APR

21979

Z)ke Sento'd Solourning^d in Tjkailand

"By faith they sojourned In the land....

looking forward to a city which has foundations,

whose builder and maker Is God."
HEB. 11:8-10

Alan and Janet Bemo

Box 180

Chiangmai, Thailand

Jan. - March 1979

Dear Precious Brethren,

How do you put three months of

spiritually exciting events into ten minutes

reading? I've really done you, our co-workers, an injustice by not writing for so
long. We have just been so busy.

There have been two baptisms in the Chiangmai Chinese Church recently.
One, a widow
twice over with a little girl of six, Mrs. Mao.
I met her for the first time four years
ago in a remote mountain village (Her first husband had just been killed.
Both husbands
were soldiers and in the Chinese Irregular Army).
Robert and I visited with her in the
little bamboo school building where she was the only teacher. We witnessed to her and gave
her a Bible.

A few days later she saw us baptize a Lisu ladv and said the two of them be-

Brother Jyou was baptized February l8th.

was led

to the Lord

Church, the Lees.

by the

main family in

He (OUR TRUCK AFTER PASSIWG OVER A "BRIDGE")

the

He is a businessman whose family is still in Burma. He wants to get es

tablished in Thailand and said to me right after his baptism in a beautiful mountain stream
near here, "I want to do whateverlcan to help our poor Chinese brethren in the mountains."
The Church in Chiangmai is growing steadily.

These brethren have located and rented a

place and now all 20 chairs are filled each Sunday and they are ready to buy 10 more.
The Lord's Kingdom

is growing

in the

mountains, too.

We went

to BingLong

Preacher Shen teaches and preaches for a special Christmas meeting from Dec. 22-211.
called

on every Christian

(about 10 families).
Janet and I spoke.

and prospective

Christian

in all the

little villages

where

We
around

We had meetings every morning, noon and evening where Brother Shen,
However, I was sick, sicker than

I have ever been with fever -

that

it was all I could do to get from house to house and to speak.

I spent all in-between
times in bed and couldn't even enjoy the fatted pig that was killed especially for a
Janet had to drive most of the way there and back, seven hours each way
Christmas feast.
In spite of our weakness God was as ever',
on the worst road I have ever seen in my life.
strong. There were four baptisms that Christmas Sunday.
One, a lady, Mrs. Jang, who had
been slowly going blind until Brother Shen had prayed for her a month before.
She went
back.with us to see a doctor in Chiangmai and is .now completely_we.ll.
Praise-QocLfor_ the
"love" of Christian brethren.

one bridge ourselves^' 'some 'tha^

(JAWET TALKING TO AN OLD BLIND MAN IN FRONT logs lashed together for each wheel of the car
OF MR. SHEN'S OLD HOUSE.)

and we forded five streams.

But the trip is worth it.
several Thai villages, saw gorgeous scenery, government
fields.

We passed several Lisu villages,

tree planting area and opium poppy

And the community of BingLong is in a strategic point right on the border of Burma.

There are about ^00 families there and it is growing.

Pray for Brother Shen and his work

there.

January and February were carrot harvest months,

at least for the people of Mipo Vil

lage. Most people in Thailand have never heard of carrots much less know how to eat them,
but once again God was ever working in His mysterious way.
The Christians in Mipo wanted
to stop growing opium so Ronnie Morse gave them some carrot seed and encouraged them to grow
it for their cash crop instead. Since it was only the Christians growing carrots last year
and there weren't that many, they were able to sell them for a pretty good price to foreign
ers who were willing to pay dearly for them.
They even made more money than they had on
opium.
However, when the non-Christians saw that, they wanted to get in on the act, too,
so this year the market was suddenly flooded with carrots. How the Christians were worried.

A Lisu man had gone down with a load of carrots mid-January and he couldn't even sell enough
to pay for the truck which had hauled them for Him. If you are a farmer you know how these
men felt-their one cash crop of the year was useless!
One man cried.
They were sorely
discouraged.
In ten days their carrots would be too big and stringy to sell.
The tops
were already starting to dry.
What a sorry lot of Christians there were to greet us on
that Chinese Hew Year in late January.
We tried to encourage them, saying, "Where's your
faith? Don't you know God will provide a market for His Children?" But they weren't sure.
Yes, God had taken special care of them last year, but this year they had 6000 pounds of
carrots and the markets were already flooded. What could God do about that? "Will you try
Him? Just try Him.
He's answered so many of your problems before, this won't be any dif
ferent. He specializes in the impossible." Slowly they came aroimd. What could they lose?
Okay, they would pick their carrots and send them to market, IF I would go down first and
check and see if there was any market.
I said "Ho, they must trust in the Lord, there
would be a market and I would come back on Tuesday (giving them two days to pick carrots,

by faith) to haul them all to market."

And, Boy, did we pray together.

I'm afraid my

faith wasn't as strong as it should have been either. Should I have put them out on a limb
like that? I was rather trembly for those two days.
Just out of curiosity I went to sev
eral places, like hospitals and grocer stores to see if they were interested in buying
carrots and the answer was always "Ho". I got tremblierl I went back up to Mipo at the ap
pointed time.
They had pulled every carrot by faith, now it was entirely up to God.
We

got in late that night, had prayer and went to bed.

er, and went to market.

Jie_bought them a11

Early next morning, we again had pray

We picked up a girl who said she knew of a man who might buy them.

in.fifte.en minutes fnr'?.fiFThaht p kilo (6(^), the best -prLce anyone has

gotten for them this year.

Besides this-, he T?as a Chinese man and they could talk to him

to see if he wanted any more carrots

praised God right then and there!

or anything else that they could bring him.

They

Later these simple mountain men who didn't even know how

to divide the money up after they were paid, hired their own trucks to bring the rest of
their carrots to market.
They have come a long way from opitim-growing and trusting other
men to do their marketing.

It is because of the love of God and their faith in Him.

During my trips to the mountains I have been stopped four times by soldiers to have
everything and everyone in my truck searched.
They were looking for opium and found it
hard to imagine a foreigner could be interested in hauling carrots that were hardly worth
anything.

They had never even seen a carrot before.

I was invited to a village by a man who is a recent refugee from Red China and very
interested in Christianity.
I stayed in his home one night and prepared to go back a few
days later with my family to spend Chinese Hew Year and witness to the village.
However,
two days before we were to go back

he came to Chiangmai to tell me that he didn't think we

should come at least not right now.

He said that I was suspected of being either
an
opium buyer or a spy for the U.H., there to find out who was growing opim.
Also, there
were different political factions in the village.

This man was told that he was not trusted

yet, being a recent arrival from Red China living among mostly Kwo Ming Dan (nationalist
Chinese related very closely to Taiwan) and that he had no place inviting anyone to the
village.

I did meet a Christian while

in the village

who invited me

to come

see him.

Since he is an old-timer in the village I am hoping to make another attempt to go to this

village in a couple of months.
I don't feel that I am in any danger at all, but these are
all complicated places.

Some have asked how the current Vietnam situation has affected us.
Everyone here is
nervous about the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam and that of Vietnam by China (although

they have withdrawn now).

It was within ^0 miles

question is, what if China and Russia get into it?

of our border on the east.

The big

We are in the middle. So far it doesn't

look like Thailand is going to be affected in any way for some time, but circumstances keep
us on our toes which is probably good.

It seems to me we Americans have put ourselves in a dangerous position by recognizing

Red China.
We have heard from the refugees themselves that they have less human rights
there than in any country in the world of history.
Ho one would choose to be a citizen of
that government and most consider themselves citizens of the Republic of China (Taiwan) as

soon as they escape.

There are tens of thousands

who have fled

from Red China

here in

Southeast Asia.
Pray for them that they may all get a chance to hear the Good News of the
Perfect Government of Heaven with a Loving and Wise Ruler, and a Son who can release them
from all the evil they have ever had.

