Tough Times

So today ended up being a real mixed bag of a day, from waking up at the time i was meant to be at church (not as bad as it sounds - church doesn't start til 10.30, but i told some people i could get there at 8.30 to help cook church lunch). Then had adults 'Sunday School' where they were learning about 'Rest'. Not fully sure what they were saying, but i'll save those thoughts for another post. Then we had church, lunch, clean up, fun in getting to know more people at church, came home for a quick rest before heading over to Cana House where i thought i was going to help bake a cake as it's Yewi and Joy's birthday's, but we ended up also going to visit 2 hospitals to pray for some people who are sick. Which is more the point of this post. So many thoughts went through my head today about the unexplainable illnesses, sickness and death that goes on in this world, and again my frustrations of limited language arose. Here's a brief run down on what happened...

During church this morning there were a few people who got to get up and share about things that were happening in their life. One man Dai got up to share. At the time i couldn't understand much of what he said, but i knew it must be fairly bad cos he was on the verge of breaking down and crying and only just managed to hold it in. Later on, i found out why. His 5 year old son Dar was just diagnosed with leukemia last week and is now in hospital unconscious. Most of the afternoon was spent piecing together a whole heap of information in order to fully understand what the story was.

From what i understand, Dar has just been diagnosed with leukemia. I'm not sure what type or how bad, but from what i understand, it's not good and if Tum needs a bone marrow transplant, they'll need to fly out to another country for the treatment as there is nowhere in Thailand that does it. The problem is, the family are already struggling enough for money as it is. Dai (the father) works as a garbage collector and there's no chance that they could every afford the treatment required, and if through God's grace, the money for the transplant were to become available, apparently treatment still goes on for another 3 years, which makes it seem like a near impossibility for much to be done for Tum.

I must admit, i've very rarely gone with a group of people to just go and pray for people in hospital, and today when they first asked me if i wanted to visit, i declined - since i had no idea who they were or what the situation was. But i really thank God for the opportunity to be able to go and pray for them all today, cos at the end of the day, that's be best thing we can do - PRAY! i'd love to ask you all to do the same if you can. From what i understand the father is a Christian, but pray that he will be able to keep trusting in God through this situation. Pray for Tum, pray for the doctors who are treating him, pray if it is God's will, that he will be cured.

Not surprising, the car trip on the way home was fairly quiet with many of us thinking...LOTS! So many memories were going through my brain of Doug and other people i know who have battled with cancer. i had to keep reminding myself that this is a fallen world and God is in control and has a plan for all things, even if we don't understand them now. We just have to keep on trusting Him. What made it really hard was when my friends in the car turned to me and asked me what i was thinking. Do i think that Tum will make it or not? How do i feel about all of this? I couldn't help but want to share with them the many lessons that i've had to learn the hard way over the past few years, yet i didn't even know how to begin, what to say, how to say it. All i could do was pray.

We're hoping to go and visit again this week and take Dai some food. When we arrived at the hospital, he was lying down on a hard wooden bench in the waiting area as there was no space for him to sit in the ICU and visitors are only allowed in there 10 mins at a time. I can't even begin to imagine what he's going through right now.

Please Pray:
- for Dai (dad)
- for Dar (5yr old son)
- for God to do his work according to his plan
- for Christians here to be challenged in what they believe about God and that they will grow in their understanding of him because of it
- praise God for who he is, and that we are able to pray to Him and that he hears our prayers
- for continued opportunities to share with Thai's things i have also learnt and the language in order to do so