“We are going by bus, the railway employees are on strike.” This was the worried and apparently agitated voice of Leah Sason on the other end of the line. Oh no, my aching back was telling me that this is not possible. You see I have a bad back, the result of a slipped disc accident that happened some ten years ago. I knew that the 12-hour trip to Nong Khai Northern Thailand while seated on the bus would be insult to my injured back. When I bought my train ticket a few days earlier I made sure that I got a lower berth on the sleeping coach so that I could snore supine all the way to Nong Khai, and now the bad news.
This odyssey started some four weeks before the call, when I received an email from a non-acquaintance, Leah Sason. She introduced herself as the coordinator for a Medical Mission of the Christ Commission Fellowship [CCF] in Ortigas, Pasig , [ Philippines ] and she was inviting me to join her team, and like all true missionaries - at my own expense. She got my name from a member of her church and she was told that I was an unemployed doctor residing in Bangkok . If I consented then I would rendezvous with them at the Hua Lamphong train station on the afternoon of October 31.
“God is still interested in me,” I mused, and I breathed a prayer of thanks for the chance to serve Him again as a volunteer. You see I lost my 17-year job with the Seventh-day Adventist church ten months ago due to my stand in faith, and since then I have been volunteering to various mission groups in the Philippines. When I and my family moved to Bangkok four months ago I gave my name to the Evangelical Church of Bangkok hoping that they would use me as a volunteer to some outreach.
I emailed Leah back and told her to wait while I contacted my sister and her husband based in California about the prospects of their sponsoring me on this trip. Their response was fast and assuring and from then on I knew that God was in control. “Praise God” was all I could say as I made preparations, which included informing my wife and children about the trip. All three of them are employed and I’m the one left at home with a 4 month old granddaughter and a helper. This means that if I leave for 5 days the situation at home might be chaotic. Their response was a reluctant positive, which is affirmative just the same, and an indication that God was still in control.
Laos, as my research revealed, is still a communist country in spite of the collapse in the ideological systems of the communist giants like Russia and East Germany . I also noted that her neighbors, China , Vietnam , Myanmar and Cambodia still shared the same styles in governance. Upon arrival in Vientiane , capital city of Laos , I was informed that conditions have improved lately and the people were free to worship, with conditions of course. These included a “NO” for personal evangelization, because that would be tantamount to encroaching on the freedom of others, and another “NO” for public worship because that would cause public disturbance. These all shows that there was still no complete freedom at all.
These guidelines narrowed all our chances to act as ambassadors for Christ, and therefore our public activities were rigorously restricted to medical and dental services. In this paragraph I mentioned a title, “ambassador.” And I am itching to expound more on this topic if only it would not jeopardize a servant of God and a true ambassador of the Kingdom of God stationed in Vientiane . She is the epitome of a fearless and dedicated anointed child of God, and I could clearly see that God is right by her side.
We checked in at a hotel – Laong Dao Hotel, and I was informed that I was to share not only a room and a bed, but worse yet a blanket with someone else. I looked around and counted towels to make sure that we didn’t share the same towel. I was relieved to count three regular sized towels and one super giant towel. I found out later that the giant towel was our blanket. Whew! This is great, I thought. So I went to the task of getting acquainted with my unlikely bedmate.
He [not a she, praise God!] was a dermatologist a year younger than my 51 years, a graduate from the University of the Philippines and has a clinic at the posh Forbes Park village in Makati . He is also in the circle of trusted and close friends of the famous Dr. Vicky Belo, and is a cousin of the first gentleman of the Philippines , no less. That’s it, I was to lie beside a rich and respectable man who I just met a few hours ago. He had his expensive stuff with him and he started to go through the motions of getting himself ready, which to me was a regimen of things which were not akin to my simple wash-wipe methods. I have spent 7 months in the mountains of Mindanao sleeping with the Manobos and Maranaos, sometimes next to a dog or some chickens and now I was getting a taste of class. God is great – Allahu Akbar!
We started a conversation, and then he exploded an unexpected bomb. He said that he was a former SDA but left the church after being confronted by the biblical truth, and he also conversed well in hilonggo, a western dialect I am much at home with. That bomb dropped all my guards and pretenses and he became like a long lost friend to me. The three nights in bed with him were like sleeping next to a brother who didn’t care if I farted or snored. God was in control all the while and he knew what was best for me.
Food in Laos is another challenge that the team faced, and my bedmate was quick to point out that there were a lot of dead cells, MSG, Sodium Chloride, aluminum, sugar, free radicals and a host of other entities that would cause Alzheimer’s and cancer and shorten ones life. I tried to concentrate on my food while keeping all the noxious substances he mentioned out of mind. Putting it simply Laos food is Asian food made spicy, which is not actually very far from our usual Filipino diet. Note worthy are the Baguettes or French bread that are stacked up like firewood beside the road.
We spent two days treating a myriad of physical ailments at the Naxai Thong District Hospital , a rundown structure in the suburbs north of Vientiane . More than 600 hundred patients received medicines and advice or were relieved from a rotting and aching tooth. It could have been a lot better if we prayed for these sick people but we had to function within the restricted code.
The last night was a dinner at the residence of the Philippine Ambassador to Laos . Among the invitees were some government officials, officers from the WHO and other agencies, and we were treated to an array of mouthwatering Laos and Filipino dishes including freshly roasted lechon. This affair was apparently a much looked forward to event because my teammates were in their freshly pressed expensive barongs, which they carried all the way from Pinas. I had to settle for a yellow “I love the king” t-shirt, which was the only shirt with a collar that was unused in my backpack. I was not informed of this affair.
When I entered the hall the gorgeous Ambassador greeted me and I had the chance to shake her hand and to apologize profusely for not being able to come up to the dress code. She too apologized graciously and explained that this was not supposed to be a formal affair, although she was dressed too formally. At the start of the dinner she delivered her welcome speech and made it clear to everyone that this affair was an informal one. I knew in my heart that she did it just to put me at ease, because I could see that everyone was dressed to kill and I was the only one in t-shirt and faded denims in the hall. God bless her heart.
The next day was praise and worship and then goodbye. The bus ride to Bangkok saw me sleeping like a babe, and when I got off the bus after the nightlong ride my back didn’t ache a bit. God was in control all the while. Hallelujah!
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