Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Things are coming together for the Barefoot Doctors School to begin again January 20, 2014!
We are excited about the 21 or more students coming from Burma to become Barefoot Doctors with Frontier Labourers for Christ.

The new students will arrive in Chiang Mai around January 18th and begin their classes on the 20th.  Jon Ulm, Dr. Jim Winters, and Jung Dangshing will be leading Orientation Week and teaching Bible classes.  It will be interesting to hear their testimonies and to discover why they want to become Barefoot Doctors.

Then starting on January 27th we will have the medical training for this, the first of three winters of training.  Graduation for these Barefoot Doctors won't be until March of 2016 but they will be learning a lot this first year and start helping with some of the medical needs of their respective areas as soon as they return home in March of 2014.

Please be praying every day for the success of the school and this new group of students.  We are still raising support for the school expenses and for the Barefoot Doctors we have on the field.  If you know of funding places for us to look, please let us know.

If you would like to make a gift, please see the sidebar to discover where to send it.
This blog will become more and more active now, so please let other people know about it.
Thanks for all you do to help the Barefoot Doctors ministry.
Jon

Monday, October 21, 2013

Instructors Needed for 2014

A new group of Barefoot Doctor students will be coming from Burma to Chiang Mai, Thailand in January of 2014 to begin their medical and spiritual training from Frontier Labourers for Christ.  Twenty students have been selected from some of the most remote parts of Burma, and their tribal backgrounds were chosen so the Lord's work can spread to new areas of this needy country.  Burma was recently rated by WHO as the country with the worst medical care per capita in the world.  Our Barefoot Doctors ministry addresses this need better than any other strategy because we are training indigenous workers to continue serving their own people the rest of their lives as medical missionaries.
We are seeking qualified medical and dental instructors to come at their own expense to participate in this training.  Most teachers come for one week of training, and this year the medical training will occur between January 27th and March 7th, 2014.  Instructors will stay at the Kalnin Learning Center in its new, air-conditioned dormitory with private rooms.  This gives them a great opportunity to spend a lot of time with their students. They each teach about 3 hours a day with interpreters, and the topics are assigned by the Co=Deans of the school, Dr. Bjorn Nilson and Rick Astone.  This first year the students will be using the newly-revised book, Where There is No Doctor, written by Dr. David Werner.  The students will be given copies in Burmese, and this makes it easy for instructors to go through the training the students need chapter by chapter. If you want to check out this resource, go to http://store.hesperian.org/HB/prod/E010.html where you can download a free pdf copy of the book chapters. Our modern classroom has slide projection and wifi, too. The students are very eager to learn, and the teaching is very practical.
If you are interested in exploring this amazing teaching opportunity, please contact Jon Ulm at jon.ulm@verizon.net or Rick Astone at astonerick@gmail.com.  They would be happy to answer your questions and schedule the time you could come to Chiang Mai next year.  We are praying for God to send us dedicated, qualified teachers for our school, and we would love to discuss that possibility with anyone interested.  Our instructors are doctors, dentists, nurses, dental assistants, and dental hygienists.  Perhaps God is nudging you toward this extraordinary opportunity to have a greater impact in the world.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Our Barefoot Doctors Story



A few weeks ago, I awoke with the need to tell the story of the Barefoot Doctors ministry.  Let me share with you what I wrote that morning ...

Our story is the simplest, most basic story imaginable.
It’s the story of human need.
It’s the story of human compassion.
It’s the story of bringing these two things together in a dynamic way.
It’s the story of one person reaching out to another in God’s love.

Our story is the Barefoot Doctor story. There are many Barefoot Doctor stories, but ours takes place not only in Burma but also in Thailand and Laos.  I have never been a Barefoot Doctor, nor will I ever be, but I was drawn into the story like a moth to the light.  I was fascinated by its power and energy. I couldn’t turn away.

The story began over 30 years ago in the heart and soul of a Burmese preacher named Daniel.  As a young man, he fled his native land and became a refugee.  Then 30 years ago, he went back to Burma with his wife, Beverley, to make a difference in the lives of his people for God. The oppressiveness and neglect of their government had gone on too long.  Political efforts were not changing anything.  His fellow citizens were suffering, and they had been suffering for a long time.

As Daniel made trips from Thailand back into Burma to preach the Gospel and start churches, he saw how his people were deprived of the most basic medical care.  A simple cut could become an infection that led to death.  A tooth cavity would lead to years of pain and even death.  Diseases like malaria and dengue fever, both treatable with modern medicines, took hundreds of lives needlessly.  Whole villages grew sick because the villagers didn’t understand germs, the value of a clean water supply, and a safe latrine system.