Mom (Mrs. Dittemore) arrived here December li4th.

The children,

school.

especially Nathan and Sarah,

It was wonderful having

had so much fun with her while

her here.

we were off to

She taught a i|-hour Bible College Course 2 days a week for many of the

young mis

sionaries here.
She had to leave on February 26th on her tourist visa and we are all sure
missing her.
Lord willing, she will come back in September on a Non-Immigrant visa and

stay awhile.
She is in Taiwan now working on her Chinese radio programs for two months.
Her book is now out "He Leadeth Me-iiO Years In Asia".
It has helped to inspire our whole
family and we recommend it highly.
It can be ordered from ^David Mehrens, I4O6 N. Pearl,
Joplin, Mo., 6I480I. Many have asked about it.
Since Grandma has left, Sarah and Nathan are now in Thai Nursery School and seeming
-to enjoy il alLhouyh th^y--carr^trund^TSt^Trd a^thrrrg:
However, ^1y eftei^tlrree-^days^they"
are saying their niimbers from 1-10 In Tha^andhave learned to write the first letter of
the alphabet. They'll probably pass us up in no time.

We have a slide program available on "Evangelism In Northern Thailand Among The

Chinese" and will soon have a second one ready on "Social Work"and Evangelism in Northern
Thailand". Please write to Linda Goerke or my father, Doug Bemo, 527 Anthony St., Muskogee
Okla. 7141401 concerning these slide programs if you would like to use them.
I wish all

of you could have

an opportunity to go with me

on some

of these trips.

Don't all come at once though.

I will try to do a better job at providing an arm-chair
trip for you by these monthly letters. We appreciate you and your prayers for this work so
much.
Our prayer is "...that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding, to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to
him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."(Col. 1:9,10)
In Jesus, .

Formosa Christian Mission

NON-PROFIT

Mr. & Mrs. Doug Bemo

ORGANIZATION
U.S. POSTAGE PAID

527 Anthony
Muskogee, Ckla. 7^1401

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA
PERMIT NO. 15

Return Requested
Horizons

Box 177

Kempton, Ind. 460^9

1 1 i9?9

ZJke t^emo^d SoJ-ournin^d in Tjltailand

"By faith they sojourned in the iand....
looking forward to a city which has foundations,
whose builder and maker is God."
HEB. 11:8-10

VJ

, - April,
A .,
,
haroh
1979

Alan
and Janet Bemo
Box iso
Chiangmai, Thailand

Dear Precious Friends in the Lord,

As

write this

letter I

am s i t -

ting beside a very sick baby in the

hospital and I am wet.

This is the
first day of the
Thai New Year and
for

the first three days

everyone

is throwing water on everyone else,

whether
walking, riding or driving. Janet and I had
water thrown on us on the way to the hospit

al this morning.
This is called the Water
Festival and hopefully is the end of the
"unrainy" season.
Everyone is having a lot
of fun.
As to why they celebrate In this
way,
I*ve heard several explanations from
something to do with giants and demons to a
simple desire to use the pouring water to
welcome the rainy season and
wish
"good
luck" for the new year.
It is quite a coin
cidence that i t rained very hard this morn
ing for the first time in six months.
We
are having a drought here.
I want to tell
you why I am baby-sitting here,
too,
in a
minute

(THE LEES BEFORE THEIR LITTLE

BOi WAS BORN)

One big problem here is that there are not enough trained Christians to
go around. If I were five people I oould not do all the things I am asked
to do or see to do.

train others also,

The answer is to train faithful men who will be able to

(II Tim. 2:2).

here in Chiangmai to do this.

There are two very good programs going on

One is C.B.I, (Chiangmai

Bible

Institute)

which is a long terra Bible College. This is good for those who have the time
to study several months or years. Then there is the short term School which

is held every year Just before the busy planting time starts for those who
cannot be gone from home too long at a time.
This year I was privileged to
participate in the short-term school.
There were about forty Lisu students
and I taught the epistle of James to the advanced half from 8:00-9-00 in the
mornings.
They studied seven hours a day for three weeks,
Robert Morse
translated into Lisu for me,
I*m hoping we can have a school like this for
the Chinese next year.

Right after one of these classes on March 27th, I made the last of three
trips to BingLong to take some building materials to our Chinese Preacher
there.
Doug Umbanhouwer, a fellow missionary and beloved brother went with
me to

help drive as it is

a hard drive and

I was not staying

for several

days as usual but driving right back.

On Saturday, March 2^th, a Chinese couple arrived at our house saying

that they and their four children were wanting to move in with us because
they were out of rice.
They also said they wanted to become Christians, but
after talking with them awhile wo found out they were from BASA where the
main man is the

worst kind of

'-'rice'Christian" and

were beginning

to see

that they only said this to get rice.

It so happened that when they came
another missionary couple,
Trish and Albert Gartner,
were at our house and
they had had several gunny sacks of rice given to them to give
to hungry
people.
With the problem God had provided the answer.
However,
we told
them i t was a

"loan" from God and

at their f i r s t rice harvest

i t was to be

paid back so that it could be used to help other hungry people.

We told
them of God*s love and the love He gives His servants and that was why this
rice was available at all, but they must wait to become Christians when they
were ready to really believe in Him and accept His Son as their Saviour.
Then the Gartners and we drove these Chinese with their two bags of rice to
the trail which leads to their village - a thirty minute walk.
I won*t be
surprised if they do respond to God*s love and accept His Son as their Sav
ior, but they need our prayers as this is a noted "wicked" village.

A few days later a Brother Wang

from the Blng-Long Church came asking us

to come with him back to his village because there was a witch in the Church

who was putting hexes

on several people in Church.

He told such

a story

that with today's interest in demon activity it would probably make a best
seller in print. Briefly though, this witch had killed four of her previous

husbands with spells and her present one, though both professed to be
Christians, had run away to a Buddhist monastery for protection.
She was
supposed to be able to simply spit on the ground in the path of a victim and
he would come down with diarrhea or constipation after walking over it. One
of her tricks was to disappear out of a field.
After prayer and fasting,
Robert and I went with Mr. Wang at noon on Saturday, March 31st.
We stayed
up late talking to Brother Shen, the preacher, about it.
He had been wor
ried about the problem a year previously,
but an older preacher from Singa
pore had Just advised him to ignore it and the problem would go away.
So
instead of nipping it at the bud with the power of Jesus' blood, it had been
allowed to grow all out of proportion till it was tearing the church apart.
After talking to several people we got a lot better picture of what was go
ing on. The "witch", Mrs. He, iadmitted she had practiced witchcraft as had
her mother before her.
She denied any recent practice of witchcraft since
she had become a Christian, but said she realized that the devil still might

have some kind of claim in her life.

We found that Mr. Wang (the tale-bear

er) though, was definitely involved in witchcraft.

As he said, "You have to

fight fire with fire."

When he thought this woman had "sent a demon to his
house", he countered the attack by hiring a
Buddhist monk for Baht 3000

(#75) to send an evil spirit to the Christian couple who were taking care of

Mrs. He in their home,

(she is very elderly now), so that they would get a
divorce.
That couple had a charm in their house to keep evil spirits away.
Also another

Christian family had taken their sick little boy to a medium

for healing who was supposed to have such powers.
So, basically, it seemed
that many in the Church were combining their old lives with the new and had
never been taught what God says about dealing in these things.
At the Sun
day meeting, after singing and the Lord's Supper, I spoke for an hour
from
about 20 passages in the Old and New Testaments that show we are to have
nothing to do with witchcraft.
All ^o practice will be cut off.
God ab
hors any of His people going to a witch or medium for any kind of help.
I
suggested a house-cleaning like that of Acts 19^19 end a repenting of all
ideas of seeking the assistance of the devil,
his demons,
or his servants.
Robert then spoke for an hour about the Christian's authority and power
thatthere is-no thinga demon or-witchcan dro-to-him, and thatthe Holy
Spirit was working already and later Mr. Wang confessed his sins.
He said
he was very ashamed of his conduct and asked God's forgiveness with prayer
anf fasting for three days.
This life here in Thailand

is one of battles.

