Sean & Anne Sanborn

August 2000
Monday: The girls rode in Simon's air conditioned truck, while the guys rode in the back of Aachan Vet's truck, he is a crazy driver and we almost had 2 accidents. The seat broke so we switched it around. When we arrived at Bossolee, it started raining so we sat under the house of a family until the girls arrived. Village women had come down for supplies, and the PVC pipes. We thought only joints were needed. I gave my bag to one of the villagers. Then I took Kwi Young's bag. We crossed a very high mountain for our 5-mile trek to Hoi de Top. When we got to the stream crossing it was lower than I have ever seen.

3 guys stayed at the chief's house. The girls stayed at the next house down. The British girls stayed at the house across the street. Most of the villagers were out picking lamyay (12 hours of work for 120B). The peanut butter sandwiches were very appreciated. I had foolishly thought at first that it was too heavy a weight for the trip. Rob mocked me the whole time about this. We took that evening off. The new lantern worked wonderfully (one can for at least 3 hours). Aachan Bung loved the pocketknife we gave him. The animals made a lot of noise tonight. I woke up to see a demon. I told him to go away in Jesus name and then quickly fell back asleep. Howard saw something about the same time that night. Buffaloes kept banging their heads into the floorboards below us. The girls had pigs snorting.

Tuesday: Oatmeal for breakfast. Didn't know the girls had raisins. Prayer and praise at the church at 8am. Machete'd the area for the future church on top of the hill. Plenty of cloud cover. We uncovered 3 wasp nests. A British girl was stung, then Rob and I were stung, and the last nest I got stung on the nose. I pumped water, and then took a nap. We were offered corn and cucumber to supplement our noodles. Took another nap until 3. We prayed for people around the village and then handed out medicine until 5. Noodle dinner. Aah Jay returned with the villagers about 6pm and we gave him a pocketknife. Howard led worship. Sheila gave a testimony. Simon preached on tithing. 2 of the British girls seriously considered joining us for the rest of the trip, but they decided to stay together. They walked back to Bossolee the next day.

Wednesday: We walked straight up the hill (no switchbacks in these mountains). A very beautiful view at the top. When we arrived in Mae Tieng (1.6 miles) everyone was in the fields. The schoolteacher left 3 years ago when men from another village raped her. The pastor works in the city and visits on Sundays. We had a peanut butter sandwich and noodle lunch. We showered in the rain and then took a nap. Aachan Bung gave me a Thai massage. We did a prayer walk through the village. When we came to the Spirit Doctors house, 2 of the young bulls began fighting. We then went to the Chief's son's house and his wife served us roasted chestnuts, then we prayed for her. Noodles for dinner. We sang some songs then did the Robot skit. Kwi Young gave her testimony. Rob preached on tithing and pastor support. Then we prayed for people and handed out medicine. Then we ate some corn they brought us. We woke up at 3am when a scorpion bit Rob. He said it felt like his finger had been cut off. I had a little packet for stings, but it didn’t do much. I was afraid to move all night for fear that I'd roll over on a scorpion. I was very stiff in the morning.

Thursday: I woke up at 5am to see Aachan Bung praying. I tried to wake up and pray too, but I prayed lying down and fell asleep until 7am. We had oatmeal, raisins, and coffee for breakfast. Showered. Their toilet is full of mosquitoes, and you feel like the boards are about to break. The girls are bearing up incredibly well without a single complaint. Because of the rain, the water was murky, which slowed our pumping down. It took an hour. We then walked straight down the hill. Aachan Bung made us walking sticks. In the rice fields we found many 4-leaf clovers. I found a nice ripe guava. We saw our only leach of the trip. It had jumped onto Sheila's socks. Then we walked up an incredibly steep hill to Baan Pui (2.48 miles).

We stopped at Aachan Bung's wife's sister's house. We ate the last of the bread with peanut butter. Then had noodles. Took a full on shower with cold water at a Christian's house. Owned by an old lady who must have been at least 90 years old. She was the first Christian in the village. About 20 years ago one of Bruce Taylor's disciples evangelized there. They gave us some sour passion fruit. I took a long nap until the girls were done showering. We packed up and went over to the little shop. They were out of everything except sardines, noodles, toiletries… I bought some sugar and eggs for only 45B. There was a place in town that had 50 solar panels, and a satellite dish. Tongkham used their phone to call ChaingMai to get Aachan Vet to pick up at 10am in Hot. Then I got to call Anne. I was very happy to get through. I woke her up and we talked for 7 minutes (35B). Everyone is doing well going to McKean leprosy hospital and the Bai village. We then walked over to the next village called Giew Luk (1mile).

