What next?

Well, within this next week (probably) we will be splitting up into three groups and going to different villages all over Thailand! We will be doing more of the same-type of stuff with medical work and meetings in the evenings. One very exciting thing is that the village where my group is going, we will not even have phone service, unless we climb a tree! Lol, that sounds exciting to me. My group is Mew, Mam, Rob, and I. L-R (back row): Me, Mam, Jerun; L-R (front row): Mew, Ying.


(back): Rob, (2nd row L-R): Ricky, Michael, Me, Wut; (front) Bee, Emily, Mew, Melissa. This was my group in the last village, (minus Jen) in Panakok (sp?). . . .


We will be staying here at the "ranch" for a few days, because some people are sick and need to get well before we go and teach about health. :D While we are here, we will be doing exciting things like shopping (since we wont be able to do much of that for possibly as long as 2 months!), doing laundry, re-packing, checking e-mail, etc. It will be nice to have a little rest-up. Would love to hear from you all! I miss you and immensely enjoy getting comments and e-mails! God bless you all.

P.S. I have no idea when I will be posting again. Once we go out into the villages, there is no set date that we will be returning. It is possible that we will go to another village after a week, or that we might remain in one village until Christmas break (around the 15th of December)! So, bye bye for now! Keep us in your prayers.

For We Wrestle Not. . . . part II

This week we were in a small village called Buakjan (sp?). We joined the rest of the group there and would go out daily to minister to surrounding villages. We met many people and treated many diseases, but the one case that has changed my life the most was this lady in the picture. She came to us first with complaints of numb hands and painful arms. She said that a few years ago she had woke up in the night with horrible pain. (the translator said tendon pain, but it was more like nerve pain.) She would now have intense pain when she got startled, and her hands were frequently numb. We checked her blood pressure, which was a bit high.


We proceeded to give her hands and arms a massage as the Thai girls chatted with her. The more they talked to her, the more we realized that this was not an ordinary nerve problem. This woman was a spirit worshiper, but not only a worshiper, she was a spirit medium. As they talked to her, she would say how the spirits would hurt her sometimes, but then would praise the spirits and say how great they were. One spirit told her that they live in Heaven, so that is what she believes. Come to find out, she had been involved in spirit worship since the age of 13. Then she became "Christian" (Catholic). Later she married a man who worshiped spirits and she then became a spirit medium. Pi Mam, one of the Thai girls, told her that our God could heal her, but that she had to commit to Him and pray to Him.

As I sat there massaging her, I could see the battle going on for her soul! Her eyes would soften as she heard about the Lord, but then she would stiffen up and start praising the spirits again. She wouldn't let us cut the spirit strings off her arms. We had prayer with her, realizing our helplessness in this situation! We could do no more. She wouldn't give up her spirits!


As we were walking away, Melissa wanted to take a video of her, so we went back and talked to her some more. We prayed with her again and sang "What a Friend we have in Jesus"and left. This was a very emotional time for some of us, seeing the battle for her life. I was so sad as we departed because I felt we were leaving her forever! I just kept praying that God would work on her heart, and not let the Devil win this battle!

THE END. . . . I thought! Sabbath, part of the group went back to that village to do church service and check on some of the people we had visited. This lady came to one of the meetings and they were able to study the Bible with her! It excited my heart to hear how the Holy Spirit kept working on this lady! They proceeded to study with her about what spiritualism really is! No obvious decision was made up front, but just the fact that she was happy to come to a place where the Lord's name was praised says a lot.

This story is the most apparent demonstration of the Great Controversy that I have ever witnessed with my own eyes! There is a battle going on for YOU and ME. It is usually more discrete in Western Cultures, but does that mean that it isn't happening? No way! It is happening all around us! Will we surrender to the Lord? If it is not His Holy Spirit that is with us, then it is the evil spirit. Praise the Lord that He does not give us up to the Devil without a huge battle for our lives! He will continue to fight until WE have closed our hearts to Him. The Great Controversy is quickly coming to a close. The decision is up to you.

New Phone!

Yay, I'm so excited! I finally broke down and got a phone. I wasn't planning on it, but plans change. :D I decided I could actually save money by buying a phone. Anyways, if any of you would like my phone number, just e-mail me. I don't want to post it up here. My e-mail is phoebeeller@southern.edu. God bless you all!

For We Wrestle Not . . . .

This past week we were at a beautiful Hmong village up in the mountains! Emily and I overlooking the breathtaking valley.


We were able to do some visitations. The most common diseases we saw were high blood pressure and gout. We were able to help them with natural remedies and a lot of education on drinking water, etc.


We had the fun privilege of passing out literature with a bunch of little children.


