CHIANGMAt

Z)ke (Be

' So^ournlng^d in Zjhailand

"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

Box 180

R.R. 1.
King City, Missouri

Chlangmai. Thailand

64463

January - March, 1980

Dear Co-Workers,

"Events" are happening all

the time around here,
as far as

we

were

but
con

cerned, the happiest was

the arrival of my dad on
Jan. 14th, to visit for two
weeks. He came with $1000
worth of vegetable seeds,
57 pecan seedlings, two
varieties of
strawberry
plants and various other
berry cuttings, which God
brought miraculously thru
customs free of charge. We
shared some

of these with

various villages but most

we took up to the Mipo or
chard.
Dad and I spent
over a week camping _out
there,
planting
pecan
trees, building fence and
putting in an irrigation

VAV PREPARING PECAN SEEVLINGS TO BRING

system.
It was hard work
and we just finished the
bare

necessities

of

the

job during that time even

though the Chinese breth
ren came to help us sev
eral times. We had a good
time.

At dusk

we would

eat supper and then after

dark, burn the brush and
just sit around the fire,
drink hot chocolate and
talk.
We hadn't had a
chance to talk so much in

years.

Those were prec

ious hours to me.

Dad had

to leave much too quickly.

Sarah had taken to Grandpa
instantly and the kids are
still talking about his
visit.

The Chinese took

to him, too, and we all

appreciated his
sharing
from God's Word on several
occasions.

In our last letter we talked about

being operated on Christmas Day.

AN El/ENTEUL {?) TRIP TO THE M0UWTAIW5 WITH ROBERT

Brother Wang getting off opium,

and his little daughter

Brother Wang is still off opium and doing well in Da Gu Di

but their little daughter, Mary, died three weeks after her operation.
We went to the hos
pital every day to take food, encouragement and prayer.
It was hard seeing her waste away.
She fought bravely, though, and we know she is relieved to now be safe in her Saviour's arms.

Her faith was what really brought her parents back to the Lord and she accomplished a good
work and her task is now finished. Her parents have been remarkably strong and full of His
Comfort.

The Church people here buried her.

BAPTISMS AT THE REFUGEE CAMP

CHURCH FOR CAM800IAW REFUGEES

These last three months have not been without problems.

Just recently,

I spent a week at

BingLong teaching publicly and from house to house.

The preacher and his wife were on the
verge of divorce.
If this happened it would not only be a loss in their own personal and
family life but a real setback for the Church.
Also, the church was having serious problems
due to mishandling of church money and personality problems. With the Spirit's help, these
problems are starting to mend now and I am hoping to go up there once a month for awhile to
do more teaching on church growth. We all need to pray for the BingLong Church.
Then, the Church here in Chiangmai has had a problem, too, but it has really been a strengh
to the whole Church and we can only Praise the Lord because of it.
A Chinese preacher, whom
I used to work with, had registered the Church in an organization of which he is the sole
heid and authority. Although he is very rarely here, he said he was the head of church, the
deacons were under him and that he had to be present before any meeting could be held, plus a
few other things.
The Church people are pretty upset with the man on the one hand, but
learning much about separating the sheep from the wolves and the beauty of the Bible's plan
of church structure on the other.
They are waiting on the Lord and looking for a peaceful
way to settle the matter.
Meanwhile, the church continues to grow due to the evangelistic
spirit of its members. We have an average of a baptism a week.
The present facilities are
getting too small so we are looking for a new location.
We appreciate your prayers concern
ing the Chiangmai Church.

We have a special need in the Chiangmai Church.

Among recent converts we have a lady who is
a Number Two Wife, one who is a concubine or Number Three Wife, two runaway girls and a
divorcee.
There are several single girls needing direction too and we need a "special" min
istry for them. I am seldom in town but Janet is working on it and would appreciate any and
all prayers~^d"suggestions for teaching.

