A Young Girl's Faith

(The only way to do justice to this story is to tell it in her own words with a little help on the English language). NawDahBlet is a 10th grade student at Sunshine Orchard school.  She is 19 years old.I had school break for six weeks, beginning in March.  I needed to use my time wisely for God.  Two years ago when I attended a camp meeting south of here, I felt in my heart that God was calling me to prepare myself with a knowledge of medicine and the story of Jesus and help the people in my village.  I told the Lord that I would go and do whatever He wanted me to do.  Since that time I have gone back to my village two times.  It is still dangerous in this part of Burma and I have had some real scary experiences, but God has come to my rescue each time. This time I went in alone.  It seems like nobody else wanted to risk the danger of the soldiers.  I had more than I could carry on my back, but I was not in my village very long, before I had used all that medicine up.  During my 6 weeks I had to come back 3 times to get more medicine!  Finally by the last trip in, DeGwah, a 14 year old friend from school came with me. I was very busy because other villages around me heard about what I was doing and begged me to come to their village.  These villages are high in the mountains.  Medics would not go up that far to see these people because they would not climb the difficult pathways, and there is great danger in these mountains because soldiers are hiding in the jungles.  You are never too sure when and where they may appear and what they will do to you. They also hide land mines all through the jungle, so you must keep you feet right on the pathway so you do not accidentally step on one.  The difficulty with this is that sometimes it is hard to figure out where the pathway is.CHA BRAYMy Father went with me when I went to the other villages, because my medicine is too much and too heavy for me to carry, and he also wanted to buy beetle nut in these villages.  On May one we hiked up an extremely difficult mountain pathway to a village name BaDooPoo.  This village has about 13 houses.  I went to rest in one of the houses.  A lady told me that the chief’s daughter was very sick, could I go and visit her.  I told her I would go, I wanted to see her.  When I entered the house and first saw this lady, my breath caught in my throat.  She is 28 years old.  Her name is ChaBray. She looked near death.  Her eyes were closed. Her BP was 80/40!  Her breathing was very difficult and slow.  She was very dirty, so dirty that it scared me, because her arms and legs were in strange positions and she moved them around in a strange way.  She was unconscious and they told me she had been sick for one week, but was unconscious for 4 days.I discovered that her illness had begun with a headache, vomiting and a high fever.  Right away I thought about malaria.  These people had no medicine and could not even give paracetamol, in fact they don’t even know what paracetamol is, they only tried the witch doctor, who was in her house the whole time I was there.  He had put devil strings around her wrists, and had given rice, and water to the spirit’s house outside, but she had only gotten worse.  I was very sad because I know this girl needed an IV and IV medications, but I do not carry these nor have I learned how to use them yet.  I felt overwhelmed because I didn’t know what to do.  When this happens I just pray pray pray.  I know that God knows what I should do. I want to do my best and really help her.  I asked her Mother if she could swallow, because I needed to give her medicine.  She told me that maybe she could, so I took the paracetamol, artesunate and doxycycline and pounded it up.  I managed to somehow get it down her throat.  I really prayed hard in my heart all the time.  I had to leave to go to another village, and I really did not think this girl could live until I got back.  I was really scared to go and scared to come back because if you are the last one to do anything to a patient and they die, they believe it is your fault.  My Father was sure she would die also.  He did not want to return, but after really praying with all earnestness, I told the Mother that I would return tomorrow afternoon.   I went to another village that afternoon and slept there that night because there were many patients there needing medicine.   I prayed for them all.In the morning, we returned to BaDooPoo village.  My Father hung back because he did not want us to be blamed for letting the girl die.  But I prayed to God and said, “Oh God, I give this all to You.  Without You I cannot do anything, this is all up to You God I really need You.” My Father all the while was saying, “Do not go! Do not go!”  I glanced at the bamboo pole outside and saw the dress that the girl had worn yesterday hanging there.   Now I really thought she had died. But I knew I must go inside.  I asked God to please give me a happy message here.  Then I called to the people, and climbed the bamboo ladder, asking the Mother, “How is ChaBray?”  “Oh,” Said the Mother, “She is getting much better, come and see!”   I entered the house and ran over to ChaBray, She looked 100% better.  They had cleaned her up and she was sitting up.  She had eaten rice and drunk the ORS I had given her.   I asked her if she was feeling better and she said, “Yes so much better!”  But she did not remember me because she had been unconscious the day before. Now I prayed with them again before leaving, and explained how to give her the medicine.  They were all so very happy.  In my heart I felt so unexplainably happy.  I had never felt the power of God close-up like this in answer to my prayer before.  Now I know that God really really has the big power, He really can work fast to heal.  I sometimes do not read my Bible enough and my prayers are sometimes short, but in spite of this God did this big thing for me!  How could He be so good to me? I love God more each day and I give all of myself to Him.  I see now for sure that what the people cannot do, God can do.  I am so thankful.Later my Father told me, “If you were not here this girl would be dead.  You gave the medicine and she got well! You have treated many patients in many villages and they have gotten well!”  Then I told my Father. “Father, everything comes from God, I pray and God helps me.  He has the power, and answers my prayers and helps the people get well.”MY PARENTSMy Mother and Father are Buddhists, When I got baptized in 2009, my Mother was very angry and she cried and cried, saying:  "My younger daughter is getting baptized and she is cursed."  Then she cursed me with all the curse words she could think of.  She is still angry about it and curses me. She does not want to know about God.  She does not want me to talk about Jesus.  Every time I do, she runs away and does not listen.Both my parents try to make me eat pork and all other meats every day, but I do not, even though there is really nothing but rice for me to eat here.One day my Father asked me, “You say your Father in heaven is coming soon, but He is not back yet.”  