Another Awesome Miracle!

[Jeremy Gable]

Hi everyone!

 

Actually, this report is a few weeks out of date.  It's been really tough to find the time to write lately.

 

 A few weeks ago I was in town in the lowlands in order to help with some patients we had sent down there from our clinic.  While I was taking care of things for the patients, I was going to bed one night and felt impressed that I should take opportunity to try to witness to the breast cancer patient, Idlina, and her family (she had her daughter Tursina, granddaughter Lurna, and great-granddaughter (don't remember her name) there, and her great granddaughter looks to be around middle to late teens!) in pelawan, because of Idlina's upcoming surgery.  I tried to come up with a way to present to them God's plan of salvation for humanity through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, but without knowing how aware they may or may not be of the sinfulness of humanity (and thus their own sins), I wasn't sure how to go about it.  That's when it came to me to just start at the beginning.  So as I lay there in bed, I began practicing telling the story of creation in my head in pelawan.  As I approached the fall of Adam and Eve, I realized that I needed to introduce who Satan was, so I then practiced telling the origins of Satan as Lucifer the highest of the angels who rebelled against God before the creation of the world.  About the time I figured out how to tell his part of the story, I fell asleep. 

 

When I got to the hospital the next day, I prayed for God to help me utilize the pelawan words I know so that I could tell the story, and to help them understand the points I was trying to make.  Then I went in, and asked if they would like to hear a story, which they did.  So I launched into it.  As I began to tell the story, several of the other people in the room (all of whom were Pelawan, I think) gathered around to listen as well.  I was able to tell the vast majority of the story without failing for a word.  A few times along the way, I needed to use a word I didn't know, and they helped me to find the right word (finding the right words in this way is often very funny and is an EXCELENT way to build relationships with the people).  All through the story, they seemed to understand everything I was saying (though I'm quite certain I wasn't always using propper grammar).  Idlina's granddaughter, Lurna, seemed to have heard some of it before, because she would fill in small pieces of information for me in various places where I had left out some small detail, or where I was struggling to express an idea.  I told them about the creation of the earth and the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan who had made himself look like the serpent.  As I attempted to move from there to the plan of salvation, I found that I didn't know the words I needed, and really struggled to find a way to discover those words.  Finally inspiration struck me, and I described the situation of a person standing next to the Tamlang River (the big mighty river that runs through our valley in the mountains), and there was lots of rain, and there was a liud (flood), and the person fell in.  People standing by saw that if he didn't get help he would die, so they reached in and pulled him out of the water.  Then I asked for the word to describe pulling him out of the water.  As they answered me, it seemed to me that the word they used applies specifically to pulling someone from a flood.  So I said, "Ok, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit even though God had said, 'Don't eat it,' that was sin.  After they ate it and sinned, Jesus was sad because He knew that they would die.  But He didn't want them to die.  So He said to God, 'Father, we need to pull them out of their liud et kesala'an (flood of sin) or they'll die.'"  It took a long time and lots of acting to figure out that needed word, so when I said this part about pulling them from their "flood of sin," everyone got a big kick out of the analogy, but they all seemed to understand, and quickly agreed.  I then described how man could be saved from sin by Jesus dying instead of us, but that it only works if we give our lives to Him, so that He can give His life to us.  I also said that once we do that, we might still die, but when Jesus comes back to earth from Heaven, all the Christians who gave their lives to Jesus, and then died, would be alive again and would live with Jesus forever.  As I finished this last part, I looked around at people's faces.  The granddaughter, Lurna, was nodding her head in agreement.  Neither Idlina or her daughter Tursina were looking at me, but both looked very deep in thought.  I then prayed with them, asking again for God to help them to understand everything and to clear up any confusion they might have due to my language deficiancies.  We chatted a bit more, and then I had to leave to take care of some other things.

