Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Well anyway. It’s been another wholly satisfying, wonderful missions trip with Wheels for the World. The heart of it bringing the good news of the gospel and performing Christ’s great edict “go and teach all nations”. The Thai people see that we care about them and care for them. And we get to tell them why we do this. And they do ask. And we tell them we do it because it pleases our God and because he 1st loved us. What a wonderful and powerful ministry Joni has started. There will be more to this blog later. Bye for now. Kyrie elison!

Friday leaving the hotel. One last picture all together. Meg Mueller in the center in the black shirt and Rachel Hetzel laughing on the far left are both staying in Thailand. Rachel lived in Chiang Mai for 2 years and will be catching up with friends for about 2 weeks. Meg came on last year’s WFTW Thailand trip with us. She was so moved that she inquired and arranged to stay after this trip and work for RICD. She quit her job as therapist and will work with RICD and the Pioneers in the jungles of northern Thailand caring for the hill tribes for about 3 months (I hope I got all that right).

My bathing beauty, Annie at the Gulf of Thailand. It was difficult leaving. It was beautiful and the people surrounding us were all so friendly.

This was one of 2 shops where we could change into our bathing suits and then shower (for a fee) afterward. The shower consisted of dipping a plastic bowl into drum of water and dowsing oneself. Crude but effective and refreshing.

Bathing hotties Sara, Rachel and Jasmine.

This is Rat Island with the double hump. It is being chased by Cat Island further out in the gulf.

Country leaders Judy and Gordon Soares in the Gulf of Thailand. We had about and hour and a half to play. It went by way too quickly.



Oooo, monkeys at a park on our way to the beach. We stopped briefly. We were warned that they like to steal. It’s only a problem if you are trying to eat. We saw one Muslim family eating lunch on the lawn. A monkey had just stolen their watermelon and the lady tried to whack it with a towel.






Karaoke at lunch. 'Nuff said.



Thursday, our last day, a fun day. We 1st went to a new state-of-the-art natural history museum on the same island where we had dinner the night before. This is the view from it. One of the things that we apparently did not capture with our camera was the practice by some of the tourists, all Muslim I believe, of using some of us in our party to pose with them in their pictures. I posed a handful of times with little teenage girls. Strange, but not unpleasant. My guess is they knew we were from the States and therefore liked us. And apparently neither one of us remembered to take other pictures so you'll just have to trust us when we say the museum was terrific.



Annie and I at dinner over the water on an island not far from our distribution. Dinner looks spicy hot doesn’t it? It was!!! I ate a lot of white rice with nibbles here and there followed by ice water.

Mechanics cutting loose.

Support people letting loose.

At the end of the day, we Wheels for the World team are in dark green shirts, the RICD and Pioneers are in light blue, people in street clothes are interpreters, and in the nurses uniforms are on-site support staff.

This man, a stroke victim, adopted his cute little niece next to me.

This is support Sara Dinwiddy giving instruction on blowing bubbles.

This is Bonnie making a very excellent funny face.

That’s me wrestling with loose and wonky foot rests. This chair had been altered before and the foot rests were not exactly compatible. Therapist Laura is giving needed advice while support Rachel is already seeing the next recipient. The guys on either side of me are with the recipient and were quite interested in how I was going to solve the problem of the foot rests interfering with front wheel rotation. This is a country where just about everyone by necessity is a handyman. Even though I solved the problem, I did so with my limited time and resources. I know that most likely these guys would have this chair in a shop the next day with a much better fix. I also embarrassed myself. This was right after I had adjusted the brakes. The allen adjustment screws were rusty, and I was using and adjustable wrench as leverage on the allen wrench. It slipped and I cut open my left thumb. Since it didn’t bleed right away, I kept working…..until my tools, and hand and chair started to get all bloody. Um, “kaa toht” - excuse me. I wiped everything down with a hand towel and sought a band aid from Bonnie Bijerre (very likely not a correct spelling of her name) our Director of Bay Area chapter of Joni and Friends. She handed me a wrinkled and soggy band aid from her apron. I didn’t ask why it was soggy. It was better than nothing (maybe).

Here is a Muslim recipient with family. All were very friendly.

This is therapist Shirley Jung (Jeff's wife) with Annie and one of their recipients.

Jeff Jung, our official distribution cameraman, using the spycam.

Annie posing with a recipient prior to wheel chair fitting. I don’t know the story. Annie and I haven't compared notes yet. I just like the picture.










