Back to Thailand...

As promised, I'm back with some more reflections/recollections. Incidentally, I think this might be the first time in the history of my blog that I've posted 7 days in a row. Monday's contribution was rather inconsequential, but it counts! Besides, tonight's post is going to necessitate one tomorrow, so I'll get it anyway you slice it :-)

Anyhow, the whole trip was memorable and significant, but the events on and around Friday were very much the defining ones of the trip from my perspective. In order to avoid a ridiculously massive post, I'm going to summarize the events tonight (in more detail than was posted on our team blog, and more of my personal experiences), and then do a more reflective post about them tomorrow.

First of all, you're going to need some background that I don't think you'll all have, even if you followed along with the team on the blog. Lynn, who in addition to being the leader of the team working long term in Thailand, has been a dear friend of mine for many years, was diagnosed with ALS (perhaps better known as Lou Gehrig's disease) last summer while he and his family were back in the States for 6 months of home ministry. ALS is a disease that attacks and breaks down the nervous system. It is fatal, and there is no cure. Lynn's return to Thailand was delayed by almost 6 months. He currently exhibits a number of symptoms, the most noticeable being his slurred speech.

We expect Lynn to be healed of this disease at a future point. Lynn believed God revealed this to him almost immediately, and many others (including myself) believe we have had this confirmed independently from God. My story of how God spoke to me on this has been shared with Lynn and a number of others close to myself and/or him, and I hope one day to make it public. For now, however, Lynn is back in Thailand and his situation is being wisely and appropriately monitored.

Shortly before our team arrived in Thailand, Lynn sent out an e-mail to a number of his core supporters/intercessors, telling us that he was devoting a week to prayer and fasting about his healing, and inviting us to do so as well, and to share any words we had for him. My understanding now, though Lynn didn't state this at the time, was that this was brought on by the fact that his condition had deteriorated enough so as to be getting close to the point where a decision might have to be made to bring him back to the States. Anyhow, what came out of this week was that Lynn was given the opportunity to spend a week in Lakeland, Florida, attending the healing revival going on there.

Two things came out of that experience. The first one is that, while Lynn was not healed, he did experience some improvement in his symptoms. I was told by some of the team in Thailand that it was fairly significant. It's hard for me to tell, because I don't know how bad he had gotten, but I will say that I found his condition, particularly his speech, to be very similar to the last time I had spoken with him prior to his return to Thailand, which was about 4 months prior to our team being there. So, I have to believe there was some improvement, because the disease is much more progressive than that, and Lynn had been reporting noticeable advancement in his symptoms. The 2nd was a word from God regarding a "spirit doctor" in Dongaul, the village where the team has had their most significant ministry to date, who had placed a curse on Lynn, which was causing Lynn to experience the symptoms of ALS.

Upon Lynn's return to Thailand, the next time the team went to Dongaul, they found out everything they could about this "spirit doctor" and made plans to meet him in the near future, in order to discern next steps. Plans were made for a group to go out to the village and meet him on the Friday afternoon our team was there.

Okay, so that pretty much wraps up the background information, and looking at the post, it's already really long. So, I'm going to change my original plans. I'm going to let this stand as a background post. Tomorrow I shall post about the actual events of Friday, and then I will post my reflections and what I learned from the events of Friday by sometime Monday evening.