This is a

battlefront.

There are constant crises.

The fighting is fierce and the devil is cunning
in psychological warfare. He says, "What if...." But Jesus said, "....Come

to me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest."
When the bat
tle is raging and coming from every side, God gives rest.
And He always
wins I
It's great to be on the winning side in war.
"We are more than con
querors through Him that loved us". And so we are happy to be here.
As J.
Russel Morse says, "without the battle there is no victoryI"
At the first of April, school closed for three weeks for the kids and our

language school let out for a month. The Thai school year starts in May. I
had planned to work with five Christians on Mipo mountain to help them start
a peach and plum orchard.

be fenced in.

They said the first problem was that it needed to

So during this break,

while,they are so

busy planting their

rice, we decided to go camping for three weeks and build the fence and an
irrigation system. The Cartners went with us. We left Chiangmai on Monday,
April 2nd. Our camp was in a beautiful little high valley 45 minutes walk

from Mipo Village. This valley had been farmed ten years previously and had
been found to be too cold for rice. It had very few big trees.
We cleared
and fenced in a small field about 85* x 175'*

It was hard work but the sort

of thing I enjoy doing.

We had hoped that we would have a chance to do a
lot of spiritual teaching while there also and we were not disappointed. We
decided to have Resurrection Sunday a week early in this village and all
walked up to Mipo that morning.
The children and Cartners put on an Easter
Pageant with me as Narrator.
We had scenes of the Birth, Teaching, Death
and Resurrection of Jesus in different parts of the village.
Afterward* we
had the Lord's Supper together and two men decided to be baptized.
We had
been working with and praying for these two men for a long time: Mr. Mwo
and Mr. Jang.

You might remember that Mr. Jang was one

of two families who

burned his spirit shelf when Robert and I preached in his village last Octo
ber. Now he had moved to Mipo, which gave us further opportunity to teach

.
him.

\m 1 1 i979

As I taught, Mr. Mwo translated everything into Lisu.

walked 7-8 hours from his Lisu village

A Llsu man had

to ask us to come and

pray with him

and his family and to help them tear down their spirit shelf

Before going

to the baptismal service, about thirty of us including the children ate ten
watermelons brought for the occasion, then we went to baptize the two men in
Brother Mwo's fish pond.
The women had prepared a meal upon our return.
There were Christians from four villages at this get-together and I think it
was the first of its kind in Mipo Village.
Fellowship with the Family of
God is Ohl so sweet. After eating we talked of Brother Jang*s problems: 1.
He was an opium addict.
2. He didn't have his own house but lived in a
dormitory type house with government workmen, all planting trees.
These
people were all the dregs of society, drinking and smoking opium and it was
a difficult environment for him to get off drugs and a terrible environment
for his three children. 3* He had some kind of lung trouble, probably T.B.
and
The most serious problem - the smallest of his three children, a 15
month boy was deathly ill. His mother had died a year before.
That day we
encouraged him and his family to come.back to Chiangmai with us on the next
Wednesday to help him get over his opium habit and get the baby inthe hos
pital. Then the brethren there said they would help him build his own house

when he got back.

With this settled, some of us loaded up in our truck

took off to He Bo De to take down the Lisu family's spirit shelf

and

and hold a

service. They were a family of eight and each of them had spirit strings on
their body. Getting rid of all this is no light thing and must be done with
much prayer and teaching. Having smashed the spirit shelf and burned every

thing else, the family said they wanted to be baptized the next day, and we
rejoiced. So after taking everybody back to their own villages, Albert and
I walked down the steep mountain path by moonlight to our camp.

The wives

and children had gone down earlier in the afternoon.

I had planned to go back up to take the Lisu preacher from the lower vil
lage and some of the other Lisu Christians to He Bo De for the baptism,
around eight the next morning. However at 6:30 A.M., a Christian came run

ning down for us saying that Brother Lee's wife (Upper Village), had been in
labor all night and couldn't seem to have her baby.
They wondered if I

might have some medicine to help her and if not to take her to Chiangmai.

didn't have any medicine like that and Chiangmai was a long trip for a lady
in labor, so we prayed right there that she would have her baby safely be
fore I got to the village if it was the Lord's Will.
We practically ran up
the trail and arrived there in thirty minutes.

Mrs. Lee had given birth to

a fine healthy boyI God answers prayer. Mr. Lee had previously lost a wife
and two children so you can imagine fjo^w worried he was.
Now he has a wife
and a boy and a girl.

I got back to our camp about 5-00 pm. after

a wonderful baptismal

ser

vice of five Lisu and more teaching and general celebration.

To get the
fence finished by Wednesday, we worked till after dark that night and start

ed carrying our things up to the road.

having to make quite a few trips on the
5:00 P.M. that we got over to Mr. Jang's
ren. We found him very sick because he
after his baptism.
This was the third

Being a 30 minute walk one way and

steep trail, it wasn't till about
to pick up him and his three child
had decided to give up opium right
day and he was in very bad shape.

Also, his baby was in very serious shape and

had not eaten the

pablum

and

milk we had given them.

Our tank was on empty but the Lord got us to the
nearest town an hour away, only to find that the town had completely run out

of gasoline that morning.

Well, once again,

God answered prayer (that is

another long story) and we arrived in Chiangmai around midnight. I took the
baby immediately to the hospital after I let everybody off at home, and
stayed with him all night. Janet, Beth, Becky, the Cartners and I have all

taken turns staying with the baby at all times (hospital regulations).

When

_I started this letter I was sitting by thje baby's sick bed. It is n^ three
days later. I am sitting at the foot of his father's sick bed.
He was ad
mitted the next day after his son for severe T.B. and drug withdrawal. Just
two hours ago I had to tell him that his little son just died. His son died
Resurrection Sunday afternoon, April 15th, while Janet was with him and
singing "Jesus Loves Me This I Know".
His father wailed and cried when we
told hi'm but the Lord comforted him when we read the word of I Thess. 4:1318. His soil is in God's just and merciful Hands now and Brother Jang will

be caught up someday ever to be with his son and His Lord.

God, I'm glad to

be in Thailand 11 Death, where is thy sting?

We are marching to Zion, the
beautiful city of God I Brother Jang still has a bright future here with his
other two dear children and they all have hope

battle is fierce but

in the life

to come.

the victory belongs to us - God's Children.

A-men11

Happy in Jesus,
The Alan Bemo Family

The

A-men and

JUL 2 7 1979

Tjhe ^emo^d Soj,ountin^d in ZJltailand

"By faith they sojourned in the land....

looking forward to a city which has foundations,

whose builder and maker is God."
HEB.

1t:8-10

Alan and Janet Bemo

Box 180

Chiangmai, Thailand

May - June, 1979

opitjm,

he had a bad case of infectious- bronthiLus

brother who came over to see us from Taiwan, drove

hinges
- his dwelling had been broken into and everything he had (which wasn't much - blankets,

cooking utensils, a musket and most important, his

had been stolen, We^had sent him home with

^
|f

'

SJp-

clothes, but what little money he had would have to

middle of Jme, though,

the Christians

had helped

Mipo and we got to help supply the leaf roofing. He

still has his government tree-planting job making

$1.25 a day.
able to

During the year to come he should be

plant his own

tea plants and

ALAN RECEIVIMG AOJHMCTURE

next spring

a rice crop after he clears land, and that should put him well on the road to

independence.

