2 November 2014
Dear Phyllis,
This has been a semi-significant week, in a different way. Wednesday looked pretty rough. Pammy's motorbike has a malfunctioned fuel gauge. I knew it is unreliable, but it has been fairly consistent that, when it shows less than half a tank it is getting close to empty. Actually, it had been rising slightly, but I knew I was getting in the red zone. I thought on my way back from school I must get some gas. Half way there I flamed out. I left the bike sitting beside the road and walked home. After I got home I took my bike and went on to school to tell Sangha why I missed class that morning. He said that he would get some gas and later pick up my bike for me. At 1:30 that afternoon he did show up with his son, and we did successfully get the bike home.
Paul has asked me to write a short daily devotional for his Facebook account. I had written three, and Wednesday afternoon I sat down to compose another one. Before I started to write, I thought I would first check my e-mail. While looking at e-mail, something weird happened to my computer. The You Tube video I was looking at suddenly began to repeat, repeat, repeat itself and the courser had disappeared. There simply was no courser, so I couldn't turn the computer off. I was not on Windows program and have had some success in flat turning the commuter off without destroying anything. I took a chance and turned the computer off. Then I turned it on again. Blank screen. Nothing. The computer had obviously crashed. I thought, “Well, it looks like the Lord has expressed Himself what He thinks about my writing.” I have been using computers for 18 years. I sit down to write a devotional, and for the first time ever my computer crashed.
The phone down stairs started to ring. All the calls coming into this house are for Pammy. I waited for her to get it, but she didn't. It rang again and so I called her. She said “Let it go”. But whoever it was must be desperate. After ringing for at least ten minutes I went down stairs to answer it. It was our new Christian. Nok's, daughter. Pammy said she couldn't go downstairs to speak to her, but have her call on Pammy's cell phone. At last I realized Pammy was seriously ill. She was so sick she could hardly move. She begged me to take her to the hospital. I said, “Of course I will take you to the hospital, but first let's pray”. Then I prayed as non-spiritual a prayer as it is possible to get. The words were proper, but it was little more than talking to the wall. To my utter amazement, suddenly Pammy said, “I feel much better”. I never saw such a dramatic change in my life. Pammy said she was so sick that she got her tongue stuck between her teeth and couldn't pull her tongue back. It must have been spiritual. There is no medical problem like what she had. But two minutes of prayer fixed that. Amazing! It was almost frightening to realize that Jesus was indeed in the room, He heard me, and healed her so suddenly. She was fine.
I took my computer to a computer shop, and they said it looks like I lost all the data on my computer. I had hundreds of National Geographic quality pictures taken from all over SEA, China, and Pakistan, plus all my correspondence, and several years of PB letters. I really didn't want to lose that. And it would cost $65 to fix my computer. The Lord knows.
Wednesday was a bad day, but the Lord stepped forward the next day. In the afternoon, I was up stairs reading a book, as I had nothing else to do, when a dear friend, Pascal, showed up. He got out of his car with a large package. He had bought me a brand new, top-of-the-line lap-top computer. This is easily the finest computer I have ever had, and one like I never dreamed of having. For thirty minuets I was literally speechless. To say “Thank you” seemed so totally inadequate that it almost seemed insulting to say it. I wept in appreciation.
Pascal is one of the biggest events that has happened here I Chiang Mai in the past year. About 15 years ago he came from Holland to Thailand as a young man in his mid 20s. He came from a non-Christian family, but, for no clear reason, the only book he brought with him was a Bible. He married a well educated Thai lady and started a successful school for children. In the providence of God, he found himself living next to a missionary who led him to Christ. Kent was the leader of our Wednesday morning mens prayer fellowship and brought him to that meeting. He was such a quiet fellow, sometimes we wondered whether or not he was saved. I had known him for several years but had never heard his testimony. When Kent left the country, the numbers of our meeting dwindled down to where we were thinking about quitting, but Pascal voted for keeping it going. We decided to make him leader.
About that time two things developed. Pascal was a tremendous loner, but he started hanging out at Paul's house quite a bit. This must have had a major impact on him. Since being saved Pascal had never gotten involved in church attendance. His church should have been the Community Church, but he seldom went. And water baptism had never been a subject he had given much thought to. Paul was concerned that he had never been baptized, and started earnestly praying for him. When Paul finally broached the subject, he was surprised to find Pascal very open and interested. Around last March Paul baptized Pascal in a lake near here. It is hard to say what lit the flame, but Pascal is really on fire for God today. A few months ago Paul got involved in helping refugees escaping from North Korea, and Pascal joined him in that ministry.
The other day Pascal was talking about their most recent trip to take supplies, Bibles, and Gospel material to 30 some North Koreans who had just arrived in Thailand. His face was just shining as he was telling us that story. Then he said, “and coming back I was just UNBELIEVABLY BLESSED”. That was a remark uttered by a man who had entered into the inner circle of friends of Jesus. What he was trying to share with us is something that defies expression. There is nothing in our English language that adequately communicates the joy that comes from knowing and serving Jesus. For many years Pascal was just a fill-in-the-squares Christian, but today he is so overwhelmed with the joy of the Lord he is beside himself to know what to say.
It sure is fun serving Jesus,
bill
PS: This letter was typed on my new computer.
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