The Queen's Botanical Gardens

The last Saturday the new Barefoot Doctors were at the KLC, we took the day and went to the Queen's Botanical Gardens.  This beautiful place is about 30 minutes north of Chiang Mai.

Entrance to the Gardens

 It was built to showcase a great variety of plants, as you can see from the pictures.  The gardens were also a good place for the students and the rest of us to enjoy some sweet fellowship time together before we go our separate ways.

Many pictures were taken by everyone. Nok, a professional photographer was with us. When I get some of his photos of the gardens, I will make an additional post. It was a great place to spend time together. 

High canopy over the jungle floor

Lunch at the Gardens

Inside the Rain Forest building

After the botanical gardens, we swung by the new, five-story shopping mall in Chiang Mai called Central Festival. It was amazing!

Indoor Ice Rink Fascinated BFDs!

What a beautiful mall!

Barefoot Doctors Head Home to Burma

Monday morning we packed up the trucks with the Barefoot Doctors suitcases and medical supplies and headed north to Mae Sai, Thailand and Tachileik, Burma.  They were excited to be finally going home.

Loading Trucks at KLC

 

A few of the new graduates had trouble with car-sickness on the way, but finally the road smoothed out and they got some sleep.  As soon as we got to Mae Sai we unloaded everything into smaller trucks and checked everyone and their belongings through the border into Myanmar.  Everything got through safely and without incident, thank the Lord.

Jung and Jon Crossing the Border

Soon we found ourselves at Timothy's house in Tachileik where the IMR team and the students are conducting a medical camp this week.
  

Unloading at Timothy's

Timothy's Family

Monday evening we gathered at Thin Bey's house to have a prayer and memorial service for Dee Saripung who had passed away over the weekend.  Please keep Chang Bu, his wife, and their one-year old daughter, Nin, in your prayers.

Bible Training Week February 29 to March 4

Bible Teaching has continued all of this week with two American pastors, Jon Ulm and Paul Bergquam, doing the teaching.

Jon is the pastor of New Hope Christian Church in Manassas, Virginia. Paul is the pastor of Sanger Community Church in Sanger, California.  Both churches, on opposite ends of the United States, have supported the Barefoot Doctors program for many years.

Paul began his week teaching about the Parables of Jesus.  He wanted the students to see how powerful Jesus' lessons were when he used common, everyday illustrations of spiritual realities.  He taught the students how to get to the main spiritual lesson of each parable and how to make application of these lessons.

In the latter part of the week, Paul taught the students about the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah.  They explored the historical background to his life and ministry and saw how God kept him faithful to his calling, in spite of the fact that he faced much opposition during his entire ministry.  Through the study of Jeremiah, Paul also taught our Barefoot Doctors how to choose a Bible passage and then prepare a lesson from it so that their students could understand it and apply it.

Paul Burgquam with translator Ahtang

Paul preaching on February 28

Jon took the students through a verse-by-verse study of the book of 1 Peter.  He chose to teach this book of the Bible because Peter wrote this letter to Christians living in Asia Minor who were facing all kinds of opposition to their witness for Jesus Christ.  His advice and the Holy Spirit's counsel is valuable to anyone else facing hostility toward our faith in any generation.   Jon also presented the Apostle Paul's charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 and taught Jesus challenging words in Luke 9:23 about taking up our cross in order to follow Him.

In Burma/Myanmar, there is hostility toward the Gospel even though there is not a national law against sharing the Gospel.  Local areas sometimes have their own restrictions about this, however, and the predominantly Buddhist culture is opposed to evangelistic outreach by any other group.

Jon Ulm teaching in classroom

Jon giving wristbands to BFDs

Some of the Barefoot Doctors report they have made people angry when they tried to preach in their villages. One reported how a group threw stones at them until they stopped preaching.  Another said someone fired stones from a sling-shot at them until they quit. At the same time, many of them reported they are able to have special Christmas celebrations where the Gospel is preached, and that many of their Buddhist neighbors will come to these celebrations.   This same openness is not seen during the rest of the year.