Starting the 24th of March through the Second week of April, we are starting a three-week
short-term Bible school in Mae-Sai again, for thirteen different tribal groups. Robert Morse
and I held a two-week school there last year with 50 students.
This year they have asked us
to come back and to expand the length and enrollment.
Robert, Eugene and I will be in charge
of the adult school and Janet is in charge of the teen-age school.
Oust this week, because
of the extremely dry weather, more than 85 houses have burned down in three villages right
across from Mae-Sai on the Burmese side.
Many of them are the Christian homes of the very
ones we were to teach at this school. The Churches and Christians here are trying to send as
much relief as they can. The Devil seems to be particularly vicious this year. Is he afraid
of something?
Increasingly we see the need for a greater manifestation of God's power here in Thailand. We
be'ieve time is short. People are coming to the Lord but it seems to me it should be better.
I get the feeling of water squirting at high pressure through a small hole. This is good but
there needs to be a breaking forth so that this living water can flow in great quantities.
Pray with us about an outpouring and revival here.
Many ask us about the Cambodian Refugee work.
Although we are not directly involved in it,
we often get to talk to those who are.
There is a great revival among the refugees in Khae
I Dang. Of the 80,000 refugees there, 20,000 are now believers in the Lord. Because of this
the U.N. has built several churches. One is pictured above.
Although water is a very prec
ious commodity being trucked in daily, the Red Cross has donated a water tank for a baptistry
and 2,000 or more have been baptized in this one camp alone. God's power is working mightily
in these desperate hearts and it is because of the prayers of His people throughout the
world.
There is evil in the camp, too, though, in the form of a high-ranking Kmer Rouge
leader who has all the people under his thumb in fear and trembling.
He has killed his hun
dreds and is still busy at it in the camp.
He is especially hard on Christians.
The Thai
government seems to be getting fed up with the whole mess and is threatening to send all the
refugees back to Cambodia to plant their crops before rainy season starts.
The Cambodians
in turn, are buying rat poisoning and anything they can get their hands on to commit suicide
before they'd ever return back to the horrors of Cambodia.
It is an unbelievable situation
and our Brothers and Sisters there need our constant uplifting before the Lord.
We are Yours and His, in His Service Here,
Alan Bemo

/%y

Aug 2

Z)ke

7 1980

Sojourning,^ In ZJkailand
'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

The^last^wek of March and ^the^first

Box 180

Forwardli^ Agent:

Chiangmai, Thailand

Linda Goerke
R.R. 1,

King City. Missouri 64463

Dear Co-workers,

Thank you for your prayers, for God certainly answers. We have been very
busy lately but i t has been the Lord who has been accomplishing.
During the months of April and May,
I was

home very little

of the

time.

teach in another seminar in Chinese in

a Yau village.

'

"

Janet Teaching Thru Burmese TransTrans

Our children are out of school dur-

lator
lator

ing the month of April because i t is

the heighth of the hot dry season so
our whole family spent these last two
weeks in Maesai together.
After we
got back to Chiangmai we were tir^^ and
wanting to do something together just
for fun.
Not too many years ago the
river.

Most places have roads to them

had been

to take the family on

such
voyage for some
so
we went on a three day trip on the Mae-

it was

at the end

of the dry season,

out and push over sand bars twenty-two

times on a 7 hour trip.
We came back
to Chiangmai tired, sunburned and hap
py.
more

Cars are better

but boats

fun.

Becky With Nkhah Friends In MaeSai

are
...

During the rest of April and May I

was traveling first to one village and
then

the next.

to it,

we are

refugees.

When i t

working

comes down

with

Chinese

Three areas we work in are

designated

by the government as refu

gee

even though

areas

barbed wire.

there

is

no

Most of the Chinese in

these areas are registered as refugees.

We distributed $]60. worth

of rice to

three families in one area.

During
this time the Lord opened the door to
a

whole new area.

went
were

was invited and

to this area just

in great need.

Chinese families

as the people
About twenty

had come

across

the

Burmese border and built a new village

Maekok River TripIt Was So Shallow

We

Had To Push 22 Times

without permission and in a forbidden area.

along,

arrested all

the young men and

they would have to move

The Thai government justly came

told the old men,

out immediately

there, the men had just been released and

women & children

or be arrested too.

When we got

these people were living in lean-

to shelters and sleeping on the ground and just 300 yards away were the new
houses they had built but couldn't live in.
They had scavenged some of the
grass roofing to build the lean-tos. When we were there, the young men were
about six hours away within a designated refugee area building new houses
again.

During the time when the men were arrested

the non-Christians had

taken out their bitterness on the one Christian lady among them.

said, "Well, go on!

Pray to your God

They had

to save you and us if He's so great!"

and every time she did pray they hated it even more and would even put sand
in her rice while her head was bowed thanking God. I think the Lord sent us
there in answer to her prayers and the night we were there the Spirit led to
talk on the Beatitudes with a special emphasis on the part about suffering.
There were several people who attended and some of the persecutors could see
they had been used of the Devil and that God had a blessing in it for our
Christian sister.
Several invited us back to visit and teach them more when
they were finally settled.

