Running from the Start

I have quickly come to the realization recently that you never know what tomorrow is going to be like–days can be similar while at other times they can be drastically different. Everyday calls for constant flexibility because any moment the plans for the day could change. Since I’ve been here at Sunshine Orchard, I have had some opportunities to assist my mom and Thara Mu Gayle Haberkam in the medical aspect of things, here. I’m so thankful for these opportunities and the many more to come in the future to learn on the job to be a jungle nurse. I would like to share with you some medical experiences that I had this week.

On Monday, I went on a long medical run. We took a teacher, who walked from where he lives in Burma to our school for medical help, to the Meta hospital. Thara-mu Gayle thought that he might have hepatitis, but after doing a few different lab tests and other things in the hospital—we were there for a few hours–, the doctor told us that he didn’t have that. His spleen was swollen, his eyes were slightly yellow, and he had some other problems. He was feeling terrible and didn’t feel like walking. After we were done, we dropped him off at a bus stop and he crossed the river into Burma sometime after that. He is supposed to come back for a medical check-up in a month if he isn’t well by then. I sure hope that he made it safely home. I pray that this will not be our last opportunity to help him and that somehow we or someone ells can lead him to Christ and have a better opportunity to share principles of health with him.

Tharamoo Gayle, mom, and I also took a drunk man to Mae Lah Camp, the closest refugee camp, Monday evening. Tharamoo Gayle felt impressed to do it and all went well. We trusted in God’s protection because she felt the Lord was leading and because we knew that Immanuel (“God with us”) would do the same thing if He were physically there. The man was to be there to get some blood work done and then head off probably to Bangkok along with other Karens to go to America. It’s sad. He just doesn’t realize what a HARD way of life that he’ll have there. He doesn’t know English and his occupation is probably just a farmer. It’s a huge struggle for Karens to get jobs in America. I pray that God will place someone, hopefully Karen Adventists in America, in his path to reach out to him.

I had my first three patients on Tuesday. I put a charcoal poultice on mom’s foot, on a knee of one of our boys, and one on the leg of another. They all had a wound from something. Mom’s got infected and it looked like at least one of the boy’s was too. Tharamoo Gayle is gone until tomorrow, I think, so she gave mom and me the medical supplies she had in her hut. It’s fun and challenging trying to understand what patients are saying and what’s wrong when you don’t know the language very well, yet; (At least we know some things…Far better than none.) as well as, trying to give them instructions, etc. when you don’t always have someone at hand to translate. I’m glad that quite a few of our students know some English so we can communicate a little easier than with the villagers that come to our home.

 As I ponder on the joys of being here, I am amazed and thrilled that God has made it possible for me to be what I’ve wanted to be for the past three and a half years–to be a medical missionary overseas! I wouldn’t trade the experiences above, nor others that He brings, for anything. Why? because I’m here working with Immanuel for the health, spiritual, and friendship needs of the Karen people whom He died to save. While working for Him here, I have found more fulfillment in my life than ever before.