We conducted health seminars and Bible lessons in the evening as well. Our whole group is split up into two groups. My group is: Emily, Rob, Ricky, Melissa, Jen, Mew, and I. It is sad to not be with the rest of the group. We did get to see them a couple times this week! That was great fun. It is interesting with the scheduling here, or lack thereof. We usually don't know what is happening until the day before, or more like the day of, as mentioned before. I pray that God will help me to be flexible, but that we will be organized in a flexible type of way so that we can get things accomplished. That was a bit challenging for at this village. We were planning on staying there another week, until Sabbath morning, we found out we were leaving the next day.

So, here we are back at the "ranch" (the name recently given to our center in Chiang Mai). We arrived last night and are leaving again today. We were planning on going to a village way up in the mountains that just got electricity in the last year! Today, plans have changed again. We will be going to the place where the other part of our group is at. There are some things happening there that really need prayer! They have been dealing with some spiritualism things. A devil-possessed man, a monk trying to convince them all to come to a temple for a massage lesson (with much chanting, etc. involved), and when they were praying last night until 11:00, one of the girls heard moaning, crying, dogs howling, etc. until they stopped praying. Whenever the prayer would stop, the noise would stop, too. There are also some other things going on. Satan is working very hard at that village! Please keep us in your prayers as we head there to work for the Lord! I pray that our faith will be strengthened and most importantly, that God's name will be honored!

Ephesians 6:12-13: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Trust. . . .

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

This verse has started to take on new meaning in my life. Especially as I do not know what is happening in my life from one minute to the next! God is teaching me to trust Him with EVERYTHING. We need to trust like a little child, completely resting in the arms of Jesus! Soon we may not know where our next meal will come from. How will we trust Him then, if we haven't learned to now?


Well, tomorrow, the plan is to go out to a Mong village (a tribe from China, I think) for one week (or maybe 1 month;) and then from there, possibly go to another village, or come back to Chiang Mai, or who knows what we'll do! This plan changed today once already, so it could change again! In that village, we will be visiting people in their houses, assessing their physical and their spiritual health, helping them with natural remedies as much as possible, and then in the evenings, we will be conducting some meetings! I'm not sure exactly what those will be over yet, we are still working on some details of that, but there will be two sections, one on health, and the other about the Bible. This is not very detailed, but that is about all I know for now. We will find out more when we get to the villages and assess what they need!

Time is running out! We can't trust our own plans and our own work to accomplish anything. God bless you until we meet again! (Even if it is only on e-mail in who knows how many months!) I really like this quote: who is working in your life?

When man works, man works.
When man prays, God works!

My life? I think not!

Well friends,

The training is almost over, and it has been a crazy week! I have learned a whole lot, but I am praising the Lord that it is almost Sabbath! I think that my life will change a bit in the next few days. Tomorrow night I am going to Laos to get my visa renewed! I can't believe I have been here for almost 3 months already. Crazy, crazy.

Lol, this is kind of how I feel right now!


Ok, ok, maybe this is an exaggeration, but I do feel quite crazy, because very soon we are all being split into groups and going out into villages! They haven't told us for sure who will be in our group and where we will be going. It is actually very exciting, but a bit scary, especially not knowing. I will return from Laos probably on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday we are OUT! Tuesday we will be enlightened a bit as to what our life holds for the next month or two, as we will be stying in one place that long. Plans? Yes, they are already made. Can I be enlightened? No, because things might change in the next few days.

Matthew 6:34--Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Lord, this is not my life. I do not have control and help me not to want control! I am Yours and my future is in Your hands.

I feel much better now!


I don't know when I will be able to write again. If you don't hear from me in a couple months, it is because I am out in the jungles somewhere with no internet! I will write when I can. Keep us in your prayers. Thanks.

Food? What's that?? (lessons while fasting)

Yay, tomorrow we actually get to eat normal food! This sure has been an interesting past 5 days! Thankfully we have been able to eat fruit on Sabbath and "rice porridge" today with more fruit. (That was kind of interesting, just rice, water, and salt). It is a nice feeling to have fully accomplished a 5-day fast! I have learned some very interesting things while on my fast. These last few months that I have been here in Thailand, I have had a hard time with the food. I haven't had a hard time eating the food, but the difference in flavors has been messing with my taste-buds and appetite! I have not been getting much fruit (because they like to eat rice for breakfast & lunch & supper) and they don't usually eat very much fruit. I don't know exactly the reason, but I have been having a hard time not eating too much! Lol, that sounds crazy, I know.

I was reading my Bible one morning and came across these verses: Luke 12:22-23, 31: And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

I have recently realized that self-control is not what I need to overcome the sins in my life. It is full surrender to the Lord that will help me accomplish that. We cannot do it on our own. It is ONLY through the Lord's power that we can overcome. Thankfully, God has given us a promise: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." He will hold true to that promise! Praise the Lord I will be able to eat tomorrow. :D Lol, hopefully, with His help, not too much!