Daniel thought, “Someone needs to recruit people from Burma and equip them with simple medical skills to help these people.  Someone needs to arm them with the knowledge of good community health and safety.”  Then he thought, “Maybe that someone should be me!”  Then, through the Christian mission he and his wife had started 30 years ago, Daniel began the Barefoot Doctors Program.

At first the candidates were brought together for just a few weeks of medical and Bible training.  They were taught first aid and the use of simple, over-the-counter medicines to counteract the most common injuries and sicknesses.  They were then equipped with a few supplies and sent out into the hills and villages of Burma, Thailand, and Laos to address the medical needs of their people and to preach the Gospel.  Their mission was simple, and it still is.  It is identical to the mission Jesus sent his disciples on in Luke 9:2 when “He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”

As the Barefoot Doctors Program developed, students began coming to the school three times over a period of three years before they could receive their certificates as Barefoot Doctors.  They now stay at the school three months of each year learning everything they can about medicine, dentistry, community health, and serving the spiritual needs of the people in the villages.  Financial and medical resources are solicited from the United States, Canada and Europe so that these Barefoot Doctors can continue serving their people when they have no resources of their own.  Amazingly, some of them have become self-supporting so they can continue their work with little or no help from the outside.

Over the past twenty years, more than 180 Barefoot Doctors have been trained, resourced, and sent out!  Most of them are still on the field providing medical and dental care to thousands and thousands of people who have nowhere else to turn.  In March of 2012 we graduated another 26 Barefoot Doctors from the FLC school in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  They immediately returned to Burma to serve the needs of the people in seven different ethnic groups or tribes.  We now have Barefoot Doctors in every region of Burma, but there are still many, many villages where there is no medical clinic at all.

Burma is a country in medical crisis.  Even in the cities people often cannot get the medical care they need, and in many places the hospitals are under-staffed and lacking medicines and supplies.  Transportation from the villages to these hospitals is difficult.  Last year, some of our Barefoot Doctors had to hand-carry a patient through the jungle for over 60 miles so she could have the surgery she needed.  Many of our Barefoot Doctors treat people you wouldn’t expect them to, like monks and government officials and soldiers.  In many cases, as they treat these people they are also able to share the gospel with them.

This coming January we will begin training the Class of 2016.  So far, 20 caring, compassionate Christians have been selected to be part of this class.  They are willing to scrimp and save and sacrifice in order to become a Barefoot Doctor.  Why?  Because they have a tremendous passion to serve the medical and spiritual needs of their own people, people who have nowhere else to turn.  In the Class of 2012, we had students who walked through the mountains for two to three weeks to get to the airport so they could be flown to the training center in Chiang Mai.  One of them was a fifty-year-old grandmother who was gone from her family for five months so she could get the three months of training we offered her each year.  Their desire to be used of God is amazing and inspiring!

Will you help us train these volunteer Barefoot Doctors?  Will you help us teach and equip the Class of 2016 over the next three years so that hundreds, even thousands, of lives can be changed for the better, both now and in eternity?  Will you help us with the next chapter of our story?

To find out more about the Barefoot Doctors Program, please visit the Frontier Labourers for Christ website at www.frontierlabourersforchrist.org, then click on “Health.”  
Jon


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

On April 2nd I received a newsletter from Beverley Kalnin regarding her involvement in the Barefoot Doctors Dental Training in Myanmar.  I know you will enjoy reading the following portion of her letter.  She also sent the pictures I have posted after her letter.  Enjoy!    Jon

"Then the King will say to those on his right, ' Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. .. I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."  Matthew 25:  34-36, 40
These words of Jesus come to mind when I consider FLC's ministry in Myanmar.  This was particularly brought home to me when I visited Myanmar in March.  First, Jung Dangshing and I travelled to Taungyi, capital of Shan State, Myanmar.  This is where FLC evangelist Abraham is stationed. His home and church are based there and it is also the center for his outreach along with ten of his evangelists to many surrounding towns and villages in Shan State.  The area is predominately Buddhist and includes many tribes and people groups. Renown as the agricultural basin of Myanmar and for Inlay Lake, Venice of the East,  it is cool and fertile.  Sadly, however,  it is also steeped in spiritual darkness.  Abraham and his evangelists are serving the Lord  sacrificially and bringing the good news of Jesus to this very needy area.  I was so encouraged  and amazed by the testimonies that they shared with me.  Next e-mail, I will include some of their stories.

