A medical team from the states along with two Thai doctors came in two days ago, and I was sent out with them to document everything. They were scheduled to do two mobile medical clinics in two different Hmong villages over the next two days. I was excited to go back to the villages!
After a long, exceedingly bumpy car ride, we arrived in the first village. The medical team went to work registering people and sending them through a line of nurses and doctors who would take their blood pressure, access their physical needs, give them medicine or treatment, and spread the gospel.
I ran around taking pictures like normal, but after a few hours I grew weary of it and started getting anxious. I looked around, and I realized I really wasn't any kind of asset. I couldn't translate for the doctors, I couldn't give medical treatment or even speak to the nationals who were there. I felt useless, and I started to wonder why I even came.
I was so grateful to reach the end of the day. The entire team gathered around for a time of worship, but my heart wasn't in it. I just wanted to go to sleep. At the end of worship our Thai leader asked us all to go around and say one thing we were thankful for... There were over twenty of us, so I knew it was going to take a while.
With each testimony of God's grace, my heart rose and rose.
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| Hmong interpreter, Kelly, with the woman with chest pains. |
One woman shared about a lady who had severe chest pains. She had been to all kinds of doctors, but nothing helped. She said if our God would heal her, then she would believe and follow him. She even asked the staff to pray for her. Please be in prayer that God will heal this woman and that she will believe.
Another person shared about a woman who had once been a follower of Jesus, but when she got married to an unbelieving husband she felt like she had to honor and follow him instead of the Lord. However, she was absolutely miserable apart from Christ. The staff told her about the power of prayer and said she should honor her husband, BUT she should also beseech the Lord for his salvation. The staff got the opportunity to pray with her, as well.
Little did we all know that the woman's husband was at the clinic, too. He was just in a different line, so another person's testimony revealed the husbands side of the story. The husband came to the staff specifically asking about God and wanting to know more about Him. He knew his wife was unhappy because he didn't believe. The staff counseled him in the Lord and encouraged him to believe. They also gave him a track to go home and read with his wife. How amazing that God was at work in the lives of the husband AND the wife and neither of them knew.
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| The girl with stomach pains. |
One of the last stories from the day was about a young girl who came with terrible stomach pains. I had even seen her clutching her stomach in agony. God did a miracle in her life, because at each station her stomach pains lessened and lessened. When they handed her medicine her pain was completely gone!
These stories and all the others blessed my heart. I had been on a spiritual battlefield all day, and I had been completely ignorant of it. I couldn't even believe that I thought the day I had been a waste. God is always at work around us, and having a bad attitude about our circumstances does nothing but limit him.
He helped me to realize that no one on the trip was useless. We are the body of Christ and we must all work together to get the work done. He also showed me that my job was important as well. We need prayer partners from all over to help us pray for the people in Thailand, and without my documentation of it, you all wouldn't know what to pray for. Praise God that He uses us despite our attitudes and our doubts.
-Rachel