Word was sent from another

come and hold

funeral for

of these refugee areas.

a

Christian soldier

Da Gu Di,

who had been

to please
killed in a

scrimage between two opposing patrols.

I guess the most frightening event of these three, months happened

on the
way to Bangkok.
I was driving twelve "disciples" to Bangkok to take one of
them to the Bethany Bible Institute to go study the Bible for three years.
It was a
rainy night and an oncoming truck with glaring lights had just
passed us when suddenly right in front of us were two men walking,
looking
for frogs.
A fellow missionary from Australia was driving and swerved to
barely miss them.
We didn't touch the men and although I fought desperately
to maintain control of the car, we turned over on our right side and slid
down the highway for what seemed an eternity.
The scraping sound was deaf
eningit took paint off and rubbed right through the metal on that side.
After coming to a stop,
the three of us climbed out of the cab to see how
the ten were doing in the back.
One girl had cut her head which was to need
four stitches to close, but the worst of i t was that one boy.
Ho Ding Shan,
had been asleep with his arm out the side.
When the truck rolled over, i t
had pinned his arm between i t and the road sliding beneath it.
Although the
soft metal of the "camper" had given a little, the skin of his arm was taken
off from his elbow to his wrist.
Also,
a tendon was severed and three
others damaged.
We all got together and with the help of the adrenalin
flowing through our veins we turned the truck over and drove 45 minutes to
the next town with a hospital in it.
After admitting him and seeing him
through surgery to repair the tendon,
the rest of us went on back to Chiang
Mai.
His home is six hours over bad roads so we insisted that he stay at our
home t i l l treatment

was over.

He has been at our house

for seven weeks.

Just yesterday he had stitches removed after a skin transfer to cover the
wrist area where many tendons pass.
At the time of this operation the sur
geon said he feared that four tendons were damaged beyond repair.
But to
day, after the concentrated prayers of many brethren there appears to be on
ly one tendon that is not working and is a minor one.
At home during these months;
Janet
and the children had been caring for a
baby.
He was so weak and pathetic and
sick, we wondered if he would make i t ,
but with much love and care,
he grew

teeth ^and learning

to crawl

for him daily though,

a rough situation.

when he

because he's in
^

it.
Even though we work mainly with
Chinese, Thai is the national language
here and i t is through Thai that we
will be able to preach ^he gospel to
every creature here.
The Thai govern-

ment is also putting pressure on

missionaries to teach only in Thai or
a t least a

translation into

Vjfc

VflSH

Thai when

teaching in tribal languages: So far

no regulations have been made like this
for Chinese but during the last appli-

Beth's Birthday - She's ]3!

is holding A Da Pha.

Becky

i.*

4=-r. o4-air-iTiri

in the country,

we were asked what our ability in Thai

had to put dovm "good enough to use", but use for what?

Now Janet

L studying ]5 hours a week with the idea of passing the government

grail

1 hive a real interest and desire to study right now

will try our best to keep up with our commitments as we

help He*11 arrange our timetable.

We

f'^nrk^n^lur

Pray with us concerning the

. -

^Ili?y to SI ?hai. SO far we can speak quite a bit, read a little and
"""^Thil^lSt Sikiind we did get a break in Thai study and went to Mipo to
IhrS nilhts in a field-house there that the local brethren helped us
build out of bamboo. This is the area where dad stayed when he
^
we Dlanted sixteen pecan trees which he brought.

They are all

great,

the pecans and planted twenty pear and apple seedlings.

I also checkea on
some pear trees Tom Love sent frotn Taiwan.
He sent over ]00 pear trees by
air which ended up taking eight weeks instead of two days getting here,
have checked with the different areas 1 distributed them and 44% of them are

^^^While'^wSwere^there on Sunday we had church services with Christians from

two villalls Ihl met together.

It was so good to see these brothers and

sisters again! After church we went calling on an old Christian brother and

his wife in a 3rd village.

ment.

He came to Chiangmai in May for medical treat

Even though very old and feeble he came off

God's help. He was baptized at that time.

Now he is doing
he admits that he licks a small liamp of opium once a day to make his throat

feel better and allow him to swallow. His wife has still not accepted Christ

although two daughters have and now a son is wanting to.