At Abraham's church, we held for the first time ever, dental training for 12 Barefoot Doctors.  They came from the west (Rakhine State), from the north (Kachin State) and from the east and south (Shan State).  The dental team called M Power, arrived from  the US and Jung and I from Thailand.  For one week, the very professional, loving and dedicated dental team trained the Barefoot Doctors in practical dentistry. After prayer and devotions each day and dental training, they got to work treating patients hands-on.  That included writing down each patient's history, carefully examining the teeth, boiling and sterilizing the dental tools, numbing  pain with injections, and extracting the diseased teeth.  By the end of the week, they had extracted almost 1000 teeth from over 250 patients!  It was very gratifying to provide this very needed service to poor people in Taungyi and at an orphanage with many physical and mental handicapped children.  The 12 Barefoot Doctors received their dental certificates - now  they are also officially Barefoot Dentists!  They will be providing dental care to thousands of needy people in the most remote areas of Myanmar.  At the same time, they pray with each patient and share the message of Jesus' love with them.  Along with the other trained Barefoot Dentist, they will transform these remote areas, steeped in Buddhism and demon worship, with the light and love of Jesus Christ!

Jung and I also taught Bible classes to the Barefoot Doctors, evangelists and Abraham's church members.  They were so encouraged by our visit and teaching!  They asked us to return every year and teach more Bible!  It was ten years ago that  Daniel and I first visited Abraham's ministry in Taungyi. I realized it is so important to encourage our evangelists and visit them regularly.   I also met with each of Abraham's evangelists and l wrote down their testimonies,  ministries and  prayer requests.  Then, I prayed for each one of them in turn. Timothy and Thinbay were my very capable interpreters.   Jung, at the same time, collected medical reports from the 12 Barefoot Doctors.  Our time was well spent in Taungyi! We were blessed with delicious meals cooked by Abraham's wife Zamiram, his daughters and church members every day.  I was very touched by Abraham's loving family  serving the Lord together, the wonderful unity and spirit in their church, and the sacrifice and dedication of our FLC evangelists and Barefoot Doctors in Myanmar.








Tuesday, April 2, 2013

mPower's Report on Recent Dental Training



Let us share a wrap-up from Linda Webster at mPower.  It was sent as an email to FLC and it states so beautifully her appreciation for what God did in Myanmar.  Here is what Linda wrote:

I think the best way to describe our recent trip to Myanmar for training with the Barefoot Doctors is with punctuation:  !!!!!!!

Our team completed the training in the best spirits.  We were delighted to partner with Frontier Laborers for Christ in equipping the Barefoot Doctors to perform dental extractions.  When my friends ask what I liked about our recent trip, I have trouble listing all the positive things because there are so many!

>Most important:  Our students were excellent.  They were devoted to the training and were intent on learning what we were teaching.  AND, they all saw this as a powerful tool to take the Gospel to the hard places, even to the ends of the earth.
>Our facility was perfect.  We appreciate that Abraham and his church rushed to finish construction of the church building.  It was perfect for our needs, allowing all of the students to work in the same room with room to include the sterilization table. 
>Jung, Abraham, and Timothy were the very picture of servants.  They spent so much of their time making sure our team could continue our work.  Every item that we asked for in advance was made available, just like we asked for.  In addition, they were very gracious to cover our mistakes when we had to ask for items that we had not mentioned before, but had overlooked in our packing.  Thank you to each of them for being so patient with us.
>Abraham and his family also took good care of us.  His wife prepared the most delicious lunches for us and never expected any credit for it.  And when we found out that they also hosted all of the students, we were overwhelmed by their generous nature.
>One of the things that is critical to mPower for a successful training is having enough patients.  Again, God and the leadership team worked to make this happen.  At one point Abraham's son was even out on his motorcycle advertising our clinic!  So, we praise God, we had just the right number of patients. 
>We really appreciate the leadership provided for the Barefoot Doctor programs.  There were some difficult decisions to be made during our training and Jung, along with Abraham and Timothy were wonderful leaders as they worked through the issues to ensure that our CHDW's were successful.  I appreciate the vision they have for the future and the practical wisdom they use in the present.

We could not ask for a better partnership in working to make God's Name famous to the ends of the earth.  Thank you for letting us participate with you,
Linda



Saturday, March 2, 2013

Graduation from Dental Training!

Here is a quick but happy note from Jung about the last day of Dental Training.  More to follow.

Hello from Taungyi, Shan State, Burma.

March 1st - Friday:  The barefoot doctors worked till 1:00 pm.  After that we had a small graduation ceremony.  It was a big day for the barefoot doctors.  After the ceremony we had a brief Q & A time, the team repeated proper sterilization techniques and how to take care of the instruments. The dentists and the entire mPower team are happy with the training and with our barefoot doctors.  I will update more.  We don't have e-mail access every day here.
 Jung
 
 

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Days Three and Four of Dental Training

Hello from Taungyi, Burma.

