Hold Fast Till I Come
(The people, Evangelism, Elephants, sickness and injuries).
The song says:
Hold fast till I come; the danger is great. Sleep not as do others; be watchful and wait. Verse 3: Yes! this is our hope, tis built on His word - The glorious appearing of Jesus, our Lord: Of promises all, it stands as the sum: “Behold I come quickly, hold fast till I come.”
Matthew 24:13 He that shall endure till the end, the same shall be saved!
In this work it seems that everything is a test of endurance. We are way too cold, way too hungry, way too hot, way to dehydrated, way too exhausted! But this should not be considered strange. Paul tells us to rejoice in fiery trials because then we are partakers of Christs sufferings, that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy! (1Peter4:12). Really these things cannot be considered fiery trials when you think of how Paul suffered, and his was nothing compared to what Jesus suffered. Oh, to hold fast to Jesus during these end times!
Mrs. White says: It will require the firmest trust, the most heroic purpose, to hold fast the faith once delivered to the saints. Acts of the Apostles 431.1.
When I finally returned from my 4-month leave in America, Canada, and Europe, it was October 28. As usual I am overjoyed to be back in Thailand, but alas the rainy season is not over yet! Instead of the usual 4 months of rain, this year it rained for 8 months! Therefore, we could not make it into BYT for 3 more weeks because the roads were so bad. Instead of being sad, I chose to trust God with the reasons. Sure enough, I was able to preach in 3 different churches each Sabbath, all around this area. I saw God’s perfect timing to help people in need. In DeeA-Day Church, we met an illegal young man out of Burma. I know God sent me here perhaps just for this young man. We could sense a longing in his heart to follow truth. He related to us his experiences with religion and his confusion about it all.
He had been very inspired and encouraged by my sermon. Because a church member was cooking us some food, we had time to talk to him and share the simple gospel story! I really felt the Holy Spirit’s power attending our words! “Oh, Dear Father in heaven, I pray this man finds You. I plead for his salvation!
“And He bids us go forth to speak the words He gives us, feeling His holy touch upon our lips.” Acts of the Apostles 599.2
Finally, I find myself in BYT. The roads are worse than ever! We barely got the truck in there. I found such joy in the little children. When I first stepped into our church, I was basically “Attacked” by many children. My heart felt such love and joy at that moment! How lovely to preach and look into the eager faces before me - people I had really missed!
Meet DeeJaPa. He has been a church member here for years, saying public prayers in church, and always taking up the offering, but in the past 2 years he dropped out. We heard he went deep into drugs, such as opium and mad horse medicine. Even his wife could not find him for weeks. We were very concerned and pursued him. BletJhaw kept asking about him and once in a while we ran into him. He had that gaunt, skinny, filthy body and blank smile look that we know so well, distinguishing opium addiction. We encouraged him and invited him to come back to church many times, but the months slipped by. There’s power in the prayer of faith! One day he realized what a mess he was, and desired a change! He went to live with his brother-in-law who lived far away, so he did not have access to opium etc. One day BletJhaw and I decided to drive way out there to visit and encourage him. When he heard that we would drive that far just for him, he was shocked! He couldn’t believe we would do this long trip just for him! Here he is, a struggling man feeling the painful effect of withdrawal:
He has back pain and other symptoms and wants to go home, but we encouraged him to stay 2 months. Finally, when he returned home, we see a transformation! Here he is in church, giving his testimony and singing with BoJaw, our faithful builder! How Jesus has changed both their hearts! These guys bring so much joy to our hearts, that all the discomforts and struggles of our life pale into insignificance because God is changing hearts!
A wonderful testimony of the joy from Jesus for changing his life around!
On November 27, 2025 we met pastor Brian Hindman, Elder Brian Jobe, and Timo at MaeSot airport!
Pastor Brian has a church in Greensboro North Carolina. I met him 2 years ago when we presented Faithcamp in his church. I was so impressed with his missionary spirit, godly enthusiasm, and deep love for the people, that I invited him to come and do our evangelism that year, 2024. He had been excited to do that, However, he declined later as he was taking a mission trip to Africa with a group. I’ve learned not to be anxious, but trust God. Sure enough, He had it all planned! You heard the stunning, miraculous story of how He called my sister that year! But now in 2025, we get pastor Brian Hindman! I had met Timo in Finland when I presented to the “Arise” students there. He was the cook, and the food was delicious, so I invited him to come and cook for this evangelism time because I could never cook for so many people and be on time for meals. Patients come and BletJhaw and I can seldom eat on time!! Timo did a fantastic job, and everybody loved the food! Just look!