 

The next day, they asked me for another story, but I didn't think I had one that I could tell in Pelawan, so I said I didn't have a story for them.  I sat there for a while and chatted lightly, then suddenly remembered Nurgina's story, and felt impressed to tell it (I wrote about Nurgina's story before.  If you haven't read it yet, go back through previous posts and read up on it.  It's well worth it!).  So after a while, I told them I had another story for them, and that I had forgotten it until just then.  Once again, as I began to tell the story, all the other patients in the room gathered around to listen (those who were able to get out of bed, anyway).  It was a much more difficult story to tell, but again, with God's help I got through it, and they seemed to understand it.  I drew attention to the fact that going to the siburan (big drinking party in honor of the pelawan "rice god") was bad, and that as soon as she found out that it was a siburan and not a wedding, she should have left, but she didn't.  Because she didn't leave when she should have, it was a sin, and because she had sinned Satan was able to do what he did.  But when Nurgina's mother prayed for forgiveness the first time, then Jesus gave Nurgina her breath back so that she wouldn't die (she had stopped breathing for about a half hour before that prayer).  Then two days later when Nurgina's mother prayed again for forgiveness, Jesus himself told Satan to leave and Satan had to leave, and Nurgina woke up.  I tried to emphasize that the only thing that worked to help Nurgina was praying to God.  They were all very interrested in the story, amazed each time when God acted to help Nurgina, both when He gave her breath back, and when He woke her up.  At the end of this story, all of Idlina's family and several of the other patients in the room were quiet and looked very thoughtful.  Again I closed with prayer.  Just about that time someone came into the room with a cart with food which they gave to the patients and their families, so I excused myself to go eat as well.

 

Both times that I was telling a story, one of the people who came near to listen was a guy who looked like he might be in his 50's.  He had also helped me to find the right words when I needed them.  After the first story was over with, he went back to his wife's bed, but when I went to leave, he stopped me before the door and shook my hand, thanking me a couple times for the story, telling me that he liked it.  He also came close to listen to Nurgina's story.  When I was in there again on Sabbath, Idlina's granddaughter, Lurna, met me out in the hall, and told me that the guy had a question for me.  So I went in to talk to him, and he handed me a note that said, "bloodtype AB+."  He said his wife was sick and needed that blood, and asked if I could help.  I asked what was wrong with her and he said he didn't know, then said, "maysakit dugu' ye," ("her blood hurts" or "her blood is sick").  I told him I didn't know if I could help or not, but I would radio Kemantian and ask.  I also asked the nurses what was wrong with her, and they said that she had a very low hemaglobin count (I think it was 8.3).  So I called our nurse, Wendy, and we set about trying to find someone who could donate blood.  I went back and told the guy he needed to check all his family members and anyone nearby first.  He said that they had already had everyone near him checked, and none of them could donate.  So I relayed this info to Wendy, and she kept looking for donors in Kemantian.  Unfortunately, the only people she could find who had AB blood were Lebin (the wife of the church's head lay-pastor, Seblitu.)  She was the other patient I had gone down to help take care of who had just been discharged from the hospital a couple days before, but who still had malaria and typhoid fever. Also her younger sister (Meyli) and their mother are type AB+ but Meyli is too young, and their mother smokes and is always sickly.  Even though people with AB blood can receive any type of blood, the hospitals in this country will not use any other type of blood except an exact match, although they don't generall worry at all about RH factor.  We're not sure why they do things this way, but they do and we've never been able to convince them to do it differently.  This all took place on Sabbath, so I went over to the SDA church in Brook's Point, and looked for blood donors there.  They said they didn't know of any members who had AB blood, but suggested I go talk to Al, a Filipino Advenstis who's a friend of ours and has helped this project many times in many ways.  So I went to Al's house (riding our project motorcycle with 2 filipino men from the church riding behind me) and told him the situation.  He said he'd start scouting around and see what he could find.  That evening, he told me that he found someone who has donated before who has AB blood, but that the guy was not around at the moment, and that he would check back the next day.

 

The next day, as I was walking to the hospital, I passed a guy riding his bike down the street, and he called to me (in perfect American English).  So I stopped to talk to him, and found out that he's an American-Filipino (American father, Filipino mother) who was born in the Philippines and lived there until he was 2, then his family moved to the States which was where he grew up.  Four years ago he had come back to the Philippines as a tourist to "find the piece of his life that was missing," and, being a Philippine citizen by birth, he decided he liked it so much he would just stay.  We chatted for a while, and as we were about to part ways, I asked him what his bloodtype was.  When he said he had type A, I responded, "Rats!  I was hoping you might have AB because there's a lady in the hospital who needs type AB blood."  He said there's another American who lives in a village called Maasin (which means "salty") about half an hour north of Brook's Point (this other American's name is Wayne) and he has type AB blood.  I took down the information and asked him for his own phone number, in case I needed to reach him.  After I had all the information written down, we parted and I went to the hospital.

