On the Porch

This is the first of a 3 part, "On the Porch" series.""Panic on the Porch""Life and Death on the Porch""Sharing Jesus on the Porch"- PANIC ON THE PORCHIt felt like the darkest deepest part of the night. I had been asleep under my mosquito net on the front porch of the mission house. A slight breeze brought some relief from the terrible heat. What had awakened me? I lay perfectly still listening, but all was quiet. A vague sense of danger and impending doom oppressed my thoughts.  Something was wrong, but what?    I struggled to wake up and clear my mind.Before going to sleep that night I had tried to jot down some notes for an important meeting with the student’s parents the next day; but the thoughts just wouldn’t come.  I was so exhausted that I had apparently fallen asleep on top of my paper and pen.Suddenly the vicious barking of several Thai dogs jerked my mind to the present. I’d never heard such desperate, angry, fierce barking. The dogs hardly stopped to take a breath. These dogs belong to the Thai soldiers and live on the street in front of the mission house.  I lay motionless.Suddenly I heard a rustling sound in the banana trees at the side of the porch.  Listening intently I tried to look around me, but it was too dark to see anything.  “Am I imagining things?” I asked myself.  But no!  With a quick silent bound, a dark figure landed on the porch just in front of me!  I could see his silhouette against the sky.Now I was fully awake!  The reality of the situation was overwhelming. I was alone and defenseless on the porch in the dead of the night with an enemy directly in front of me.  Ying, the young girl who translates for me, was the only one inside the house, as the other missionaries were away.My breath caught in my throat as I thought of the wicked DKBA soldiers and the brutal killings that kept occurring on the Thai  border where I lived.  These men had no conscience and no scruples.I was lying on my side, with my face toward the house, so very slowly I turned toward the intruder, but now I couldn’t see him. He must have squatted down and moved toward the front door.  I began to pray: "I need You Dear Lord, please help me.  Oh dear Lord You are beside me. I have nothing to fear.  You called me to work for You in Thailand. You are in control. Please take away my fear. I give it to You.”Many much needed Bible verses filled my mind.  "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and delivereth them"  "I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me out of all my fears."  "I will never leave you or forsake you."  "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and delivered him out of all his troubles." As I pondered these verses, I felt like a thick protective blanket wrapped around me. I had peace.I thought of Paul’s words: "To die is gain, and to live is Christ."  I said to myself, “If it is my turn to go, so be it, if not than the entire DKBA force cannot kill me.”  A flood of praise and gratitude to God filled my heart.Suddenly, at that moment, a very bright beam of a flash light shot through my mosquito net just above my head and hit the wall of the house below the windows.  “OK,” I thought, “my back is to him. He can see my gray ponytail.  A bullet will come at any moment and that will be it.”  I almost took my panic back, but prayed silently instead.  God’s peace held me again.The light stayed on for about 4 seconds.  Then it went out. I was still alive. My head was still in place. I decided to go into the house.  Prayerfully I turned on my small weak flashlight, lifted the mosquito net and walked to the front door. I didn’t see or hear anyone.  “They must have left without a sound,” I said to myself, “God has saved me.”Later, as I lay back down, I opened my dear worn Bible. My eyes fell on this verse: "I shall not die, but live and proclaim the glory of the Lord."God had prepared this text just for me.And proclaim God’s glory I did! The next day many parents came to the meeting.  My "unprepared" talk came naturally and sweetly as the Holy Spirit took control.  The parents listened with rapt attention to the policies and rules of the school.  Even when officials from the United Nations interrupted the meeting and spoke discouragingly about our school, the Lord gave me the words and the tact to handle the situation.When I offered to cut the meeting short, the parents said, "We will stay and listen to all you have to say. We want to hear everything."  And once again I spoke to them about God, His love and His power to protect us.As I look back on this experience, I am overwhelmed to realize that God saved my life, so these dear people can learn to know Him.Thank you Lord!Gayle HaberkamMissionary in Thailand-FIGHT FOR LIFE ON THE PORCHIt wasn’t any different from any other morning.  I hadn’t slept much that night and felt a little sleepy.  I had folded my blankets and neatly tucked up my mosquito net in its place on the bamboo against the leaf roof.  I renewed my vows of consecration to Jesus, and gave myself, my thoughts and actions to Jesus for the day as usual, asking Gods strength to cover my profound weakness and incapability.I was just trying to figure out where the boys and I would eat a little breakfast, when Josiah ran over to tell me there was a sick baby on the porch that I needed to come and check.  This is nothing unusual, as there are always a multitude of sick babies that are in need of treatment and care.  My mind quickly reviewed the situation, thinking that I could grab a banana and maybe something solid to eat at Lisa’s house before leaving, or I could hope there would be some leftovers up at the Adams house that I could eat in between patients.  