This is a panorama series of the ocean view out the back of the facility. Beautiful here.
Whew! Ok, where was I before I was interrupted by computer problems, travel, and a bad cold. Ah yes. Wednesday, our 7th and last day of distribution was in Song Khla in the south, near the ocean. We distributed in a mental institution, a large and very nice facility. We were up on the 3rd floor (maybe 4th). The initial ceremony included Dr. Samai, local dignitaries and for the 1st time, Thailand’s health minister, the equivalent of C. Everett Koop. They sat him up-front-and-center, and showed much respect, pausing and greeting with the Buddhist “Y” before him. I don’t have any pictures because at this point we weren’t using personal cameras. This was a decision we thought was most appropriate along with the whole concept of keeping a low profile (and subdued prayer sessions) in regards to Muslims we might encounter. This turned out to be a bit over cautious. Miles, one of our Pioneer associates, who was on-hand because he and his wife used to live here amongst the Muslims, gave us instructions to essentially be ourselves – they know we are religious and expect religious practices and conduct. So that lightened our spirits. And we brought out our personal cameras.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009


Tuesday was travel day from Chiang Mai to Hat Yai in the south. Nothing picture worthy except making faces at one another. Except for this one with Dale Simpson carefully escorting a Thai butterfly to the outside of the bus. We will be distributing tomorrow in Song Khla, with a muslim population.

After waiting patiently all day to be helped, they were very, very pleased. The uncle had seen me work on the chair. Now he said thank you “Kop Koon krup” with the Thai "Y" with his hands, then he stepped closer to shake my hand, then finally stepped in to give me a huge hug. I couldn’t help but get choked up, thank the Lord, and praise this ministry. Sheesh, what a physical and emotional day. I love it.

The boy smiled and everyone cheered.

At the end of the day when everyone began to clean up, Laura Gronewald along with Rachel Hetzel placed him for final adjustment to the seat belt, leg support and chest harness.

Along the same lines…..here’s a chair I was altering to fit a boy, not much taller than a toddler, who had never sat up in his entire 16 year life. He was accompanied by his mother (or grandmother) and uncle (or village leader). The interpreter was a bit sketchy on this. This chair was the second case for my team and I worked on it for the rest of the day. It was a chair with many adjustments. However, cutting the seat to shorten it for the boy threw everything off. You can see here, a lot is removed. It was like trying to change the oil filter on a car but you find you have to remove the radiator, alternator, etc. in order to do that.

After Jasmine shared Joey’s story with her and the powerful message of Joey flourishing in a Christ-centered loving family, the young lady accepted Christ as her savior. She will continue to ministered by RICD associates, the Pioneers, and others. Praise the Lord!! This powerful ministry sows seeds with the great Gospel message but seeing immediate effect of the Holy Spirit’s power, well……that’s powerful and emotional.



This is Joey’s chair and Joey Crawford. Joey was Jasmine Crawford’s brother who passed away at age 13 September 10th 2008. Jasmine brought his chair with her on this outreach on behalf of her whole family in hopes of bringing the same freedom and joy that Joey had to someone else. A young lady, 30-ish, who has had a wheelchair before was a perfect fit for Joey’s chair. Jasmine is holding her hand in the picture.

Luc, serving as mechanic for Shirley Jung and Annie’s team caught Annie off guard by up-ending her when she sat down in his chair. Always time for humor.



Johannes Janzen at the mike serving as interpreter as usual. Judy and Gordon are about to receive flowers for their anniversary and Catherine Martinez, Supervisor of International Outreach for Joni and Friends is receiving flowers for her birthday from the local official. How incredibly thoughtful our hosts are.



Monday our 6th distribution. We are at a government complex. All the wheel chairs are lined up off to the side of the building, out of sight of the recipients. The mechanics area is set up – tools, nuts and bolts, parts, plywood, foam and vinyl for seats, etc all laid out. The approximate 15’ x 15’ zone of floor space for each of 6 therapist teams staked out with chairs for recipient and family and our therapist and support person. The registration, doctor interview, happiness meter sections are all set up. All ready by 8:30. Now the formal introductory ceremony started at 9:00. Gordon and Judy Soares, our country leaders with the governor of Phayao province and Dr. Samai on the right, director of RICD, Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health, Chiang Mai Thailand (formal title).

Sunday, February 15, 2009


I don't know what's going on here but it's funny.










We walked down from Buddha to the bottom of the hill. Dragons swollowing dragons....symbolizes constant flow of things. These dragons topped the stair walls all the way up down from Buddha.

This was the other guy.

This was one of 2 guys guarding the final gate to the Buddha.