 

That evening, I checked back with Al and found out that the guy he was waiting for was not around because he had gone to Puerto Princessa (at the north end of the island) the previous day.  So I told Al about this person, Wayne, and wrote a note for Al to text to Domiano (the American-Filipino), asking if he would ask his friend Wayne if Wayne would be willing to donate to help save this woman's life.  Al took the note and said he would text text message him as soon as he was able to get his phone back from his friend who had borrowed it.

 

From the time I first found out about this woman's need for blood, I was praying for her, as had Wendy (I don't remember if I sent out a prayer request for any of you to pray for her as well or not).  The next morning, Al came by the house and told me that Domiano had texted him back and said, "Wayne's mother told me that Wayne has gone to Puerto or Manila to get papers to apply for dual citizenship and won't be back until July 11th," (that was about a week away at the time).  I was very disappointed to hear this news.  I told Al that I might just buy blood for the woman and pay for it myself, but not tell her that it was purchased, but would pray about it first.  I knew that since this patient had not come to us before going to the hospital, I would not be allowed to pay for it with clinic money, especially since the clinic budget is currently very low.  Of course, if the patient knew that it was purchased by me, this would undermine the very reason why have the policy about them coming to us first.  But I figured if they didn't know that it was purchased, and just thought it was a donor, then there wouldn't be any harm.  Al gave me some advice on how to go about it so that he would have a chance to haggle the price down as much as possible first.  I said I wouldn't do anything until he had a chance to do what he could. 

 

When I went back to the hospital a little later to see off Danny, Idlina, Tursina, and Lurna (Danny (another SM) was taking them to Puerto Princessa for Idlina's breast cancer surgery), Lurna told me that the lady who needed blood was suddenly much better and was now able to go home!!  Praise God!!  A short while later, the husband of the woman came out to me and shook my hand, saying, "Selamat banar dimu! [thanks very much to you!]  Selamat ki Empu'! [Thanks to God!]  Selamat ki Empu'!  Selamat banar dimu!"  I told him that lots of people had been praying for him and his wife, and that Jesus had made her strong again.  He quickly agreed and said, "Selamat ki Empu'!  Selamat ki Empu' Isus! [Thanks to Lord Jesus!]  Selamat banar! [Thank you very much!]" and shook my hand again several more times, then excused himself to go back to his wife.  I found it very interresting that after we had done everything we were able to do, and had tried every option that was available to us, after the very last option had failed, God stepped in and healed her!

 

While I was sitting there talking with Idlina and her family while they were waiting for the shuttle to Puerto, Lurna said they wanted some missionaries to come to their village as well.  At first I had thought she said that there were already missionaries in her village, which seemed to explain how she already knew some things about the creation story.  When I asked what church, she said, "Samat ikew [Like you]."  I asked, "Adbintista [Adventist?]" to which she said yes.  This confused me for a moment until I figured out that she was saying they WANTED some SDA missionaries at her village.  She also said that her daughter (Idlina's great-granddaughter who had been there at the hospital as well) wants to come to our school in Kemantian.  Lurna said they don't have any money for tuition though because her husband takes most of their money and spends it on booze and drinks it all up.  She said he also becomes meyseg [pronounced: "my sugg"] (could be translated: mean, aggressive, nasty, bad tempered, or just generally "not a nice person") when he drinks.  I told her that they don't need money for tuition, and that she only needs to bring food.  So it seems that God really used the whole situation with Idlina and the woman who needed blood to spread the knowledge of Him and His love for people and His power!

 

These are the types of wonders that prove God's existence, and just as importantly, just how much He loves us and cares for us!  For all of you who have supported this mission (financial, prayer, or whatever), these are the fruits of your sacrifice.  And just think, the rewards waiting for you in heaven are MUCH greater than these!

 

Concerning my fundraising totals, the last information I received is that my re-launching goal for this next year is COMPLETE!!!  And if that wasn't enough, I'm more than half way to meeting the required cost for me to attend the re-entry program at AFM upon my return to the States!  Thank you all VERY MUCH for your sacrifices, and your generous support.  You have my deepest gratitude, and the eternal thanks of everyone whose lives have been and will be forever blessed because you sacrificed!

 

My time is up for this week, so that's it for this letter.  May God bless you all richly!

 

 

With love in Christ,

Jeremy Gable

 

p.s. Keep praying for Idlina and her family.  We're still waiting for the biopsy on her tumor, and once that comes back, she still has surgery ahead of her.  She and her family are still very much in need of your prayers.