Originally  our plan was to bring 12 barefoot doctors from the Class of 2012 to finish their dental training.  But one didn't make it.  However, the good news is that all 11 students will be graduated.  I wasn't able to update you about yesterday due to internet connection problem.  The total patients the barefoot doctors treated in the last two days were around 80 patients.  Most of them were poor and people special needs.

1st pic: A non-Christian Pa Oo woman smiling after the barefoot doctors extracted her bad tooth.  She said the barefoot doctors are different from the goverment trained dentists.  I can't say more than that here.
2nd pic: A young girl refused to let the barefoot doctor work on her teeth unless  we spell her name correctly.  She said spelling was not correct. :)  We corrected the spelling - she was happy and the barefoot doctor accomplished his mission!
3rd pic: Ken Saw, one of our barefoot doctors.
4th pic: A young boy praying with the barefoot doctor.  He is an orphan.


Thank you for reading our updates and praying for us.  Jung

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Good Second Day Report from Jung

Hello from Taungyi, Burma.
A correction about the number of patients the barefoot doctors treated the first day.  It was 46, not 'about 20'. Today we had over 40 patients (I don't have exact numbers at hand) and we worked till 6:30 pm.
 
In the morning we worked at Abraham's church where the training is being held.  In the afternoon we moved to the handicapped and orphanage center where there are kids and adults with special needs.  Most of them are mentally challenged kids and adults.  
 
According to the managers this is the first time they have received dental/dentistry care.  These people are considered second class citizens and marginalized people.  I am so happy that we went there.   We plan to go back again tomorrow. It has been a long day but the dentists are happy and pleased with what we have accomplished today and what the barefoot doctors are doing in Thailand and Burma.

The way we run the barefoot doctors program is different from medical programs that some others NGOs run. They don't include the spiritual part.  What this program brings is more than I can describe.  It is a rewarding ministry!

About the pictures below:
1st pic - A young girl with wheelchair is from handicapped center.  She is an orphan.
2nd pic -  I took this picture because she looked sad.  She came to watch the barefoot docs extracting her friend's bad tooth.
3rd pic - She prayed after she received dental care.  Found out that she is a Catholic. I prayed with her.  What was she praying for?  I don't know.  I kept thinking about this on the way to the hotel.
4th pic - Dr. Richard and two barefoot docs working on a patient.



 We have a special prayer request to share for LeRoy, Richard and Beverley who all got sick with food poisoning.  Please pray for their quick recovery.
Thank you for your prayers and support.  Update you more soon.  Jung

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Quick Update on Day One

Thanks for continuing to pray for the dental training that is going on this week in Myanmar.

David and Mary Tucker are there this week from the UK to teach Bible each morning.  The students love them so!  Then Beverley Kalnin and Jung Dangshing are there from FLC for Bible teaching in the evening.

Dental training is being carried on throughout the day by a dedicated group of dentists from the USA.  The instructors from mPower include: Linda Jo Webster - team leader, LeRoy Winston,Tara Lynn Baxter, Richard Turner Baxter, DDS, Annette Elena Merlino, DDS, and Daniel Raymond Klein, DDS.

There is a critical need for more patients for the students to work on.  The first day they had about 20 patients, but many more are needed. Due to the high standards set by mPower, getting enough patients for the students in order for them to graduate is challenging.  The hope is that most days they will have more than the 20 patients they had the first day.
 
At the same time, Jung reports that he can already see the students growing in confidence.  Thanks for your prayers!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Dental Training Finally Continues!

Dental Training Continues, This Time in Myanmar!

Today, February 25th, a Dental training started anew in Myanmar for the Barefoot Doctors who graduated in 2012.  Many of them had not completed their dental training due to extenuating circumstances, but today this training began again.  Praise God!

A team of dentists from mPower traveled with their dental equipment to Myanmar over the past couple of days.  Some of the FLC staff is coming up for the training, as well.  It is still unclear how many of the recent graduates were able to make it to Shan State for this training module.

This is the first time the Barefoot Doctor training will take place inside Myanmar, and we are very excited about that!  We originally planned to do this training in the northern part of the country in January.  The plan was to include medical training by way of a refresher course for the current Barefoot Doctors in that region. Many of them have been serving their area for many years, and they have never had an opportunity to update their knowledge and skills. 

Unfortunately, this larger training program had to be scrapped when fighting broke out in that region.  The government closed the doors to foreigners, and so we had to make up a new plan.  We are so grateful that dentists from mPower were willing to adjust their schedules and flights so the dental training could occur this quickly.

We will update you as updates become available to us.  Since there may be no access to the internet at times, we will report things when we can and hopefully include some pictures.  In the meantime, please pray TODAY and EVERY DAY for the dentists and their students as they learn skills that are desperately needed in the villages and areas they serve.