His family is so happy in Upper Mipo and already he has won several people to the Lord.

"By

their fruits you shall know them..."

While he vras still with us, Robert and I took him on an evangelistic trip with us to four
mountain villages. Actually our main purpose for going to two villages which are close to

gether was to help a Chinese preacher set up a Children's Hostel much like Bobby Morse's, if
you know anything about that, but on a smaller scale. This Hostel will house about 30 poor
students from outlying areas around "Cha Fang" Village (Tea Place).

20 others one wholesome meal a day who live right in the village.

It will also feed about

All 50 of these especial

ly poor Chinese children will be helped with school expenses at the local Thai school and be

taught Bible daily. This Hostel is being organized by the local church and its preacher who
is completely independent from any denomination and scripturally sound.
Robert, Eugene,
Bobby and I have decided to help with the expenses of building a new building and remodeling
the old one already on the property with monthly offerings. World Vision has agreed to give
Brother Want, the preacher, feels com
monthly support for the student's monthly needs.
pelled to help the many poor people he sees there. He says that the Church must help them.

All of us see this ministry

of his as a chance too, to reach into many homes with the love
and gospel of Christ, e were there for two nights and I showed a filmstrip with a projec
tor which runs off the car battery to about 60 children and adults.
Then we went on to the
village of Meng Ma, after picking up Brother Yang, a fellow preacher on the way. I had been
feeling strangely weak and I had no appetite, so the night we went to Meng Ma I was so weak
I went right to bed in a home where the family, though they were not Christians, invited us.
Robert and Brother Yang taught people but the best I could do was to give the yoting man at
the house a tape recorder with some Christian Testimonies to play.
However, the next morn
ing I did feel up to walking out to the man's field and took some soil samples to find out
why his soy beans did not do well. There will be an open door next time I have a chance to
go there and I'm anxious to have an opportunity.

That day we drove the car on to Ching-noi (Little city) where Brother Yang has been working
with a small church for about two years.
fore but were turned back by a swollen

Actually we had tried to make

stream gs thepe

it the evening be

had just been a cloudburst.

stream was down now but we had to ford it back and forth five times,

The

each time clearing de

bris and silt carried in the roadbed by the flood.

The road took us over two mountain
ranges along the Thai-Burma border. At one point we could see far into Burma.
If I were

going to take you on an exciting^tri^thi^ i^the place Ire would~gb^

Oie of dur's^efal
passengers who had hitched a ride was carrying an old loaded Ml. Mhen I asked why? The re
sponse was, "You can never tell what might happen around here." By the way, one soldier al

ways brought his Ml6 to services while we were in Ching Moi and one day all the men took up
arms to go settle a border incident.

As it tiirned out they didn't have to fight after all.

At Ching Moi Robert and I taught to gatherings on each of the three days we were there.
They have a little chapel we met in on Stinday morning but the rest of the time we met in the

homes of the leading men. Sunday there were 9 baptisms (8 adults & 1 girl).
morning there was another 20 year old man baptized.

Then Monday

I was able to teach a man how to use an

"A" frame to make narrow sloping terraces for coffee trees he had to plant. Also, I showed
him how toplant, trim and propagate some grapes he had to set out, and gave him a book in
Chinese on how to raise fruit trees and a few prming supplies to help him out.
He had one
native peach tree on his place.

However, all this time, I kept getting weaker and weaker. When we got back to Chiang Mai
late Wednesday night, Janet told me that Beth and Becky were complaining of the same symtoms.
The next day, in the doctor's office after a blood check, he informed us we had
hepatitis. Becky's eyes were already yellow and Beth's and mine were getting there fast. A
week later, Jennie had come down with it too.
We were especially worried about Jonnie be
cause he had just gotten out of the hospital with dysentary and then had the mumps and now
this, in two weeks time. So, Janet, who 1^ years ago had pledged to care for me in sickness
and in health, took^g^ood oare of us^nd we got well amazingly-fast.
It- took-^mel-onge^r-^^y-
get over it than the kids, being a month before I could get out of bed and we still have to
be careful for a couple more months, but we thank the Lord and you for your prayers for the
miracle of oiir quick recovery. My time in bed was really good for me, so I can rejoice in
this trial.
It gave me a chance to get caught up on letters and do a lot of daily Bible
reading which I've continued.
I also read some good books and listened to some good tapes
during this time...A kind of private Revival.

Thank you.

Lord.

We're trying to be careful but I've had to make four trips to two mountain villages late
ly and we've had quite a few sick Chinese people in our home plus the Lahu grandmother com
ing off opium, but as soon as our house is empty again, we hope to take a short vacation
with oiir family and go to Bangkok to sightsee and buy some much needed Chinese Bibles and
Christian literattire and

set up a small

traveling bookstore

in our truck

to take

to all

these villages.

Our most

exciting event for this period happened while Mark and Pauline Maxey

Uncle and Aiint, missionaries to Japan),

(Janet's

and their youngest daughter, Hope, were visiting

with us on their way to the U.S. for furlough.

It was such a joy having them here and I had

planned a short trip to Mipo, the "carrot" mountain, for them while here.

We took up a Lisu

Man's rice he had ordered and paid for 200 little tea plants. 1^0 of them went to a man who
traded me ^0 little peach seedlings for them on a 3-1 trade, and ^0 of them went to the vil
lage head-man as a gift.
Mark, Hope, Jonnie and I got to the village at noon on June 2^th.
After delivering the rice to the lower village and the plants to the upper village we drove
over to the tree planting station which necessitated putting chains on the car.
We visited
a couple of Brother Jang's converts, who are now believers but not yet baptized.
The man
still has gun shot in a wound many years ago in his right shoulder and arm.
He is planning
to come to Chiangmai at the end of July for opium rehabilitation.
We taught them some more
and then we went to visit a Chinese home that again Mr. Jang led us to.
This old Chinese

grandfather had been suffering with an ulcer for ^ or 6 years and said evil spirits
were
bothering him. We prayed for him and he himself prayed.
(By the way, on a trip made since
then, he said he had been healed and his daughter and son-in-law were so impressed that they

asked many questions about Jesus and asked for a Bible.) That night Mark and I taught and
prayed for the sick. The next morning we started back to Chiang Mai with 660 Kilos of car
rots and eight people who wanted to go to Chiang Mai for one reason or another.
Just out
side Prau we were stopped at a check point. I didn't think anything about it since it hap
pened pretty often on these mountain roads. But, unknown to me, two of my riders had opium

on themi

One was a stranger we had picked up but the other was

a 60 year old woman who was

coming to Chiang Mai to our home to get off opium. Her daughter was coming with her too, to
be baptized. The police questioned us and I told him the lady was going to my home to get

off.

I told him I was a missionary ancf was rying to help people.

He asked me

if I had

ever helped people get off before and if they had stayed off.
I was able to answer yes and
point to two Christian men in my truck who were former opim addicts.
The other nonChristian man who had opium had told me he was going to the government rehabilitation center
and he told the police then that he was going to Chiang Mai with me to get off opium. Since
we don't help people unless they believe God can really help them with this problem, I didn't
quite appreciate his half-truth. However, Praise God!, the police let us all go. I rebuked
myself all the way to Chiang Mai for not being more careful about who rode in my truck and
checking if they had any drugs on them. From now on I will.
There are several foreigners
serving long terms on drug charges in Chiang Mai.
I think that is the most scared I have
been in my life although I knew that I was innocent and was on the Lord's side. Please keep
praying for us. The only way to keep completely out of trouble in this place is by not doing
anything at all, but "woe is me if I preach not the gospel.." We've got to keep working and
put it all in God's Hands.

I'm thankful Mark

didn't have

to write

his next

"One Man's

Opinion" (his monthly article in Horizons) from behind bars.