While visiting
with her, Janet said, "Even though you may still worship evil spirits I m
sure they have no power in your home anymore with a Christian there.
This
reminded me of another situation I said, "Have you noticed any difference in
demon activity at your house since your husband became a Christian?
She

said, "Yes, there haven't been any holes in the thigh bones of the chickens

I've offered the spirits lately. I haven't been able to divine with them as
usual." I*d heard exactly these same words from another woman whose husband
had accepted Jesus into his heart and home. Then she told us something else
strange. Since her husband's baptism, the incense holder in front of their
door had fallen over, something it had never done before.
She realized it
meant something and we told her this symbolized the demons bowing to Christ
and told her the story of Dagon bowing before the Ark of the Covenant in
I Samuel 5:1-5.

I believe this and that God

still manifests

Himself today

in ways that people can understand. We are looking foirward to hard struggles
here in Thailand but at the scune time exciting victories.
prayer and let's expect to see God do great things.
Love in Jesus,
Alan Bemo

Strive with us in

/ '/^5-

DEC 2CHIANCMAI

ZJke Sento^d Sojourning^d in Zjltailand

Forwarding Agent:
Linda Goerke

R.R. 1,
King City, Missouri 64463

ALAN BEMO FAMILY & GRANDMA DITTEMORE

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Sometimes it is hard to say Merry Christmas

in this wicked world.

But be

cause of Jesus Christ we can be full of the joy and peace that passes the un

derstanding of the world.

Lately we hear of Russia building up forces along

the Cambodian-Thai border and in the Gulf of Siam and we wonder what and when

something will happen.

Yet, this world is not our home and we are merely so-

journers here, so we need have no fear.

A friend of ours was kidnapued in
broad daylight here and died a violent death last month. She left a husband ^
and three little children. Yet because she and we have faith in Jesus, who is

the Resurrection and the Life, we can have peace.

death, disease, and disappointment on every side,
world in that little baby, God's Son,
ago, we CAN say - MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Because there is terror,

but there is HOPE for the

who was born in that manger 2000 years

This year, for Christmas, we have much the same planned.

December 10-20, a
short term Chinese Bible Training School in Cha Fang, the Chinese youth group
here preparing and putting on Christmas puppet shows in various places, our
children with their various programs and sharing,
all night caroling on
Christmas Eve, a Christmas Convention in BingLung, and Janet's scrumptious
baking for all and sundry.
Sound familiar?

I think the most exciting event of the last three months is the conversion of
Alima. She is Lisu and married to a Chinese.
They live in the Chinese-Lisu
village of Mipo. About this time last year, her husband, Lau Hsiau, showed
some interest in becoming a Christian.
She told him, "If you so much as hint
at wanting to become a Christian, 1 will cut your head off."
The Christians
said that they were sure the Lord was going to deal with her in a special way
because of that.
Shortly afterward she became pregnant.
Since she has lost
two other children prematurely and since their only son had almost died for
the same reason there was much reason for concern.Her worship of evil spirits
did not help, as she had trouble all through her pregnancy.
One night in Oc
tober she started having terrible pain and being afraid to have the baby in
the village she asked her husband to take her to Chiangmai early the next
morning.
That is a four-hour walking and bus ride over very rough roads.
After they finally got to the hospital the doctor examined her, gave her an
injection, some pills and told her to come back at the end of the month. That
evening, very tired and discouraged they got back on the bus to start home.
Her second god - modern medicine - had failed her.
Just as the bus was pull
ing. away she said, "Let's get off the bus!!
I want to find pastor Bemo-- I
want to enter into Christ!"
They got off the bus and watched it leave with
their bus fare.
Then they realized that in this big city (the second largest
in Thailand), they had no idea where we lived. As they got in a taxi to start
looking they saw the Lisu preacher who also lives on Mipo mountain in another
village.
Neither one knowing the other was in town.
They told him what they
wanted and he

showed them to our house.

Coincidence?!

called Robert Morse

over (who speaks Lisu) and we talked to them about accepting Christ as their
Saviour. I had my doubts as to whether she was sincere or just wanting to de

pend on another kind of god - our hospitality and money.

Yet there was de
finitely the miracle of them finding our house.
I timed her labor pains and
they were seven minutes apart and lasted one minute each.
I told her she was
about to deliver and that we had better get her to the hospital immediately.
She said, "Don't talk so much and pray for me! Then we'll go to the hospital.
I was convinced! We prayed for her, took her to the hospital, and two hours
later she gave birth to a little but alive little boy.
He is still alive to
day and I have no reason but to think he will live and have a special purpose
in God's Kingdom.
That is why they named him Samuel, "from God",
The doctor
said both mother and child had almost been lost.
I took them back four days

later. The road was so bad we got stuck twice and finally at 10:00 p.m., had
to walk the last mile in mud to the village - five people with one flashlight
up a steep, slick path. I was up there again the last of October and Lau Hiau
was baptized. Alima is planning to be next time after her month hibernationChinese custom after childbirth.

We have had two opium addicts since we wrote last, too. One was a Kachin who
speaks Chinese.
This was the hardest case I have ever worked with. While he
was here he tried to escape continually for three days.
He climbed over the

locked gate once when I had gone out for thirty minutes.
As I was going to
buy something I saw him walking along the street and recaptured him in spite
of his protests.

During this hard time he talked terrible, threatened us and

tried to choke his own son(for some silly reason he had brought his four-year
old with him). I had to hide all the knives in our house, threaten to tie him

up with a rope, and put him in a room, forbidding him to come out to speak,
r said, "I don*t want to hear you or see you again till you are well-I'm sick
of listening to your filthy talk!I"
I was amazed to see that within minutes
after that he went sound to sleep and slept 14 hours, (he had not been able
to sleep before that). The next day at noon he began getting over his physi
cal withdrawal.
After it was over he could not remember the things he had
done and couldn't believe the terrible things he had said. He was a different
person! Now I am strongly led to believe that there was an evil spirit of
addiction who was talking and that when he was forbidden to talk he had lost
the battle. Now I wish I had done it sooner and vocally in the name of Jesus.
I am still learning. The other addict was Karen (they are the famous elephant
trainers) who could not speak Chinese.
I had to communicate with him in Thai

only. I put him in the government drug center but went to visit and pray with
him every day. He also had bleeding ulcers so because of this I thought the
hospital would be better. He is now back up in Mipo, living and working with
a Christian brother and his family who are keeping him on the track.
He is
also working the orchard for me to earn a little money. His only possessions
at 28 had been a tattered pair of jeans and shirt. He had sold all for drugs.

Speaking of the orchard, we invited some of our friends and Beth and Becky's
school friends to spend three days and nights up there in October.
We had
fun finishing up the irrigation system that my father and I started way back
in FebruaryT
It~is~ really nice To TiWe funhihg~wafer right' in front cTT^our
bamboo house--it must be the only one in the mountain. While there one morn
ing, a man came running over to tell us that Brother Mwo, a Christian who was

working in the next field, had been bitten by a green bamboo snake. I grabbed
up a snake kit (Doug Geri Umbanhouwer had given it to me only a few days

before) and ran to where he was. I followed directions in the kit.

the snake, which he had killed in a sack and then carried Brother Mwo

We put
up the

mountain to the road. You can ask my dad what kind of a job that was.
We
rushed him to the hospital in Prau, an hour's drive away, only to find no
doctor and nothing more that they could do for him. His leg swelled up and
needless to say all the Christians kept up continual prayer for him and mir
aculously he is still alive.

He even translated for me into Lisu

morning in church services although his leg hurt abominable.

the next

There were four

people baptized after church service.

There are other things we need to tell you about. Like Brother Gau in DaGuDi.

There were eight people wanting to be baptized up there at that time and Mr.
Gau was suffering from a serious heart condition. Even though we had to walk
and it was raining that day, he insisted on being baptized too because he
wanted to be ready to stand before God. He felt he would die any minute. We
brought him to Chiangmai the next day and he was rushed to the emergency
right away.

room

He is now back in the village living a fairly normal life with

the help of medication and exercise. I'm sorry I don't have space to tell you
of so many more victories for God. Let's compare notes when we get to Heaven!
Mom (Isabel Dittemore) arrived
on October 26 for a six-month stay and our
family and the Christian family alike are so happy to have her among us again.

Does God not care about everything? Three days ago our cute little
moyigrel
vanished.
Sarah and all of us really were heartbroken. She prayed faithfully
for him and insisted on the gate being left a little open for when he
came
back. After two days my faith had weakened but not hers. "Jyau" hobbled in
yesterday afternoon. Weak, bitten up and diseased--but home. Which
angel
led him back, I wonder? Sarah, dear strong Sarah!!
Have a Blessed Christmas,
From our house to your house-The Bemos