Goodbye David, We'll See You Again.

Farewell to David

If you have been following this blog you will have seen that our focus recently has been our youngest son David. David has left us to be with God. It is a sad time, but there is also relief and gladness that his suffering has ended.

We do not know all the thoughts of the Lord; there are times when His greater plan seems to conflict with our prayers and even our understanding. We have never prayed harder then we prayed for David. We prayed for his healing, for mercy, for his life and sometimes even just a rest from his constant battle to breathe. God heard the cries of our hearts. He has answered and set us at peace, but not in the way we declared and believed.

Our website is leastandlast.com. I registered that domain more than a decade ago; the name comes from a revelation that our concern should be for the least and the last among us. It is the things we do for those who cannot offer us anything back that demonstrates our heart most clearly. We cannot give God anything He does not already have, yet He redeems and shelters us. We should do what we see our Father do.

When we brought David home he had been abandoned and left to die. A local man had rescued him and David found his way to us through a pastor. He had only been given sugar water for days. He was tiny, weak and filthy. We cleaned him and fed him and he was a happy and quiet baby.  We did not know he had a serious heart defect.

We knew that God had spared him and brought him to us against the odds; that he had destiny and a purpose.  A month later his breathing became labored so we took him to the hospital where we learned he had pneumonia and a hole in his ventricular septum.

David lived just 22 months and about 16 of those months were spent in hospitals. Anchalee was by his side for nearly all of that time, night and day. With four more kids at home it was a time of testing for all of us. When we searched God’s Word we frequently returned to Job, a book that had more and more relevance for us as David’s troubles increased.

Through this time we prayed and read the Word, and many people around the world prayed as well. We heard from God about other things, but never anything about David. This too reminded us of Job, when the Lord was silent through his trials.

Despite David’s hard fight, when the pain was not too great; he was happy. He loved his mom and dad. Always ready to give a big smile and a high five. He loved to be sung to, despite our terrible skills. When we ran out of real songs the alphabet song was the standby. He liked that one. Other nights when he was just too stressed we prayed him to sleep.

About a month ago a drug resistant lung infection had made his condition worse. We watched him pass out from lack of oxygen 100 times or more, only to see him fight back.  He fought like his namesake, he never gave up. But eventually the doctors became convinced that it was only the drugs keeping his heart beating. They asked if we would agree to stop the medicine.

I had prayed that there would be no decisions like this to make. Devastated we put David in God’s hands and allowed for the medicine to be turned off. Expecting to see him pass away, we were surprised to see his vitals improve. For the next three days he was stable.

Despite our optimism it was made clear to us that we needed to be clear about funeral arrangements. Anchalee had been through such a fight for this little guy, and it only ever got worse. She decided that she could not bear to see him lifeless; she could not bear to bring him home like that. She was actually voicing concerns about her own sanity. Because of this I supported her decision to allow the body to be donated to the hospital.

At home on the fourth day, we got a phone call, informing us that David had only minutes left. We asked what we should do? We thought we should go there. They told us no, it will all be taken care of and that we could not possibly get there while he was still alive (the hospital is 120 km’s away). We were told to come in two days to fill out some papers.

Once again we felt he was gone. We mourned and comforted each other. We praised God for allowing us to share David’s life, that he trusted us with his time on Earth. Two days later we went to the morgue to start the paper work. We were shocked to discover the morgue had no record of David.

We went back to the ICU and were shocked again to find that David was still alive.  They never told us that he did not pass away as they had expected. We no longer knew how to think. It was so confusing, so emotional that no feeling would express it. We wanted to be happy, angry, sad, it was so wrong to be put in this position. Bewildered, we went and spent time with David.

David looked tired but peaceful. He opened his eyes and recognized us. He smiled and he held our hands. Anchalee gave him a kiss, and he tried to speak in a soft little voice that I had rarely heard because of tubes in his throat. It seemed like he had something to say, but he had not yet learned how to talk. It sounded like “dad”.

We did not know was that David was telling us goodbye. He waited for us - he was ready to go and he passed away shortly after. His face was the picture of serenity, something new for David. And so we lost him for a third and final time. But things had changed.

The stress had lifted, we were OK.  Anchalee changed her mind. She wanted a funeral now, we wanted to honor him. And God began to open our minds to the beautiful thing we were part of. David had been alone, discarded; no future, no health, no love, no family. We took him in and showed him love. We dedicated him to God and sacrificed our peace, our plans, and our time to protect and care for him. He knew that love we had for him, he understood it. And when it was his time he was received by our Lord and all the pain he endured in this world was forgotten as he passed into the presence of God.

We did not see him run or talk or even sit up on his own. We do not know why his life was short but we feel that his mission was to prepare us for things to come. We have looked deep inside ourselves and swept out the corners. We have forgiven all, confessed all, and praised God regardless.  We have tested the mettle of our faith come out the other side strengthened. We have grown in compassion for others and have learned so much about the insufficiency of our own understanding.