Well, let us be like Daniel.
If any must find fault with us let it be as pertains to our
faith. Let us not shrink from the Lord's work because of danger.
Let's be wise and try to
keep out of trouble but not be afraid to get involved in people's lives.
Let us pray for
one another as we battle for the Lord's Kingdom in this hostile world.

We have just witnessed a miracle.

A young Christian l8 year old boy

who has

not been to

church in Chiang Mai for about nine months became deathly ill of malarial meningitis last
week. On the morning of July 2nd the doctor told us there was still a little hope but the

next 2h hours would tell.

He was in I.C.U. with I.V.'s and oxygen and unconscious.

A con

tinual prayer chain was formed for the last 12 hours of this critical time and at 7:30 p.m.
that night seven of the Chinese brethren met around his bed to sing "God will take care of

you", read Psalms 23 and jointly prayed for him with laying on of hands.

He has steadily-

recovered since and the doctor says it started at that very time.
Last night a dear Chi
nese grandmother told him, "The Lord has brought you back from death for a reason.
We must

help you find that reason. He has a great plan for you."
is with all of us?
We have been bought back from death
He's got a great plan for us, each one.

Actually, isn't this the way it

by the Blood of Jesus Christ and
Let's find it and do it!
Happv in His Plan for us.

The Alan Bemo Family

ZJIte

Sojourning,^ in ZJhailand
"By faith they sojourned in the land....

looking forward to a city which has foundations,

whose builder and maker is God."
HEB.

Forwarding Agent:

Alan and Janet Bemo

Linda Goerke
R.R. 1,

Box 180

JULY-AUGUST, 1979

11:8-10

Chiangmai, Thailand

King City, Missouri

64463

Dear Brethren,
I am writing to you from the

hospital waiting room again.

It
seems like I have been spending a

lot of time

in the hospital lately

\
j

looking

after and praying for sick people.

I'm be-

ginning to realize how busy preachers in the

States must be in the hospital ministry too.

Here, missionaries are often ministering to

Church (God's called-out people) of

dreds,

even though it

is scattered

hunover a

wide area in different towns and villages. 1|^HB

Today an old man is being operated on for a

growth in his stomach. He is to have 80^ of Z^Hy\

his stomach removed and if it turns out to
be malignant

he may not have long

Preacher Shen's

wife

is

in

the

jX
/^\

'

-m

to live.
hospital

right now too, with a chronic blood disLse.

trAT^r-,.. .

SOW GIVIK MY HUAW3 AN I.V.

Brother Shen himself, was here last month to find out why he had low blood pressure. A
ple of weeks ago Nathan was admitted to the hospital at 10:00 P.M. after he had fallen
a broken plastic flute in his mouth.
It made two holes in his soft palate, one right
the base of his skull. He was operated on at midnight but the surgeon found no serious
age and gave him two stitches.
next morning. He is fine now.

receive minor surgery.

J
/

cou
with
thru

dam

He was under oxygen through the night and then came home the
Before that we had a new Christian come down to our house to

About a year ago he had been shot at close range with number 8 buck

shot and then been robbed of his sesame seed crop that he was taking to the plains on horse
back to sell. He had not been treated by a doctor and had healed nicely but now he was hav
ing a lot of pain in his right arm which had received most of the shot. The doctor here re
moved seven shots close to a nerve but left another 30 or so in which were imbedded very
deep. He is still carrying shot in his right side too but his am is not hurting so much
now and he can work in his fields. He had been won to the Lord by Brother Jang and had got

ten off opium because of his new faith. He and his wife, both about 28 years old, were bap
tized just before he came dovjn. They have two handsome little boys - the Chye family.
Besides these two baptisms, there have been eight others baptized into the Kingdom
lately..three in Chiangmai and five in Dagudi.
You can imagine that there was great re
joicing and the angels also rejoiced before the Father and only He knows fully the depths of
sin that they have been pulled from.

I'd like to tell you about just one of these

Mr.

Huang. He is 5^ years old and lives in a Lahu village near the Burma border with his Lisu
wife and two children and son-in-law.
He was brought to our house by his nephew (whom we
had met once in the hospital). He wanted to get off opium.
Neither of them were Christian
and we had decided we would not or COULD not help non-Christians like this linless they had
become Christians and were faithful members of their local church and were sent by the
church's recommendation.
(We had had a bad experience with one non-Christian whom Godhad
helped in his greatest hour of need when he had cried out to Him, but later did not give God

the glory for his release and is now in deeper trouble than before). But here they had come
several ho^lrs journey from their village and, as in most cases, there was no_church in their
area.
They were completely open to the gospel and I taught them for severil hours about
Jesus' love and His power to save and heal.
I explained that if he wanted to trust in
Jesus' power to heal him without any drugs we would like to help him.
But if he had no
faith he had better take his 20 year habit to the government rehabilitation center and get
the methedone treatment. He said, "I believe a little bit". On the third night of his with
drawal he was hysterical - shouting and talking incoherently with his arm flailing about. I
was alone with him and felt completely helpless.
I had given him an injection of sleeping
medicine a little earlier but it didn't seem to be having any affect.
I was worried that I

had done something wrong and in great weakness, laid my hands on him and begged God, "Lord,
helpl What am I doing here with this man? Where is your supernatural helping of this man??
I certainly can't do anything for him.
Please help!
It is only your power that can get
these people out of Satan's clutches. This is a 20 year clutch. Help!" It wasn't a minute
later the man got perfectly still, almost like death.
He slept for 12 hours straight with
out waking. When he did awake, he said, "I haven't slept like that for years. Now I really
believe." He was so excited he wanted to put his testimony in song on tape.
He still had

^^3

ij
JOMIE AND HIS CHICKENS.

BAPTISM AT DAGUDI

trouble for another

two weeks but

I only gave him one other

sleeping pill

after that and

lots of vitamin pills. He and his nephew were baptized with one other the next week.
We
took him back to his village and spent the night with him in his humble home.
We left some

Lisu tapes and a tape player for his family to hear the gospel.
His daughter seemed very
interested in the Lord but his wife was still not sure.
Since they have never heard of God
before they will need much teaching and prayer.
Mr. Huang and we prayed for his sick son
while there and we feel his healing will be a great testimony to them of God's power and
love for them.

We experienced another miracle lately.

One of our young Christians in Chiangmai con

tracted cerebral malaria and was at the point of death in I.C.U. when eight brethren were
given permission to gather round his bed, sing a song, read a scripture and pray for him
with the laying on of hands. He was on o><ygen and fighting for every breath and the doctor

said that night would be his crises.

When we went the next morning he was sleeping calmly
without oyygen.
The doctor said he had taken a turn for the better at 8:00 P.M. the night
before. We had been there praying at 7:30 P.M. God is so goodi
Now he is completely well
and realizing that it is God who gave him back his life, he wants to give Him his life com
pletely to use in His Service.
He is sitting beside me now - his father is the one who is
being operated on.
There are many obstacles In Syau De Hai's desire to be a full-time
Christian servant so please be praying for him.

The little Chinese Church here in Chiangmai has just had a wonderful five day Seminar
with four students who have come over from. the. Evangelical Rihig? Seminary in TnUran. \>je> gii

got so much from their testimonies and Christian Spirit.

We had two meetings each evening,
one for the children and one for the adults and meetings all day on Saturday and Sunday
ranging from Personal Evangelism to how to start Youth Meetings, etc.
And this Sunday will
be the beginning

of our first youth group including

Lord's Service during these meetings.

four idio dedicated

their lives to the

Three of them are fairly new Christians

so we will

have some special training classes for them and perhaps some will attend the Bethany Bible
Institute in Bangkok which is in Chinese, when the time comes.
We have been praying des
perately that the Lord would raise up more laborers for the harvest and He has answered in a

mighty way. They all have obstacles in their paths,

though,

so please be praying fur Bro

ther Tsau, Brother Yang, Sister Liu and of course, Syau De Hai.
I have been up to Mipo a couple of times, three or four days at a time, lately.

they were

in the fields

I worked in the orchard

night, teaching God's Word to hungry listeners.