Pastor Hindman’s sermons grew more and more powerful December 2-6. The church was packed every single evening!
So glad we do not use chairs or church pews! We can fit so many more people in when they all sit on the floor!
We had even purchased a projector for him to use which made it even more special for the people.
Dynamic preaching in order to reach the hearts of my people here in the jungle.
This was Pastor Brian’s final sermon! The Holy Spirit fell like dew. Hannah and Jonathan Hill were able to be there and bless us with heavenly music, joined by Hannah’s parents, Harvey and Brenda Steck. .
After this we began work on our new church building. We have been building now for a full year. First the little church in MooDooKey, then our detox building in BYT, and now God’s big beautiful church is in progress. The buildings are getting bigger and bigger! BletJhaw and I must haul in all the building supplies and keep up with the builders! Here are a couple of pictures of the big loads.
We have now made 50 trips in hauling supplies! Sometimes we have harrowing experiences of which I’ll tell you later. It is exhausting to travel, 6-8 hours every other day, sometimes every day on bad roads, but let us not be weary in well doing Jesus tells us.
There was one thing we absolutely could not haul in - the large strips of flooring to put over our foundation. How in the world could 3 large 6-wheeler trucks make it all the way to our village, and to our building sight, crossing a river 2 times! The company was to the east of us, so that road was a little better. But they were willing to come praise the Lord! We repaired the river crossing with sandbags to make it a bit wider and guess what? Those big trucks blasted right through! Praise God. This was a miracle also because they were supposed to come 10 days sooner, but we had to postpone it because we had a wedding to go to, then they postponed it again, so by the time they came, our foundation was built up and ready for the cranes to place them perfectly across it. Any sooner and those heavy slabs would be placed on the ground, and what a lot of super heavy work to lift and put them in place – so many and soooo heavy!! Just LOOK!!
But patient care must be continued:
We received information that a man in NyeLeeGwee village needs our help. So initially we take the motorbike because we can go the shorter, quicker way and must evaluate the patient to determine how best to care for him. But it is a difficult trip in! We must cross streams 7 times. Not easy!
This man has an infection from trying to mainline opium below the knee.These poor opium addicts use up every single vein they can find until all of them have collapsed and can no longer carry blood! His condition is chronic. He is already septic with a fever of 104 degrees. We must return home and get the truck to take him to the hospital.
Now this man is has returned home and is well, but still using opium. Please continue to pray as he has been introduced to Jesus!
This man had a bad injury to his thumb, but waited two months to see us. Gangrene had already set in, he is septic also with a temperature of 104 degrees. He urgently needs the end of his thumb cut off, but he would not let us take him to the hospital. He said he was afraid they would tie him down and torture him! We could not convince him, so he went home with antibiotics. We really prayed for him because his life was in danger! Two months later he came back. He had chopped the end of his own thumb off with a machete! It is infected, but not bad. He’s going to make it – praise the Lord!
He chopped it off! He got rid of the gangrene! One way or another God is bringing about healing to these poor ignorant people!
Last week we had a face-to-face meeting with 2 elephants. It was early morning. I always pray 5 things:
1. Father keep our truck running strong, 2. Give BletJhaw skill to drive. 3. Protect on the bad roads. 4. Help us to pass oncoming traffic in safe places. 5. Protect us from the elephants. The Lord has always answered these earnest prayers: When we came around a blind corner we met these 2 which were just 10 feet away. The large one screamed, but did not charge!
It seemed like hours, but it was only 2 hours that we waited for these two guys to move off the road so we could pass by. Finally we heard a motorbike coming toward us from the other direction. When he saw these 2 elephants he yelled loudly at them! That is a terrible thing to do to a wild elephant. Immediately the bigger elephant turned and charged us! BletJhaw jammed the truck in reverse, and in the process of backing up quickly we went off the road in the weeds and careened around a corner. Praise God we were coming away from BYT and we were not carrying a heavy load. We were able to take a long way out, causing us to drive 2 extra hours!!
God is so strong for us weak humans! His presence always goes with us and before us. He is bigger than any elephant, He brings healing when we have no idea how to help those who come to us. This work belongs to Him, and He is carrying it through. He is saving our lives and others lives both physically and mentally and spiritually. What a great and mighty God we serve!
“Behold I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Here again we are admonished to faithfulness, in view of the conflict. We must not yield any point that we have already gained. From now on till Jesus comes, the battle will wax fiercer and still fiercer…Our only hope of saving our own souls and of helping others to be saved, is to receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ. RH July 9, 1908 par 9