Medical Ministry

Matthew 26:36, “I was sick and ye visited me…”

"How God turns sadness into gladness..."

Not very long ago, our much beloved nurse, Gayle, with her sons, Bradley and Micah, announced that they were feeling God leading them to another place of service for the master. How could we possibly manage without them? As we were tempted to give in to discouragement—God's still small voice was heard, "Trust in me."

How could we be selfish, begging her to stay, when ever since we first came to Thailand the need of missionaries to live and work in the thousands of remote mountain villages seemed to be calling—where are the laborers?

The harvest is ready, but where are the reapers?

We had been asking the Lord of the harvest to send out workers...., to make our place an outpost for teams working the mountains, but Lord, not Gayle!

God is so good, He had an emergency plan all ready for us. Again we heard his still small voice "train the students."

We now have a team of seven students, being trained to attend to the sick and needy. Maria is spending time away from her mountain village, supervising and instructing them as needed. And we still have a nurse that can be called upon for difficult cases, and when in doubt—Ehdohsay, our managers wife (she is 7 months pregnant), is available as needed. We praise the Lord—this was a desire of ours, that our older students would one day be trained with medical skills. We just did not know how soon that was to be...

They love doing this work. You should see their youthful energies and bright smiles, happy hearts greeting the patients as they come—no need for a translator.

Here they come trailing in the drive way, babies in arms and children in tow. They come from near and far, from Thailand and Burma, and from the mountains and banks of the river. It is early morning, too early for visitors, but this is our home—nowhere to hide, nowhere to go…. The porch is filling up, someone is coming in the door. I have been up many times through the night with sick students, not to mention the stubborn cough that has kept me awake at night for several months now. I am not the nurse or the medic—I’m trained to do things naturally without drugs and medicines, but these are tropical diseases—malaria, fevers, lots of chest and lung problems, eye problems, skin problems (such as fungal bacteria), ulcers, staff infections, and last of all, TB (this one makes me nervous). The doctors and nurses at the local hospital are acting as if these people have leprosy—unclean, unclean! Well at our home they sit on the porch and spit their betel nut juice all over the place.

What to do? Shall I call on the doctor? (You guessed right—the doctor is Thara Moo Gayle!) It is too early, so shall I just take care of them myself? I don’t want to, but they are so needy, so worn. And before, when I decided to let them wait, we almost had a baby die.

Sometimes I call for Gayle, but often times I decide to tackle the job myself, with the Lord’s help (if it seems like something I can handle).

Gayle is a very skilled nurse—she is amazing. If I need her early in the morning, I would most certainly find her reading her Bible and praying, or a bit later jogging down the road. Her life is very hectic—these dear, poor people love her and she loves them. She is a very dedicated woman—dedicated to God, to her sons, to her friends, and to her patients. I wish you could see her in action—her small frame squatting before her patients, treating their many ailments; at the hospital ready to defend these poor refugees from careless, and sometimes mean, nurses and doctors; in the villages visiting in leaf-roofed bamboo huts; climbing up wiggly bamboo ladders; sometimes treating villagers by candle light (because there was not enough hours in the day to do it all). Gayle is also called upon to speak at church or funerals, and in our absence she has often had to deal with soldiers and government officials.

We are building a clinic and medical training center, a place to treat the people away from our home. It is impossible to keep the porch and our small living area clean and sanitized.

Please pray for this need.