I said, “Father, He has not come yet because many people do not know about Jesus and God and He is waiting for them.  He is waiting for you too, Father, You do not know Him yet and you are not ready for Him to come.”  I also told him that nobody would climb these mountains and visit these villages to help the people unless they are Christians and have the love of the Lord in their hearts for these people.  I know my Father is beginning to pay attention to me and the way I live. Every morning and evening I had worship with the children of my village. I had a picture roll, and the children loved the Bible stories. When I told the story of heaven and showed them the picture of Jesus welcoming the people into heaven, they were all so happy.  “Do you want to go there?”  I asked.  “Do you want to walk on golden streets and be with Jesus?”  Oh they want to go right now.  I also taught them how to pray.They are very reverent and fold their hands and close their eyes. Every morning and evening they come to hear more.Sometimes when returning from long hikes up in the mountains to treat the sick in other villages, I felt too tired to do the worship, but my Father would remind me.  I said, “Father, do you want me to do worship tonight?”  He said “Yes.”  Now every time I do worships my Father sits and listens.I am also asking that all who read this message could please please pray for my Mother, Father and 3 sisters.  When God comes to take me to heaven, I do not want to be without them all.  I love them so much.SOLDIERS:Even though the government of Burma has called for peace, the soldiers inside do not care.  They still have hate and they continue to fight.The last time I went back to the school to get more medicine,  DeGwah, age 14 came with me. I noticed that she went to sleep at night without praying or reading her Bible.  I told her how important it is for her to spend time with God.  Later she began to have her own worships and I let her tell the Bible story to the children sometimes.One day DeGwah wanted to go visit her aunt in another village 5 hours motorbike ride from my village.  Four of us went on two motorbikes:  my cousin, my friend, DeGwah and myself with all my medicine.  We slept at her Aunt’s house that night after treating all the patients and in the morning we were riding back home.  We were so happy to be almost home, when suddenly we saw a Burmese soldier, standing in the middle of the road ahead of us signaling us to stop.  We were all immediately very scared because there were many soldiers with him and we knew about the terrible things these soldiers do.   They asked my cousin if he was a DKBA soldier. (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army). He said, “I used to be, but now I am not a soldier.” The soldier then looked through his bag and saw a DKBA scarf in the bag.  Now the soldier is very angry and hit my friend in the face with his fist and kicked him in the side.  I am very frightened as I see them tie my friend’s wrists together and take him into the soldier building.  Then they asked my cousin the same question and searched his bag also. They found a DKBA paper!  They took the rope and tied his wrists together and put him in the building, taking the motorbikes also.  Now DeGwah and I are left.  I look at DeGwah and she is crying.  Now the soldiers look in my bag and see the medicine that I have with me.  They ask me if I am a nurse.  I say, “No, I am only a student, but I am on school break and I come here to treat the patients in my village as best I can.”  They did not ask me any more questions, but they told me to wait for a taxi to take us the rest of the way home.  They gave us food to eat and were very nice to us, but I am very worried about my friend and my cousin.  I am praying all the while for them.  The taxi did not come for a long time, so the soldiers said we must sleep the night there if it does not come.  It is getting late.  Now I am really afraid because DeGwah and I would be in great danger to be there with them over night.  I prayed, “Dear Lord, please send one motorbike to take DeGwah and I to my village safely.”  Just moments later a motorbike came!!  It was a man from near my village!  The soldier asked me if we wanted to go now.  I said, “Yes.”  So DeGwah and I were able to get on this man’s motorbike and he took us to our village.Now I am really praying for the Lord to please send my friend and cousin safely back, because I am so concerned about their welfare.  These soldiers don’t care about people’s lives.  They have killed so many, plus all the people in my village are saying it is my fault that these 2 men were in trouble.  I told the Lord, “If you send my friend and my cousin back safely, when I come back to my school I will tell all the students how great God is and will give my testimony of His power any time I have the chance.  I will tell others wherever I go about how great a God You are!  Nine days later, just one day before I must leave and return to school at Sunshine Orchard, my friend and my cousin returned!  They told us what had happened to them. They said the soldiers almost killed them.  They hit them many times. My cousin was kicked many times in the face.  His eyes were filled with blood and his face was black and blue.  My friend was hit in the ribs so hard it was very painful to breathe. Then they were told they only had 5 minutes to think about one thing they wanted before they died.  Both of them said they wanted to see their parents. They had not been given any food or water, in fact they were each given a hoe and told to dig their own graves!  They were asked if they wanted to be soldiers and their reply was “No.”  The soldiers told them if they ever tried to become soldiers their parents would be killed. This was a terrible time for them. Though they are in pain, I know they will live and I am very happy and thank the Lord over and over again, because I know that if I had not prayed so much, my cousin and friend would have been killed.Back at school just one week later I was given the opportunity to tell my story to all the students and teachers at my school!  I was so thankful God gave me the opportunity to keep my promise to Him.  I was able to show my pictures and share with the students what a very present help God is in trouble.  Psalm 18:6 says:  “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God, He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears.”   I know God keeps all His promises to us, all the time and I love Him so much.I feel like I am not a very good person, and that even if I do not make it to heaven, I want to help these people of my village get there, but then I think about how He answered all my prayers, and I know He really loves me. It is hard to believe.  I have a new walk with God.  How very special He is to me now.  I know He has called me to work for my people in my village when I finish school.  I am very happy.  I always want to serve Him and work for Him.