I had been up very late the night before caring for some very sick students with malaria at the Adam’s house, and for that reason they were reluctant to call me up there early in the morning.  My thoughts about breakfast were quickly put away, and I found my feet bounding up the dirt stairway to the “clinic” on the porch.I caught sight of the baby in its mother’s arms, just 8 weeks old, and in that instant all sleepiness vanished and my brains were jolted suddenly forward into “high gear!”  This baby was in desperate trouble!  It was ashen color, blue around the lips and shallowly, wheezingly, superficially gasping at the rate of (70) times per minute as it tried desperately to catch a minute amount of oxygen to perpetuate life.  I rapidly poked 1.5cc’s of Sabumol into its mouth, dashed to hook up the nebulizer machine, and draw up the proper amount of asthmasol and normal saline for a breathing treatment.  “Oh Lord please bring life and breath to this helpless little infant right now!”  I pleaded.  Please help me.  Make me quick enough.”  Just then I looked up and saw Lisa, a sight for sore eyes!  She and I had just discussed our working situation the day before and had concluded that I would handle the porch in the mornings each day and work as needed until 5pm.  She would care for the students and other medical needs after 5pm.  This particular morning God had impressed her to come right then.  Together we gave the breathing treatment and I prayed aloud for the life of this tiny baby which was now a worse color.  It seemed less oxygen was being exchanged, if that was even possible, its eyes were rolled back in its head and a slight convulsion began.  The Lord whispered, “Epinephrine” in my ear and I flew to the medicine chest where I had placed adrenaline ampules from America.  I thought that adrenalin was not good for infants, but God had whispered and this baby was dying!  “Oh please dear Lord don’t let him die, don’t let him die,” came from my every breath.  We must stabilize him before whisking him away in the 4X4 Isuzu “Ambulance.”  It didn’t take long for the adrenalin to bring about a little change for the better, and after a second breathing treatment, we hastily loaded Mother and baby in the back seat with Lisa and I on either side, Lisa was prepared with plastic airways and breathing mask in the event of a respiratory arrest, and I was maintaining the airway, and holding him in an upright position.  I fleetingly noticed that the porch was loaded with patients waiting to be seen.  They would have to return later.  Hopefully none are seriously ill.Paul Adams was our “ambulance” driver.  His wife had given him last minute instructions to please drive fast this time!  Fast he went, with horn blaring at everything in our way.  He drove about 120 km on the straights and 80-100 around the many curves and corners.  A 30 minute drive to Meta hospital, he reduced to about 15-20 minutes, and I only fell on the floor one time!  He did a splendid job!  I was holding the baby upright with my right thumb firmly palpating the babies bounding heartbeats, my ear up to its face often to listen to the quality of breathing above the roar of the engine.  As usually is the case, the baby seemed a bit better as we entered the hospital driveway.  I swooped up the baby and rushed to the ER side asking for the doctor.  The nurses were pointing me toward the registration desk!  I paid no attention, but headed straight into the doctors rooms on the other side where they see the out patients in order.  I found a doctor, (Thankfully he was the nice one).  The doctors do all understand English pretty well so I quickly told him the life threatening situation the baby was in, and what I had given it so far.  He directed me to the ABG machine which measures the oxygen content of the blood.  It registered 37-39!  Normal is 98-100%!  The young man doing the test thought the machine was not working right because it was so low.  I kept saying, “That’s right, that’s right this baby needs oxygen, hurry!  But I couldn’t say it in Thai, and he did not understand a word.  We went to the ER side where the nurse repeated the test and again the reading was 37.  Again I said, “That is it, that’s right.”  She understood and immediately brought the baby into the ER, called the doctor and oxygen was administered with an IV and orders for admission etc.Today this baby is well, breathing normally and making the usual baby noises.  Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much for being an ever present help in trouble, for restoring this infant’s life and for replacing my weakness and total lack with Your strength and fullness.  You are so faithful – so good-all the time.- SHARING JESUS ON THE PORCHI saw them coming, several parents.  They looked old, tired, worn, ragged and worried.  Oh how I love these people.  I had been in several of their huts, praying for them and caring for the sick.  They come now.  It is Sabbath afternoon and Ekenya had called several student parents to join us on the porch to discuss devil strings.  Just the last week we had discovered several of the younger students again wearing strings around the waist, wrist, neck or upper arms.  This practice of course is not allowed on the school premises.  Teachers have removed the strings, but they meet with anger and resistance from the parents, who, though they have been told before, immediately replace the strings.  We felt a barrier building between us and these parents on this account, some were even taking their children out of school,  so after much prayer, we called the parents and asked if they would meet with us on the porch so that we could understand each other and explain our school and why we have these rules.Among the Karen people, the non-Christians keep strings on themselves and their children from infancy through death.They believe this protects them and keeps the evil spirits away.  