John and the Machete....Reports of what's going on...

What a day! I stayed busy all day with the boys and studying Thai while John was out in the village...and then about 5 pm we had a surprise! John was testing out a machete that Chase had brought over and he hacked his thumb!!! I heard some commotion downstairs and something about blood - as I started to get up - John asks me to get a towel (very calmly I might add). So I get a towel and I come down to see my husband holding his hand over the sink with a huge chunk of his thumb hacked into. It wasn't off...just chopped...I could tell it was pretty bad right off...and I told John I was taking him to the hospital (whether he liked it or not)...He would have protested more if he hadn't been so sidetracked by the blood...

So, we hopped in the car and headed off to the government hospital - it was the first time John had been in that hospital other than praying for the sick. They cleaned out the wound and then asked us if John had had his Tetnus shots....I looked at John and he shook his head...nope....

My first thought was...."Well that's just great!" and then I just felt peace come over me...we're in God's hands. So, they cleaned the wound again and stitched him up. John has been at my side while I laid in hospital beds 2 times and once for another surgery and you know it felt so weird to be at his side as he was the patient...It was almost as if I felt like he was invincible and it was surreal to be holding my husbands hand while he winced in pain as they stitched him up.

He did really well though...they gave him a local anesthetic (spelling...sorry) but it didn't do hardly anything at all...so all 5 stitches hurt pretty badly. And it was followed by a wonderful Tetnus shot! :) And John gets to return on his BIRTHDAY - March 9th - to get his stitches removed!!! Poor guy! He's doing well now and has a greater conciousness of using extreme caution when using machetes... :)

So yeah...today was eventful....:) Yesterday when John and Micheal were passing out tracts house to house....a lady yelled across a field..."He's telling me about Jesus" (in Thai of course...!) the only thing on the other side of the field was an old rickidy tin hut...it didn't look livable. John went down a trail to her hut. John said "Prat-Yesu rak khun na kuab" (which means 'Jesus loves you'" and started to hand her a track...and when John looked down he noticed she was reading a bible and as her eyes filled up with tears she said that she knew already. John sat down with her and talked with her a while (had some communication problems)...he wasn't able to tell her that our team had just opened up a house to minister out of in the village next to hers.

So, today John took Pii Thak, Brian, MaryBeth and Katherine out to meet her. It turned out that Brian and MaryBeth had given her rice a long time ago. As soon as they started walking up her eyes filled with tears. They got to share with her for a while and were able to give her some money. She's a widow and she has four children. She said she doesn't hardly ever see her kids which is a huge deal in Thailand because here children are raised knowing that when they get older they are expected to take care of their parents and almost all do. As soon as they get a job they start paying for their parents bills and helping them - mostly when their parents are edlerly. It is the norm here in Thailand - can you imagine that ever being the norm in America?

While the ladies spent time with her the guys finished covering the rest of the village. In other news...a lady that has been coming to our church called Amber last night after reading the book of Matthew and said that she was ready to really give her life to the Lord!! The Amber, Katherine and Pii Thak went to her house...stayed and prayed with her until 12am. Last night during the prostitute outreach one of the girls was really excited about everything and asked them to come and pick her up for church.

Che-An has been steadily growing and learning more and more about God! It's amazing to see God at work in his life. One of the guys on our team, Brian, is teaching him weekly. Brian is the best at the Thai language...they've been here for going on 4 years and Brian is incredible!! It's wonderful to see people's lives being changed - and even better seeing people come to know that there is only one God...and Jesus sacrifice on the cross is worthy of our lives.

WOW - long post...sorry bout that...Welp, thanks for reading!!! Please keep our finances in your prayers...this is a very very rough month! :) God will provide!!!

With much love,
Steph