While
during the day and in God's vineyard at
They sent four men to town to the Seminar.

What a joy that place isl The three older children went too, and helped me plant liB coffee
trees and 20 apple root stocks.
We have discovered that apple can be grafted on a Havrthorn

tree native to Thailand.

variety of banana.

Now the orchard has peach,

I have just finished grafting

apple, avocado, coffee and a special

five little persimmon seedlings which are

growing in plastic sacks at my house.

I plan on setting them out at the start of the next
rainy season.
The last time I was up at the orchard I cleared about 150 meters of fence

line of thick brush and weeds. When I got back to the village that afternoon and cleaned up
I discovered three leeches on me.

Fun, fun!

These seem to be growing months all the way around, including the Bemo family. Jon has
ttirned nine, Nathan five and I, thirty-five.
Also, Janet and I have just celebrated our

l^th precious year together. Nathan has now joined the school club and is in Kindergarten.
Jon is in the kth grade, Becky in the ^th and Beth in the 7th.
Sarah keeps mommy company.

All the children have a real and practical faith in the Lord which is a real joy to us.

In

fact it was Beth's faith that got us out of a terrible rut on Mipo mountain the other day. I
thought we were stuck for a long time to come. Our wheels were in a deep rut way up to the
body of the car.
I was moaning about it when Beth said, "Let's pray about it, I know God

can get us out." Sure enough, we prayed, everyone pushed and miraculously the car got out
although I'd tried many times before with never a budge.
Praise God!
And a while ago I
heard Nathan talking to a Chinese friend whose father is in the U.N. project here. He said,
"Do you know how to pray and sing?" "No." "Well, why don't you learn?"
"I don't
know."
"Well, I'll teach you then." Isn't that beautiful? Oh, for simplicity of faith like that.

There are pages more we could write

running out.

of precious experiences in the Lord,

but paper is

We would like to add, though, that Sandy Rang, a faithful sister in Taiwan who

has long wanted to come here

to work with us

in the mountain work,

has just received her

visa and the church there is helping her with some of her finances and she is on her way.

She'll be arriving Thursday night, September 6 and early Friday morning, Robert, Sandy arid
I will be going up to ftysai on the Burmese border for two weeks' Bible teaching of Burmese
who are getting permission to come over for that time. So we're putting her right to work.
Also, we've gotten word that Tom and Kathy Love and little Trevor will be arriving October

8 from Taiwan to help for a few months, too, and Janet's mom will be arriving in November

and my dad in January, Lord willing. So the Lord is heaping blessing upon blessing. Isn't
He good to His Children?
Thank you for your prayers we can feel the power of them at
work.

Your co-workers in Thailand,

/VCJ.V
1979

T)lte (^emo^3 Soj-ourning.A in Tjkailand

'By faith they sojourned in the land....

looking forward to a city which has foundations,

whose builder and maker is God."
HEB. 11:8-10

Forwarding Agent:
Alan and Janet Bemo

Linda Goerke
R.R. 1,

Box 180

Chiangmai, Thailand

King City, Missouri 64463

September - October, 1979

Alan and Janet

Sinuang, Mr. Huang with

Alan

No Bridge

Tom, Cathy, & Trevor

Love

w
i

Alan Teaching In A Lisu Home

Spirit Straps Being Cut By Lisu Preacher

<
Dear Brethren,

Greetings in the name of Jesus who has made us whole and has given us equipment to do His
Word and combat everything the devil can throw at us. He arms us daily for the things that
will happen for that day.

A lot of things have happened since we wrote last. In our last letter we wrote that Sandy
Kang was coming from Taiwan to work here for two months. The day after she arrived we took
her on a teaching trip to Meisai while Robert Morse and I conducted a two-week school there.
This is a town right on the Thai-Burma border. Fifty students from fourteen different eth
nic groups attended. We taught in English and it was translated into Burmese.
I spoke on
"Portraits of Christ" and on the Book of James. These people were from several
areas of
S.E. Bunna and enjoyed the school so much since very few evangelists get to that area. This
was one of the most fabulous opportunities for me also.
Missionaries cannot live in Burma
today but we can teach close to the border. These people were so hungry for the Word that

they would sit for six and a half hours straight every day for two weeks as we taught. They
begged us to come back again next April'during their school break for another
two-week
school.

-After ^lis I-was-due to teaeh-two--weeks~Tn^J:h.e^ChTangmai~^ble Inst itruire^ here~ in Chiangmai

on the Book of Daniel. At three, hours a day that added up to 30 hours of instruction for

them.

This was a real enlightening experience for me, too,

since I

study into Daniel myself. Being a teacher Ikeeps'you on your toes.

had never had a

deep

During this time, Sandy

Kang worked with the Chinese preacher, BrotheTRwang and his wife in the MaeJang area. Also,
during this time, the new leader recruits kept wanting to get started studying the Word,
too, so on Wednesday and Monday evenings we started a "Survey of the Bible" Course for them
plus our daily 6:00-7:00 a.m. devotion studies.
At the end of teaching Daniel, Brother Hwang, the man we told of getting off opiiim last time
came down for a few days. He said that others in his family were interested in .becoming
Christians now and could we please come. So Sandy, Becky, Brother Tsau, Brother Yan^ and I
went home with him on Sunday, October ?. This was a time when we saw spiritual
warfare
fought with divine power to destroy strongholds. We got as far as Fang by Sunday night and
spent the night at Brother Tsau's relative's home.
That night at 8:00 P.M. we prayed fer
vently that all evil spirits would be bound and be completely driven away from the Hwangs'
house, so we could teach on neutral ground the next day. We prayed in this way so that
Mrs. Hwang, who had been opposed to the gospel before, would be free to make an honest ap
praisal of Jesus. The next morning, after getting stuck and taking an hour to dig out of

the mud, we arrive at the Hwang's house. The first thing she said to us was, "The strang
est thing happened to me last night. At around 8:00 p.m. last night I started feeling more
and more oppressed by evil spirits. I became very disturbed and upset to the point that I
didn't know what to do, and then suddenly the heavy oppression left me and I went to bed
last night in perfect peace." We told her that this was the very time that we had been do
ing spiritual battle with the forces of evil around her.

That had been

their last

and

losing attack on her before they were driven away. That day we spent several hours helping
Brother Hwang pull weeds from among his young peanut plants while Brother Yang, who is half
Lisu, taught Mrs. Hwang in Lisu. On the way up the day before I had gone over several
scriptures with him to talk to her about. These young leaders are laming fast. While he
was doing that I also got to prune Brother Hwang's lemon trees which are loaded with large
seedless lemons which you can't even buy in the Chiangmai market. I encouraged him to pick

off all the ripe lemons because I was sure he would have a good market in Chiangmai. He
picked ^3 Kilos which we later sold for him for $20, which really surprised him.
I also

taught him how to propagate his trees by airlayering so he could plant at least ten more of

these trees.
He had a small fortune in his front yard and didn't even know it. (He now
knows a buyer in Chiangmai vdio will buy all he can supply for $.^0 a Kilo.) Then that eve
ning we had a Bible Study after supper. But just after I had been teaching for fifteen

minutes three slightly intoxicated Thais walked into the house.

One

listened for one min

ute and said, "I don't believe a word you are saying. I think you are just trying to de
ceive us with your foreign religion."

Later,

we found out that

these three

had heard we

were in the village and had gotten their courage up by drinking to come and put us doxm. We
immediately recognized that these men were a part of the devil's plan to try to defeat us.

