James and Om

19 April 2015

Dear Phyllis,

We just went through the worst week of the year in Thailand. I write about this every year. This is the Thai Song Khrong. This is the biggest blow-out of the year. All stores close, business shut down, and the entire country turns out for one huge national one week water fight. This festival started out innocently enough with the Buddhist custom of younger showing respect to elders by pouring water over their hands. But it degenerated into a national water fight with millions standing along side the road with buckets full of water or garden hoses going full blast to douse any poor turkey passing by. It is impossible to go much further than 100 meters without getting thoroughly drenched with water. Of course traffic deaths peak as thousands of motorists on motor bikes get doused with buckets of water in the face. For my part I try not to go out of the house except after 8:00 PM when all the water throwers are inside having supper.

Tuesday a brother came by in a pickup truck, and Pammy told me we had to go to a hospital to see James. James prayed to accept Jesus about a month ago but we haven't seen much of him since. As we got closer to the center of Chiang Mai it was like there was a barricade up. I mean the traffic wasn't moving. The brother driving went down two or three traffic lights where he thought he might get through. But ten minutes later it was like we were on the main street of hell. We we were right beside the mote in the center of town and the traffic was at a dead stop. The street was lined with hundreds of crazies, aged 12 to 35 throwing thousands of gallons of water on everything within reach. Bucket after bucket got poured over our truck. I despaired that we would ever get out of there, but to my surprise, an hour later we finally made it to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital I was surprised that it was a mental hospital. I asked , “Why is James in here?” “He attempted suicide by trying to get struck by car”. (He is crippled in a wheel chair) I asked, “When?” “Last week”

“Who put him in here?” “The police.” Oh.

When a nurse brought him outside where we were waiting, he was a real mess. He not only is crippled but seems rather spastic. His speech is difficult to understand and his movements are very irradic. He was crying, his nose was running, and his head was all over the place. It was really difficult to try to sort out how to speak to him. James lives with another crippled boy, Om. Om was saved about three months ago but he has been out of town much of the time. I was very impressed with the way Om conducted himself. Being James' room mate, Om understood James the best and interpreted much of what he said for Pammy and a couple of others who were with us. Om seemed to speak with understanding, compassion, and authority. A nurse came with a pill he was supposed to take. No one could prevail on James to take his pill, but Om finally got him to swallow it.

After some time I said to Pammy, “We have got to pray”. I told her I wanted to pray by myself in English with no interpretation. I just wanted to speak with God. Then Pammy got the rest of the crowd to stand around and pray for him. Then I told Pammy, “Now we have to sing”. It seemed to me that songs of joy would be the most powerful thing we could do in a situation like that. We were there for well over an hour. When we left there were a number of questions in my mind about how in the world you handle something like this. I believe Om is probably the key as he will have to step forward to be his big brother and tutor James along. But I cannot escape the fact that this poor man is still a creation of God that the Lord has made in His image. If he could get firmly established in Christ that would be a huge victory. Om and a friend were here Saturday and we had some Bible study. I was surprises how well he seems to grasp spiritual truth. For a new beginner he has a very good start. And it seems like he has a good mind.

The Bible says, “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shall find it after many days (Ecc. 11:1). There is a time factor in spiritual things. It takes nine months for a baby to grow and 100 years for a 100 year old oak tree to grow. Paul recently had a big encouragement. Four years ago they saw a bad boy saved. He was about 18 and headed for a real bad life – big time. He seemed to get marvelously saved and was a big encouragement, but then fell away. Paul and Marisa hadn't heard from him in over three years, but he suddenly came out of the wood work three weeks ago and apparently has gotten straightened out with the Lord and is very much back on track. Both Nun and his mother have been in church every week since then. Yesterday afternoon two little girls came by that I hadn't seen since we had Annie. I honestly didn't recall who they were but Pammy said, “Don't you remember these girls who used to come here to play with Annie?” Oh my goodness it was good to see them.

I said last weeks service was bad. This week we hit the absolute bottom. Pammy has a friend that I really don't like. I have known her for two year and Pammy drifts in and out about their relationship. Redeme calls herself an apostle and is a bona fide kook. I thought we had put that one behind us but Friday Pammy asked me if I would object to Redeme coming to the morning service. Komatta (big problem). I reluctantly said I would leave that up to her. Tragically Redeme showed up. The service was going along at a low C level but a new girl showed up with a terrific testimony and Om and his girl friend were there. Pammy had led Mae to the Lord the night before. After the new girl gave her testimony Pammy said, “Let's pray for her”. No problem. Good idea. She came forward and knelt down and Redeme went to lay hands on her and pray. Then Om and Mae joined her kneeling. We began to pray, and after a couple of minutes I opened my eyes to see what was going on. The first girl was out cold on the floor and Redeme was slaying in the spirit Om and Mae. Something in me snapped. I stepped over the bodies on the floor, got my hat and keys to my bike, and left. Pammy was panic stricken. Redeme asked, “What is wrong? Doesn't Bill like the Holy Ghost”. I said, “Yes I like the Holy Spirit very much but I don't care for the holy ghost you brought in here. I went to another church at 11:15.

The last two that were slain in the spirit were Pammy's sister, Tim, and Nok at the meeting six months ago. The result of that was two months later Tim was in a mental hospital and Nok seems to be drifting from the Lord. We really don't need that spirit. I was supposed to preach in ten minutes but I could not stay in that room with that kind of witch craft going on. Lord help us.      

     bill