypoxia. It various slightly from person to person, but generally what it feels like is a tingling in your hands and arms. They had us work in pairs, and took us up to 40,000 feet. Then one person would take off his oxygen mask, and wait until he passed out. While you are passing out they had us write numbers from100 backwards. I got down to the 60s and then the pencil went to a slump line. The partner would watch you until you were unconscious, and then slap the oxygen mask on your face. Recovery was almost instantaneous. Then we would trade places and I would watch the other guy.


In five years of flying I only got hypoxia once, and that was unusual. I was flying with another fellow in a T bird (T 33). Everything was normal except the cabin pressurization was poor. In most aircraft, the cabin pressure is usually around 8 to 10,000 feet. Our bird was about 25,000 feet. That day was the first time I had flown with that pilot and he was an unusually poor pilot. He was flying from the back seat and couldn't keep the wings level. You never criticize another persons flying, but I thought he was as bad as I had ever flown with. After a few minutes he spoke up complaining that there was something wrong with the aircraft. I suggested, “Let me try it.” I couldn't keep the wings level either. What we were up against was extremely unusual. We discussed what could possibly be wrong with a T bird that wouldn't stay level, and we couldn't think of a thing. Finally he suggested, “Do you suppose we are hypoxic?” It seemed highly unlikely but but just to check it out we decided to go on pressure breathing.


The body requires a certain level of air pressure to put the oxygen into the blood system. A person can sit at 40,000 feet breathing 100% oxygen and pass out. The blood in the lungs can be saturated with oxygen but there isn't sufficient pressure to make the exchange. For extreme altitudes like that there is a setting on the oxygen system where the air comes out under high pressure. When that happens it is like the air is trying to blow the oxygen mask off your face And the breathing mechanism in the body is reversed where the air is forced into your lungs and it takes hard grunting to exhale. To check the possibility of hypoxia we flipped over to the pressure system. Suddenly our vision went bam. We were half out and didn't know it. Our peripheral vision had narrowed down considerably. When we went pressure breathing, our vision suddenly went wide. With that we dove that bird to a considerably lower altitude, and took it back to be fixed.


There was a famous case several years ago where a well known PGA golfer was flying in his Gulf Stream jet in America. The plane failed to report at several in-route points and the air traffic controllers scrambled some Air Force jets to see what was going on. As the interceptor jets flew close to the silent private plane, they noticed the plane was on auto pilot, and both pilots were slumped over the stick unconscious. There was nothing that could be done. Everyone in the plane was out cold and it was just a matter of time before the plane would run out of fuel and crashed. It was terrible news for the wives of the people in that bird to hear that their husbands were unconscious and in a matter of three hours they would be dead.


I feel like the fighter pilots flying formation with that doomed aircraft in talking to unsaved people here. It is a good sign when the bells go off inside the lost one, but it is serious when they can listen to a message on their certain doom with no response. You know it is just a matter of time and it will be all over, but you can't raise them to take necessary action before they are forever in the flames. For over a year a local NGO, Destiny Rescue, has joined forces with us in our Thai church, which has brought in a large influx of unsaved girls. I have a serous burden for most of the young folks in our church. I have preached some of the most impassioned messages of my life and still over 2/3 are unsaved. To what degree the bells have been going off in their hearts is unknown. A year ago we did have one good break where I preached an impassioned evangelistic message and five girls raised their hands for salvation. That was one of the very few times we saw tears in a service. Four were baptized a few weeks later. But that was the last break we have had.


I am scheduled to speak again next week and the Lord has laid a very heavy burden on my heart to see the remaining 2/3 saved. But what we are dealing with here is only a microcosm of the general condition all around us. I feel Thailand may be slightly easier to see souls saved than Japan, but both countries are very similar.


Yesterday my friend Scott called saying there was a girl from Japan visiting them, and he wanted to bring her by to meet me. I was delighted. Oh, it was good to speak Nihongo (Japanese). I am amazed how my Nihongo still stays with me. Though I seldom speak to Japanese here, the occasional time when I do meet someone, it just pours out like I have never left the country. Miyumi was a lovely 29 year old girl from Kumamoto. In our conversation I naturally asked her if she had ever read the Bible. She surprised me by saying she had a Christian friend who was taking her to a Bible study at the YMCA in Kumamoto and she had her own personal Bible. But as I tried to share with her the reality of knowing Jesus, it was like I was talking to a manikin. It is hard to explain, but when talking to people about the Lord, there is a very definite awareness when you are connected, and the other times when people are only polite. An argument is better than silent politeness. In an argument, at least you are connected. Talking to the silent polite one is like talking to someone passed out with hypoxia.