So, as one talked to the people, the other ii in our party prayed(did spiritual warefare).Iln

doing so, through Jesus' name we were able to "destroy arguments, and every proud obstacle
to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" (II Cor. 10;S).
First one man got up and left. Then a second scooted back into the shadows and within a

lew minutes the remaining man started agreeing with us and we witnessed to him.
He left
very friendly later and with our blessing. We all went outside to see him off and as he

disappeared down the trail Mrs. Hwang said, "OhI I've just got to tell you something. Ust
I dreamed that five soldiers
came to my house. They fought and two of the bad soldiers ran off, but the third was cap
tured and decided to join forces with the five good soldiers."
Then she added, "This is
Wight after I went peacefully to sleep I had a strange dream.
a spiritual level.

I really believe in Jesus and His power over

^spir
*'j.
all so and
excited
nightHwang's
it waswife
hardandto oldest
sleep. daughter
The next
it-sheIfwere
was burned
thenthat
Brother
weremorning
baptisedthein
a nearby stream. The last report is that Mr. Hwang's son-in-law is now a believer. As a

_matter-of-fact he asks his-^wife to layliei^hands on him and pray foiMiim iDcfore he go^s off
(She is the
to work because he had been troubled by evil spirits before she did this.
daughter idio was baptised.

Also, several villagers are interested now.

^en right after we got back from that trip, Tom and Kathy and their son Trevor arrived
from Taiwan. They have come here for sort of a survey trip to see about coming here to
serve the Lord. Actually, Tom was moved to come work in Thailand before I was.
The day
after they arrived we packed up and went to a nearby Christian Lahu Village overnight to
celebrate a real Thanksgiving day.

The women and children stayed the night in the Lahu

village while Tom, Brother Tsau, Jonnie and I walked for two hours to arrive after dark in

a nearby village^where a Chinese family live. I had had two contacts with them before. e

found that his wife had^left him with four hungry kids and a crop in the fields. We taught

some more the next morning and baptised Mr. Chen in the name of Jesus after we dammed up a
small stream. Afterwards we all walked back to the all Christian Lahu Village to celebrate
the harvest celebration. Ho football -- just feasting and praising God together all day!!!
(By the way Brother Chen just showed up at our house this afternoon with his youngest very
sick with measels and complications of pneumonia.
He'll have to stay here for a few days
till she gets better. Meanwhile his other three kids are up there by themselves and Brother
Chen's rice crop is cut but still in the field. I wish some of you healthy men were here-we would all go up there with him and help him get his crop in.

Then after a couple of days Tom and I took 5ahdy up to Bing Lung, where Brother Shen leads a
small congregation. God saw that we were able to join up with a group of Lisu that I knew

and traveled the first day by bus, small truck and foot (we walked for three hours up and
down mount^i^and thr^gh st^reams). We speint th^ f^rst ^ght in an alLChristian village,
Midi, where we had a simple service. The next morning we walked for three more hours and
then went an hour via motor-cycle on to Bing Lung. Tom &I returned to Chiangmai the next
day over^the worst road in the world. You would have to see it to believe it. The iiO year
old American Aimy Jeep literally pulled itself through some of the mud holes with a winch.

Sandy stayed in Bing Lung for a week to teach children every day.

TVo days after Tom and I got back all of our families went to Mipo village for a camp-out
at the orchard to work. After three days the women and kids came back to Chiangmai while
Tom and I sayed on for a total of nine days. While there we planted six lemon trees (of
the big^variety I got from Mr. Hwang's tree), got the peach orchard back in shape (cows had
broken in) and laid out another orchard plot where we plan to plant pears which Tom is
shipping fr^ Taiwan. Also, we were involved in four different teaching times in Chinese
and Lisu while there. A family in a village I had never been in sent word they wanted to
entities with evil spirits, so on that last day we were there, a Sunday, we had services in
a village close to that one (the demon worshippers in that village wouldn't let us have a

service there because they knew it would offend their evil spirits.)

was backslidden Christians.

Actually this family

After prayer and a reconfirming of faith and commitment the

Lisu preacher who came with us cut the spirit strings off them.

While on^this camping trip a most exciting thing happened to Tom and I.

One day I stayed

in the field while Tom when back to camp to start preparing our lunch. In a few minutes he
was^back to tell me there was a Thai man in our camp. As I followed Tom back I felt fear

rising up in me.

"Is he here to check up on us?", I questioned myself. "Wo! This morning

I prayed, 'God, equip us for your work this morning and then let us do your work.'" I
came sure this man v/as here for a special purpose.

be

After I saw him I was even more stire

he^was in his early 20's and obviously on heavy drugs. After visiting for a few minutes he
1^3rid went to sleep.

I went back to the field and finished the project I had been

working on. Then as I was coming back to camp again I prayed again, "Lord, you said your
strength is made perfect in our weakness. Wow, I am really weak in not knowing Thai well.
Please give me discernment and the words to say to help this young man." Back in the'camp I

started telling this young man. Si Wuang, how Jesus had helped several in these mountains
to get off opium. He was interested in this so I asked him if he was a user. He said he

was and, this being out in the open, he got out candles, spoon, and a syringe to cook
and shoot his last bit of raw opium.

shocked.

I had never seen anything like this before!

He wiped the needle on his shirt-sleeve and put it

in an old hole

up

I was

in his vein!

Oh God! Look at this guy!! Have mercy!!! He said, "Can Jesus help me?
This is my last
fix and I've come here to buy some more opium. I only have 90 baht left ($'.'50)." I said yes
and that he could go with us back to Chiangmai in three days.

He hoped and believed.

He

said he would wait for us at the Prau market between 3 and 5 P.M. the following Sunday. His
home is in Prau and we pass through it on the way home. How had he gotten to our camp? It
was in a little hidden valley at the end of a dead end trail. He was on his way to a Lahu
village to buy drugs and had taken a wrong turn. He had been traveling the dead end trail

of Satan when God had mercy on him and led him down another dead-end trail that opened up
into a trail of a whole new dimension -- the straight and narrow that leads

to life ever

lasting. He tried to get him to stay but he went off back up the trail.
Sunday we were
delayed with the services in the Lisu village and instead of arriving in Prau at between 3
and 5 it was 7:00 p.m. I said, "We were delayed doing the Lord's work. If the Lord wants
us to make connections with this Si Nuang He will delay him too.
But we left Prau that
night without seeing him. What we didn't know then was that a few minutes after we left he

showed up asking if anyone had seen us. Yes, they had and we had just left. So, determined
to get to our house he set out the next day. That day we were catching up with our chores

most of the day.

Then at night all of us went to see a movie at the

U.S. Information Ser

vice. We came home at 10:00 p.m. and Si Wuang was sitting outside our locked gate! How in
the world had he found our house? When we got him inside and questioned him we found he
had 2 Baht (10^) in his pocket and he did not know how he had gotten to our doorway.
He
did not know my name all he knew was the district of Chiangmai I lived in and this

is

the 2nd largest city of Thailand, There are at least eight homes of foreigners in this
district that I know of. Also, it so happened that Brother Hwang had showed up earlier
this day (the man I talked of earlier in this letter) with 12 Kilos of leaves to sell.
I
had wondered why that he was doing here. Wow I knew. It was just three months ago that he
had gotten off opium right here in our home and accepted the Lord. Wow he gave his testi
mony and translated for me since he speaks very good Thai.
Si Wuang said he believed God
loved him and would help him. We prayed for him and we all went to bed. This was the first

day of getting off drugs. Today is the seventh. We have been involved with seven people
getting off drugs before this man came. Since" he was a mainliner I was expecting severe
withdrawal. But, because of his faith in God's love and power he has been a special mira
cle. I still can hardly believe the easy time he's had of it with absolutely no medicine
to help. He had some discomfort but has only missed one meal and hasn't lost any either.
He had tried to break the habit twice before:.at a government clinic but both times skipped
out on the fourth day. Last night he said he was convinced that Jesus was the Christ and
wan^^to be baptised tomorrow. How he is eager to go back home to witness for Jesus^" and
work for Him. I plan to loan him a tape player and some tapes so he can use them to wit
ness ,

''

I am sorry this letter i-s^ so long again but I couldn't figure out what to leave out. Please

continue to pray for us here. There is nothing we can do on our own power or authority but

all credit goes to the Heavenly Father.

