Terry Gibbs, Wycliffe Bible Translators
Thank you for your faithful giving and your wonderful prayers; may the Lord bless you all. I landed back in Chiang Mai at midnight Friday, and I’m now spending Saturday unpacking and washing cloths. School starts on Monday at Payap. The high today was 82°, so I’m beginning to thaw out.
Just before I left for the U.S. I received an email from a friend who related a story to me. He is a fellow missionary with another organization whom I’ve know for some 30 years and has been living here in Chiang Mai for longer than I have. He said that as he was traveling back to the U.S. for Christmas on a flight from Hong Kong to Chicago, he was seated next to a man whom he struck up a conversation with. He found out that the man was Jewish and that he had recently encountered another Christian in Chiang Mai. As they talked my friend realized that the other person in Chiang Mai was me. My friend went on to spend an hour or so witnessing to him. So in the Lord’s work, He provides some the opportunity to plant, and some the opportunity to water, and then God provides the increase.
My flights in the U.S. went well, but I did not get the flight from Denver down to Colorado Springs due to engine problems. The airline put us all up in a hotel for the night. I took a transit van the next morning down to Colorado Springs. It was good to spend some time with Leilani and Micah in Ohio, Jamie and Chris in Colorado, and my sister Bobbie in Texas.
Please keep the following items in your prayers:
* Leilani was hoping to get some medical help in December, but first there was a delay due to paperwork, then an Ice storm made travel impossible, and now with the new year her insurance premiums have changed.
* Jamie’s time is fully occupied 24/ 7 with caring for Meilina. She is challenged by making all of the special foods for Meilina and keeping her safe. Somehow a table spoon sized piece of Pumpkin pie that Jamie had specially made became contaminated by a spoon that had some milk on it, and as a result Meilina threw up and it will now be 2 weeks before her stomach and intestines calm down. My last two days there were tending Meilina at 2am, 4am, 6am and during the day as she complained that her stomach hurt and did not want to eat, but she was hungry.
* The cleaning of the smoke from their house has been delayed yet again as the work is taking a very long time. It seems like it’s time to hire someone who can get this kind of work done more quickly. The Extended Stay hotel room where they are now living was working out ok until the tenants down stairs started smoking in their room which was pick up by the ventilation system and made their room smell terrible. The day after I left they were able to move to a new building.
* Chris continues to look for a job.
* My sister Bobbie very recently had a medical device surgically implanted in her side called a ‘pump’ so it can provide medication on a continuous basis to help relieve the spinal pain she has had for many years. She has lately been unable to eat more that a couple of tablespoons food at a time due to a problem in her stomach. She is currently in a hospital having cancer surgery. She sent me a brief email that said “I feel like I was run over by a truck!”.