All week long we encouraged the Barefoot Doctors to be strong and courageous.  We encouraged them to be strong in the Lord, not in themselves.  Please pray for them that they will have a bold witness for Jesus Christ in their various regions of Burma. Some of them are going back to war-torn areas where fighting is going on by 6 or 7 different armies, including the Burmese army.

Saying Goodbye is Hard to Do!

It is a normal occurrence here at the Barefoot Doctors School to have to say goodbye to new friends and old.  All of them have become dear to us and to our students, and so when the moment comes that they must leave the KLC, it is difficult.

Just in the two weeks I have been here, we have said goodbye to Dr. Bjorn Nilson, Dr. Susan Parker, Lynda Audia, Dr. Jim and Gayle Buie, Rick and Alice Astone, and now Paul Bergquam.

Jung is always the gracious host who expresses so well the gratitude of Frontier Labourers for Christ and his staff.  The students also pick someone to convey their thanks and someone else to present to the instructor gifts as beautiful tokens of their gratitude.

Here are a few of these goodbyes, bitter-sweet as they may be.  We are grateful for the deep friendships we form at the Barefoot Doctor School.

Dr. Bjorn Nilson, Medical Director

Dr. Bjorn Nilson

Lynda Audia and Dr. Susan Parker

Dr. Jim and Gayle Buie

Gayle Buie

Rick and Alice Astone

Rick and Alice Astone

Paul Bergquam

Paul Bergquam

We have many, many dedicated and selfless instructors who came to teach the Class of 2016.  We thank God for ALL of them!

Here is the list, straight from our Graduation Program:

Bjorn Nilcon, MD; Charles Steinberg, MD; David Brumwell, MD; Cyril Thomas, PA; Joseph Nawrocki, MD; Jim Buie, MD; Gayle Buie, RN; Rick Astone, PT; Alice Astone, DPT; Susan McDowell, MD; Jove Graham, MD; Jeff Kornelsen, MD; Lynda Audia, RN, BScN; Janet Warren, MD; Anita Terry, RN; Linda Webster (mPower); David Crist, CHE; Joana Geiger, CHE; Beverley Kalnin; Pastor Rich Peterson, Pastor Simon Percy, Pastor Jim Winter, Pastor Ian Rees, Pastor Jon Ulm, Pastor Bob Johnson, Pastor Paul Bergquam, Jodi Pyles.

Colorful Outfits of our Barefoot Doctors

On special occasions, our Barefoot Doctors have been encouraged to wear their traditional outfits/costumes.  Some of them are especially colorful, but all of them are really sharp.

Here is a sampling of a few of them.

Nang Hkam

 

Than Zaw Oo

Elizabeth

 

Khaw Taik

Ma Ma Naing

Minram

 

Ninsungbra

NiLar

 

Yawhan

 
We have, of course, many tribes included in this graduating class.  There are eight different tribes in this group, several of them which are new to our league of Barefoot Doctors.

The tribes this group represents are Rawang, Karen, Ba U, Ra Kaing, Ngo  Chang, Wah, Ak Kha, and Lah Hu.  This brings the total number of tribes our Barefoot Doctors serve to 10, and these students were deliberately chosen to bring medical help and the preaching of the Gospel to many new places in Burma.

Please pray for these dedicated servants of God.

Graduation Day! Graduation Day! Graduation Day!

 

 

 

What an exciting day we had on Saturday!  17 students received their certificates as Barefoot Doctors!

You can see how excited they were.  After three years of hard work, they finally completed their courses and received the rewards due them.

Here Tun Myaing, Class President, expressed the students' appreciation to all of their instructors, the FLC workers, and to all of the supporters who made their graduation possible.

It was a great moment as they walked across the stage and received their Certificates as Barefoot Doctors.  They also received other gifts, including new wristwatches from the Ferraros and the FLC Board in the United States.

Here is a picture of Jung Dangshing, FLC Executive Director, and Timothy and Abraham, our main translators, with the new graduates. These three men have made many sacrifices for these students over the past three years.

I made this last picture large so you can have a very nice picture of our graduates in their traditional clothes.  They are a handsome group, full of hope and promise!  Please pray for them as finish their Bible training this week and pack to go home next week.