In Christ,

Formosa Christian Mission

U.S.

Mr. & Mrs. Doug Bemo

WOW-PROFIT
0R3AWIZATI0W

527 Anthony
Muskogee, Okla. 7iii401

PERMIT

WO. 15
Muskogee, Okla.
7^1^01

Return Requested

Box^l77^
Keippton, Itid. 46049

Rom, 8:16,17; John 15; II Cor. 4:16-18; Col. 1:24; I Pet. 4:12-16; 1:6-7; Acts

4:2711 and

prayed. Brother Som Phet and the truck driver, Brother Si Moon, went out in the night to
pray while we encouraged one another with these words as we could hear the headman calling
people to come to the meeting at the temple over the loudspeaker.
When we read Acts 4:1731, our new Thai brothers said, "Hey, that sounds like exactly what is happening here!"
Then someone came for us.
When we got to the temple we found 200 people gathered with a
man shouting into a microphone. They set us right in front of this mob, as the man shouted
threats against us and the new believers for letting a "foreign religion" come into the
village and for burning Buddhist materials.
After much harangueing punctuated by shouts
and shaking fists from the crowd, they allowed Brother Som Phet to say word in defense.
I
wish I could write his whole message down for you. In general, I can say it reminded me of
Peter and Paul's defenses before rulers - he used this opportunity to preach the gospel.
Finally they started yelling him down when they could not refute what he was saying (you
cannot refute the truth) and yelling "Are we going to accept what this man is saying?" The
people raised their hands shouting back, "Noll!"
We started to leave because it seemed
.Jthjere_was nothing else we could do and one man shouted. "Are we through with these people
yet?" and everyone shouted, "NO! Sit back down." That is when I seriously started thinking
that maybe the time had come to have the, privilege of dying for the Lord.
However, after

afewminutes they let Paul, Tom, Som.Phet and I go but kep^the young Christians for further
harassment. That night we heard one new four-hour old Christian tell that yelling mob that
he still intended to be a Christian. He again confirmed that intention the next morning.
We left the next afternoon with a deep burden of prayer on our hearts.
Different ones of
us took the torch of prayer and fasting for OMLong village for a week and then the truck
driver and Brother Som Phet came to tell us that there have been a reaction against the
headman and monks for treating the Christians and us so rudely.
Thai law says that there
is freedom of religion in Thailand. The Christians asked us to come back as soon as possi
ble, feeling the air is pretty well cleared now.
We are planning to go back this Saturday
with plenty of good Thai-speaking Christians to encourage and strengthen them.
We had al
ready sent down a tape recorder and plenty of good gospel tapes and songs. There are eight
other families who want to become Christians there.

Paul and Tom are learning fast.

It is such a joy to have new recruits in the army here.
What a strength! We have been strengthened so much by their courage, evangelistic spirit
and knowledge of the Bible. They truly are a contribution to the team.
These are just a few of the highlights of the past two months,
cannot fail! Whether in life or death there is victory.

Continue to pray!

Jesus

From the Battlefront, Because of Him,

"The AraTT Berno FsiiTtty
Formosa Christian Mission

NON
PROFIT
ORGANIZATION
U.S. POSTAGE

c/o Mr. & Mrs. Doug Bemo

527 Anthony

Muskogee, Oklahoma 74401

PAID
PERMIT NO .15

Muskogee, Okla.74401
Horizons

Box 177

.^

Kempton, Ind. ^^60^9

ZJke <^emo^d Soj-ourning,d in TJkailancl

November -

December 1979

Alan and Janet Bemo

\9i

Forwarding Agent:

Box 180

Linda Goerke
R.R. 1.

Chiangmai, Thailand

King City, Missouri

Alan,

Janet, Beth, Becky, Jon,

Nathan & Sarah Bemo

HOLIDAY GREETINGS FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOUR HOUSE!

Our schedule is full, as I'm sure yours is, of programs, Christmas Conventions, caroling
and all the joys of Christmas, but we'd like to stop a minute to thank the Lord and thank
all of you for the Wonderful year of 1979.
In our last letter we told about Si Nuang getting off drugs miraculously and becoming a
Christian. One of the miracles was that God saw to it that a former addict was here to help
him get off. We told him that next God would be using him to help someone else. Little did
we realize how soon that would be.
The Lord provided Si Nuang a place to stay and a job.
About one week later, he came over just to visit.
Since we had just prayed that morning
that God would not allow any pointless things happen that day,
I wondered why Si Nuang was
at our house.
our front gate

About 30 minutes later, we discovered why. Another Thai young man arrived at
with a letter of introduction written by the preacher of Prau.
It said he

had heard Si Nuang's testimony in church about a week ago back in their home town and that
he had the same problem and wanted help. Now I know why Si Nuang was here, for my Thai, is,
as ever, not too good yet.
I led the new man in and were they surprised to see each other!
These guys used to be in the same gang of hoodlums together and just the week before when Si
Nuang had given his testimony in the church in his hometown, his life had been threatened by
his former gang.
They had done many terrible things together in that town, including kill
ing at least 10 people, and he knew his threats were for real.
He ran in fear but now he
came to see that God has the power to use him to change that gang!
I asked Si Nuang to stay
at my house for a week to help Si Vichai come off opium and pray with him and teach him.
This young man had failed to get off at the government clinic and on his own but by the pow
er of God through prayer, he came off with hardly a withdrawal symptom.
Just as he got off

(a little over a week) he started working with Si Nuang and we got another patient- a
Chinese man (opium addict of over ten years) and some of his family (their little girl has
an extended stomach and needs medical attention).
The Lord has also miraculously delivered
this man and his daughter will be operated on, on Christmas Day.

We are glad to have these people in our home because we see God is helping them but I
tell you it is a strain on our family and personal life.
We appreciate your prayers
for
more love, patience and times of rest.

Mostly in this letter we want to just praise the King of Kings during this Holiday Sea
son. He has come to dwell among men and He is still here alive and working!
He is still
doing wonderful works now for people who believe. We want to give Him all the glory for the
great things He has done through 1979. This year He has given us opportunity to evangelize
in fourteen different villages.
There have been twenty baptisms.
Eight people, through
faith, have been delivered from opium addiction.
I have been privileged to teach in five
different short-term schools:

Lisu, Lahu, Burmese, Thai and Chinese.

planted and scores others grafted.

$200 worth

of seeds

120 trees have been

have been distributed

and 2200

pounds of rice given to those in need, most of which has been returned when their own fields
ripened to distribute to others.
The Lord works in many ways and we want to thank you for
your prayers, your letters of encouragement and new ideas, your financial contributions,
your boxes of cheer and your love and concern for the Chinese people. These priceless gifts
"And His Name is Wonderful,

Peace."

Counselor,

Almighty God,

Everlasting Father,

the Prince of

(Isaiah 9:6)
The Alan Bemo Family

U.S.
NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATION
PERMIT
NO. 15

Formosa Christian Mission

Mr. & Mrs. Doug Bemo

527 Anthony
Muskogee, Okla. 74401

MUSKOGEE, OKLA,
74401

Return Requested
Horizons
Box 177

Kempton, Ind. 46049