Back in Chiang Mai!

(Trying on a few necklaces that some women in my church put together...I think she liked them!)

Greetings! Please forgive me for the delay in getting my post up...the day after I returned from the village I became very sick. I had a fever/flu/headache/stomach pain for about three days...I think it might have been food poisoning, but I am not sure. Thankfully I am feeling much better now and have met up with Titus to partner on the Child Sponsorship Program. The work is moving along rapidly and we are headed back to Ma Oh Jo village tomorrow to finalize the records for the region.

My time in the village was great. The villagers were excited to hear that Titus and I would be staying for the summer...they missed the American team from the water/school project! Every morning Somsak and I woke up around 6 am to go to one of the five villages which would be sending children to the new school. We had to leave early because the families have been working the rice patties from about 7am-5pm to get them ready for the harvest in a couple months. Hut by hut we interviewed families to see if they would commit to sending their 3-8 year old children to the new school, and we recorded their basic information to see if it matched the data taken last year. As you can imagine this was a great challenge because most of the the parents did not know their children's birthdays, current age, or education level. Also, all of the parents were illiterate, and many of them weren't Thai citizens, which meant that there were no records from which to take information. Despite all of this, the info was gathered and by the end of the week we had about 100 children planning to attend the first day of school on November 1st. We also had requests to receive an education from numbers of people over the age of eight...including parents! We are currently working on a plan with Mike to make that possible...please keep this in your prayers.

My time in the villages continues to bless me. As soon as I arrived the Christian villagers offered to let me sleep in their huts, and there was never a meal which I need prepare on my own. One day an elderly couple invited me to their home for lunch...they had just shot a deer! More than ten of us ate together around a mound of rice and a bowl of stew containing the fresh kill...meat here is a luxury and yet they gave so freely.

(Cooking and eating in the village)

The Lord answered so many of my prayers in obvious ways this week. The first one I want to mention was the restored health of Pae Ja. If you don't remember Pae Ja is the name of the little girl who had the serious infection in her leg, but whose mother refused to let her go to the hospital with ITDP because the family was performing Animistic rituals which they believed would "please the spirits," and thus heal her. However, one day after our team left, Pae Ja was finally taken to the hospital and had surgery which saved both her leg, and her life. The total cost came out to $38 which was covered by ITDP.

(A healthy and happy Pae Ja: Back Left)

A second answer to prayer came on a Wednesday afternoon: Around 4 PM Somsok and I met together to pray for Jet and Por who were yet to return from an 8am trip to Hoy Num Kow (generally they would do at least three runs a day). It had been raining extremely hard all day and we were worried for their safety. On our knees we prayed for three things: 1) That God would stop the rain (which was pouring down that very moment) 2) That Por and Jet were safe 3) That God would give us wisdom on what action we should take. Not a moment after we said "amen" the rain completely stopped and a woman ran up to us to report that the truck had been spotted at the bottom of the hill. Somsak and I ran down to the truck which was able to make it up the steep incline not five minutes later because of the rain's subsiding. What praises we all sang to God for His loving faithfulness! I find myself anticipating more and more difficult circumstances that God may continue to be glorified and my faith increased.

(What the roads look like when they are good :)

The third and final instance (I will write about in this blog) in which prayer was clearly answered came on my last night in the village. For the past year and a half, I (along with others), have been praying that the Lord would send someone trained in the Word to shepherd the Christians in this region, and serve as their pastor/teacher...well, it seems that this man has come! He is a Karen villager that was trained in a four year Seminary on the Thai/Burmese border. He just moved to Ma Oh Jo village and is hoping to stay there for years to come. I had the pleasure of meeting him, as well as one of his teachers and classmates during a nightly Bible study the villagers hold. There I heard them preach the Word (his teacher translated into English for me), and had a wonderful time fellowshiping with them afterwards. It turns out that this man's teacher sent him to this region because he felt (after much prayer) that the area needed a strong leader to help nurture the Christians, that they might be able to share their faith with non-believers in the surrounding area. His teacher and classmates had simply come to encourage him in this new endeavour for the Kingdom...needless to say we can all praise God for leading this man to us.

(Gathered together in a small hut to study God's Word and worship The Christ)

There are many more things I want to write about, but I'm afraid I've gone on too long already. Thank you for your faithful prayers and know that the Lord is graciously answering them for His glory. I go to the village for eight days starting tomorrow so it will be awhile before I can write again. God bless!

Your Brother,

Daniel Lamm

Prayer Requests:

1) For the souls of the villagers

2) For safety as we travel to the village on the 15Th

3) For Titus and I as we tie together the Child Sponsorship Program

4) That I along with ITDP would continue to grow in God's Word and fight the most threatening enemy...sin from within.