Weariness, Hunger, and Delay
I just want to preface this story with these words about the time of trouble, in Great Controversy 621.2"The season of distress and anguish before us will require a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger, -a faith that will not faint, though severely tried."I would say that we are not ready, because the small amount of weariness, delay, hunger and fainting during small trials now is nothing to compare with the strength we will need just ahead of us. So if our lives are bringing us any of these things, let's rejoice, we need it desperately or we really truly will perish!!I stepped off the plane in the Bangkok Airport at 11p.m Thursday night September 10. You know the way you feel when you've lost almost 2 nights of sleep and your days have turned into nights, --just overnight! However when I finally got outside and felt the hot humid rainy weather, I was unspeakably happy and excited to be here and pick up the work that God has given me to do!!I had a speaking appointment in MaukLek, 2 hours north, the very next evening and again Sabbath morning at Asia Pacific International University! I was very excited to do it because these students are from many different countries and what a work they can do if they feel a calling to give their life in service to God!Not much sleep at all for me, but what a lovely group of people I found myself in company with. I saw several young people I remembered from when we did Faith Camp there last May. They wanted to help me in my work and do some fund raising! I saw the the Holy Spirit working on hearts!I took a night bus out of Bangkok Sunday night and arrived in MaeSot nine hours later, at 5:00a.m. What a great re-union with BletJhaw and family! Next I will check on the straight axle for the truck and then we can bring the motorbike into BYT the next day! But alas! The rains came hard and furious. DJ, our neighbor in BYT called BletJhaw and told him not to come yet. Because of the high winds and rain the roads are nasty with mud slides, fallen trees and treacherous chasms! We must wait.Besides that, there is a big problem with the elephants. One wild male elephant has broken all the records for terrorism in our area. The people are trying to set off fireworks and fire guns to get all of them to move away from the villages because they are very close, but they are not leaving. Did you know that male elephants at times, emit an oil from their heads that makes them go crazy/ angry. They really chase and destroy anyone and anything in their way. That is what the problem is in our area right now! Here are 2 photos and a quote from Wikipedia:
Notice the discharge coming from the temporal glands.Musth or must /ˈmʌst/ is a periodic condition in bull (male) elephants, characterized by highly aggressive behavior and accompanied by a large rise in reproductive hormones. Testosterone levels in an elephant in musth can be as much as 60 times greater than in the same elephant at other times. However, whether this hormonal surge is the sole cause of musth, or merely a contributing factor, is unknown; scientific investigation of musth is problematic because even the most placid elephants become highly violent toward humans and other elephants during musth, requiring segregation and isolation until they recover. Female elephants do not undergo musth.
Well, there is no segregation and isolation that can take place in our area. We will go the long way around, but that is no guarantee that we will not face the monster!"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1