To remove these strings, would cause much calamity and trouble for them, even death.  They know no better way and are very afraid.I glanced around now at the stoical, suspicious looks on their faces.  It was a group of approximately 20 parents.  Wrinkled looking men with home made pipes billowing their smoke, little ladies with their babies snugly tied to their backs, others with red lips, black teeth and huge wads of beetle nut dripping out. I realized that these parents would be the hardest to speak to, because they were so steeped in their beliefs and customs. These people were upset at us for removing the strings and asking that they stay off while on the school grounds.  I looked closely at the man who seemed to be the leader of them all.  He was the active, talkative one.  They all seemed to quietly listen to him.  I knew him quite well, as I had done much medical work in his hut.  I had prayed for him, his children and his wife.  I knew several of the parents in this way.  All were watching Ekenya and myself intently.  I did not realize until that moment that it was I who would speak to them that day.  But as Ekenya told me to begin, I prayed for the Holy Spirit to be poured out through me just then,  that stony hearts would become soft, and that the glory of the Lord would be seen.  I prayed out loud with them all, and began by telling them how much I loved them all.  I thanked them for sending their dear children to our school because we love them so much also.  My Bible was beside me and I picked it up smiling.  I said that the God who gave us His words in this book, was the living God that I have grown to love more and more each passing year.  This God loves us all much much more than we could love one another.  He wants to work out everything for our own good.  He is wonderful.  Ekenya was translating for me, and I noticed they were listening intently.  I sent another speedy prayer up to heaven to please help them understand and believe.  I continued by saying this Word of God is true.  When we believe and obey what it says, God protects us and keeps us. We need not fear anything because He is in control.  He answers our prayers.  He has ears that hear, eyes that see, and a heart that loves us!  He made us, He made the trees, flowers, sun, moon, rain and all things.  He is more powerful than any other God.  He has asked us to serve only Him.  This school is founded upon this book.  All that God says to do we do.  This is why we cannot have the strings, which indicate a relationship with another kind of god. We found by experience that our God does everything that He has promised to do in this book. Oh how wonderful to know the God of this Book.  His words and promises are just as much for you as they are for me.  We get to know and trust Him gradually just as you and I get to know each other.  At first, we do not know one another very well, but slowly as we work together, talk together and spend time together we get to liking each other.  This begins a relationship and trust which just grows stronger every day.  We can trust each other and this brings love and friendship.  We get to know, love and trust God in the same way.  Just remember this God is not like human beings, He never lets us down, He always answers when we pray.  He always keeps His word.  He is everything we ever wanted in a friend.  He loves you so much.As I looked around at each face surrounding me, I realized that some of these dear people have never heard about God before and are hearing about Him for the very first time!  How unworthy I am, a sinner, to be the one to introduce the living God of the universe, to these simple, beautiful, war torn people who are in desperate need of the good news of Jesus.  Words cannot describe the thrill of that moment on the porch.  The fullness of the love of Jesus surrounding the little group on the porch.  Presently, the older man had forgotten to smoke his pipe, a lady paid no attention to her wriggling infant, the man who appeared to be the leader had changed from an anxious, frown of concern, to intense interest and hope.  Oh thank you dear Lord.  Your presence is felt here!  It is beautiful.  The suspicions and distrust had melted away. Now I see smiles through the black teeth.  I see understanding and trust, thankfulness and love!  I ended with prayer and then asked them to ask questions and tell me what they were thinking.  The leader spoke up quickly and with great emphasis.  The way he spoke I knew he was totally convinced of what he said.  For one quick moment, I thought he might be opposing and telling the parents to take their children out of the school and stay away.  With bated breath I waited to hear the interpretation from Ekenya.  Finally I heard it.  He had said that everything I had spoken about they believe and they are happy to have their children in our school.  They will no longer send them with the strings attached. They are thankful for our school and the way we manage it. They would like to hear more.What a regenerating, renewing and powerful God we serve.  What a change His spirit in the soul can make.  We will consider it through-out all eternity.Thank you Precious Saviour!If you would like to help with this project, we are working with Jesus for Asia, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation that will provide tax-deductible receipts.  You can go to Jesus for Asia's invest page and scroll down to "Gayle and Sons in Thailand."  Or, send a check (payable to "Jesus for Asia," with a note with the word "Gayle") to:Jesus for Asia148 Doughty Rd.Kooskia ID 83539Or click on this button: