Thailand 2000
"The Least of These"
by: Heather Jones - Team Leader

From the busy city of Bangkok to the lush rolling green hills of the northern country near Chaing Mai, Thailand charmed our team from the moment we stepped off the plane.  A group of seven women spent part of October in Northern Thailand this past fall.

The outreach was geared towards children.  The team worked primarily with veteran missionaries Phil and Maria Tener.  Mercy & Truth joined forces with Compassion Ministries International to provide health care to the Thai hill tribe children.  Working in several villages in the north was the vehicle on which the outreach was set. 

Some days this just involved jumping in the van for a short ride up the dusty road, but other days it meant a precarious journey over winding roads cut from the mountainous hill sides for what seemed like hours, only to find ourselves arriving at a small village tucked away with many smiling faces greeting us.  

One team member said, " With the help of our wonderful and patient interpreters we told them we had come because of God’s love for them.  Children lined up for physical and, with their parents waited patiently, some of them all day, until we could see each one.  Mothers who love their children, just as we do.  Mothers with babies in slings on their backs and toddlers at their knees.”

Over the course of the outreach over four hundred children were seen and treated by the medical team.  Some of the most memorable were the ones that nothing could be done for except to offer up prayers for mercy to our loving Heavenly Father.  One child stands out in my mind.  His father brought him to our makeshift clinic.  His mother had died.  The child had been crippled since birth, but had never seen a doctor or nurse.  The little boy, now six or seven years old cried and cried at the mere sight of us.  The father pleaded with us that we do something for his child, but there was nothing that could be done expect pray.  I suspect that this child was suffering from Cerebral Palsy and had been so from birth.  It is amazing to me that our God has such compassion even on “the least of these” and used us to touch this child in a far off village in Thailand. 

“As you have done to the least of these, you have done the same to me” - Jesus