Men stayed in the church and girls stayed in pastor Neeron's house. We prayer walked around the village. We were very happy that they had such nice toilets. About 80 people came to the service. Thai worship. We did the Robot skit, and sang 2 songs and then Brigit gave her testimony. Sheila preached on relationship with God. She asked for anyone who wanted to know God more to come forward, and everyone who wanted physical healing came forward. Then the Holy Spirit showed up. It was awesome. The pastor had heard of this before but never seen it. I prayed for a guy who wanted healing for his arm after surgery. I prayed instead that God would soften his heart. He started shaking and fell down crying. Later he said that God revealed to him how his relationship with his wife and children should be. He entered the church with an angry frown, and left with a huge smile. Another man was slain in the spirit. He then couldn't stand up and began laughing. Everyone in the church began laughing with him. I cut off a demon bracelet off a young boy. Many miracles, but don't know how many. About 10 people camped outside in the cold all night long waiting to be prayed for again in the morning. When we slept the wind sounded like an ocean's waves. They lent us pillows and blankets. Aachan Bung snored so loudly we at first thought it was a demon.

Friday: I tried again unsuccessfully to wake when Aachan Bung got up to pray. We woke at 7am. We had a nice breakfast of boiled eggs, rice, cabbage, and chicken soup. They had killed a chicken especially for us. We talked to pastor Neeron about what had happened. We gave him a pocketknife and prayed for him. We then prayed for the villagers. The same guy rolled over and cried again. A lady was healed and had her hearing restored. Bung gave me another Thai massage. We had a group photo and departed.

Along the trail to Baan Pui a lady had been waiting for us and asked us to pray for her. We stopped for lunch and a shower at the Christian's house in Baan Pui again (1Mile). I took my shower last and saw a brown snake, but couldn't catch it. We then prayed for many people there. The spirit overcame many people. There was healing and demons released. I brought some passion fruit for the trip. We stopped at the little shop, which was now restocked, and the girls bought a lot of snacks. We walked with the children up the hill but couldn't keep up with them. We walked 2.22 miles from Giew Luk into Baan Mai Hok Kii (for a total of 13.3 miles).

There hasn't been a pastor at this church for several years. This is a very poor village with lots of demonic oppression. No one smiles, the children are like zombies. Only about 6 people are Christian from the original 20 families who were. We were offered bamboo shoots with rice to supplement the noodles, which I am now very sick of. We have lost all of our energy. We worshipped God for an hour and then people started coming into the church. They didn't know any songs so Tongkham taught them a simple one. We sang a couple more songs. Bung explained the robot skit. Young Gii gave her testimony. I then preached on a brief history of the world, Adam/Eve, the flood, tower of Babel, Jesus, demons, and why the poeple should become Christian. Half way through a geko landed in front of me and made some people jump. When I began there were about 60 people, but when I finished only about 20 people were left. I gave an altar call but no one came. We asked for people to come forward for prayer. Many people came, but not sure if anyone was healed. We went to sleep. It was a very cold night. About 3am most of the team felt fear, had nightmares or saw demons, except me.

Saturday: In the morning we prayed for several people including a little girl who the demons had made mute. We then hopped on the back of a 4wheel drive and rode to the town of Hot for 600B. Bung walked home. Brigitte lent me her worship CD player for the trip back. Aachan Vet met us in Hot and we bought sodas and chips at the gas station. We arrived in ChaingMai at 12:00. Sheila and I then began having stomach and headache problems. Western GH let Sheila and I use 2 of their rooms for a shower and a rest until people returned about 2:30. We had dinner at 5:30 and had a sharing time at 6:30. The leaders prayed for me and my fever broke. The stomach problems remained for another day. During the trip there was not a single complaint, just laughing, bonding, unity, and fellowship. Unfortunately, we were not able to buy any pigs so that we could get our single women married off. Just kidding.

THE END

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