It is like both countries are totally out cold with hypoxia. I believe I wrote you last week abut how different Russia was. Even Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos are easier to win souls than in Japan or Thailand.


I remember one night I was in Hue, Vietnam, and went to a fairly expensive restaurant by mistake. I wouldn't have been there had I known the price. But as I was eating my meal, a lovely hostess passed by to speak to me. There was nothing immoral about that, as her job was to make the kyaku sans (guests) comfortable and welcomed. In our brief conversation I asked her if she wanted eternal life. She laughed and replied, “No, I just want a happy life.” I came back, “I have a happier life than you do.” Again she laughed lightly and responded, “What makes you think you are happier than me?” “Because you have a great deal of sorrow and pain in your heart.” She burst into tears. I pleaded with her, “Please sit down and talk to me.” She explained that company policy forbid her to sit at a table with customers. So I asked her if she would be there tomorrow. She said Sunday was her day off, but she would be there Monday morning. The next day I was meeting with some top-flight missionaries in Hue, and shared with them the story about that girl. I asked Mark to be on stand-by Monday morning as I might call him from the restaurant. The next morning I went back for breakfast and meet the girl again who was waiting for me. Ten minutes later I borrowed her cell phone to call Mark, and he was there with a Bible in minutes. The letters I got from them in the months that followed were wonderful. The last I heard was she was working with a Baptist missionary in Saigon.

Oh I long for that! It is so wonderful when you meet people with hungry seeking hearts. It can be done but that is an unusual phenomenon. Paul is seeing a little bit of that revival here right now. He has a young boy staying with him that was so bad he got kicked out of the last place he was staying. After Genalone moved in with Paul and Marisa they have had no problems with him whatsoever. After six months they had a call from his teacher in his school asking what they did. The teacher said, “That boy was the worst kid in the school; now he is the best. What in the world did you do to transform him?” Paul said he was no problem, but they didn't expect him to turn out to be a fire-brand for Jesus. The other day Paul heard that Genalone decided to start a cell-type Bible study at school and had 40 kids meeting with him. There is not a missionary or pastor in Thailand that can match that story.


I have seen refreshing times of the Spirit with the Kichijoji people in Japan. In 1986, sister Koyama started a small meeting her apartment in Kobe. We went there when it was about ten people sitting on the floor in her tiny apartment. But Jesus was there. For one year I was never in a meeting that you couldn't look around at some time during the meeting and see tears pouring down the faces of the believers assembled. Within a year that tiny assembly had grown to over 100. Oh, the testimonies were amazing! Sunday would start a 9:00 AM as the believers went to service, and would go non-stop to midnight. The service would start around 9:30, and go until noon. Then they would have lunch together. They could only stay in that rented meeting hall until 3:00. From there the believers would go to various friends houses and fellowship until midnight. One Sunday I was riding to church with the Hirotas, and Miyuki said to the other lady in the car, “How did we ever live before we had Sunday?”.


When I was in Chiba building a church in 1993, I met a brother who had recently moved to a remote section in Chiba near Ibaragi. He was driving 40 km to go to a Kichijoji meeting in Ibaragi, but decided to have church in his own house. His house was as inaccessible as you could get. He was 15 km from the nearest bus stop or eki (train station). It was like you couldn't get there from here. But there was something about his home. In no time they were running over 35 coming every Sunday. But it wasn't the Sunday service that counted. That was the craziest place I ever saw. Weekends would start on Friday evening and run non-stop until Monday morning. Christians would come from all over and somehow no one wanted to go home. His poor wife did nothing but fix coffee and sandwiches for 48 hours. People would come all day Saturday and all day Sunday. It was wonderful. The fellowship was intense. And, man howdy, did souls get saved!


What a contrast that is to the average church in Thailand, Japan, or the states today. Somehow is seems like there is a terrible shortage of oxygen in most places. It is like everyone is unconscious and they don't realize it.


Lord these are desperate days. Give us a deep Holy Spirit awakening and let Jesus be honored as He must be. Please do it for Your great Names sake.


bill