David was the ultimate symbol of our vision to help kids who truly have no one. We covered him in Love and prayer and released him to God. We miss him, but we know this world had nothing for him that can compare to the presence of God. 

David,we’ll meet again

Kim

Final Comments by Anchalee

Dear all my wonderful friends in Christ; may the peace of the Lord be with all of you. We are sorry it took so long to get this blog done; it is just hard to do.

I would like to say this: Through David’s life I have learned so much. He brought so much to us; I don’t know where to start.

We thank the Lord for him. We thank the Lord that He has given us the opportunity to love on him; he was so special to us.

In my life I never really knew anything about heart problems. To experience this and to fight alongside David was a journey for all of us.

This is what I have learned:

1.       To understand those who face difficult things.

2.       That there are a lot of opportunities to help others and to be kind.

3.       I have examined myself about the things that I do - the motivation behind the service.

4.       So much about medical tools and procedures.

5.       To trust God even more.

6.       How important each of us is.

7.       Patience.

8.       Never give up.

9.       Don’t judge.

10.   Appreciate what you have.

11.   God is our source, our provider.

12.   Love.

 Also I am thankful that I could do this and realize all the time that Jesus has given me the strength.

I thank the Lord that my husband supported me through all of this, all the time encouraging me and ready to do anything that needed to be done. I don’t think many can do what you have done Kim.

And I am also thankful for our friends and family that support us with prayers and finances. We totally could not have come through this without your help.

In everything the Lord has a good plan. Romans 8: 28-39

We have matured; God is turning bad for good. He has worked within us, cleaned us up. We have been through the furnace and purified to be used by Him for His kingdom.

Things happen we do not expect, we don’t understand, but we have to trust God no matter how we feel, how terrible the situation. He doesn't make mistakes, He sees all, knows all. Many times in the Bible he doesn't do what we think He would do. Because He sees beyond what we see, He knows what is best; and we need His best.

David is gone but he is in the best place, with our wonderful Creator who made him and loves him more than we can. One day we will meet again – no tears, just joy.

Thank you Lord that we are still here and standing in You. We have hope and peace in our heart.

Anchalee

Shakin' all over

A giant Buddha who lost his head in the recent quake.

I knew life in the jungle would be interesting, I did not expect it to be this interesting.

Where to start? Well, we had a 6.3 earthquake this week. The epicenter of which was 35 kilometers from our house. This is our second big quake. The 2011 quake was a 6.9 but further away so it wasn't as dramatic (FYI the same day Japan had their tsunami). This one hit us while everyone was standing in the same room, just a few feet from the front door. Recognizing what is happening takes a second or two. You’re off balance, there are sudden violent sounds coming from everywhere at once, and things that shouldn't move are now moving in front of you.

 “Earthquake” I said. “Get out, everybody out!” “But what about David,” asks Anchalee? “He’s fine - get out!” I had no idea if he was fine or not but I needed as many people out of danger as possible. Then it was just me in the living room, torn between running for David, and getting out. Logic prevailed; there was no way to get David’s oxygen generator out the door with him, and the spare oxygen tank is 55 kg impossible to haul through 2 rooms in the middle of a quake. So I stepped outside the door - leaning on faith that God would protect him when I could not.

Then the quake ended and although there was lots of adrenalin and excited chatter, nothing serious happened on our property. Many aftershocks followed, quite a few over magnitude 5, but thank you God, we are all fine.

David on the bed with mom. Tough little guy with an easy smile.

David is home from the hospital currently, which is a very good thing. The hospital he was in just days earlier was damaged in the quake. We actually drove back to the hospital the night before the quake, because he was struggling, but he improved on the hour and a half drive there. We asked God if we should go back home and we felt peace to return. What a blessing he was not there for the earthquake.The patients were taken outside and set up in temporary wards.  It would have been a frightening ordeal for Anchalee and David.

We have been praying a lot about David’s situation. Truth be told, the doctors have not been very encouraging. His lungs have not improved and in his condition they do not want to give him the heart operation he needs. What we need more than anything is help in the spiritual battle for David’s healing. Please do take time to believe with us in prayer that David’s lungs will improve. They are full of fluid, partially collapsed, and we need them to return to normal.

Left to right: Zai, Margot, and Anchalee's cousin Nit

We were blessed with a lot of visitors lately. Normally we get very few. I finally got to meet Margot, Who is the wife of our friend Rudyard. She is doing important work determining if Thailand’s hill tribes are connected to the Miso tribe in India - a tribe which was declared in Israel, 9 years ago, to be part of the lost tribe of Manasseh. It seems there is a very good chance that my wife Anchalee is actually Jewish. Which explains why God loves her so much. Margot was traveling with Zai from India, who is the author of the book providing the evidence connecting the Mizo with Manasseh.

Kim and Diane Smith

While Margot was here she invited up her friends Kim and Diane, who are busy setting up a ministry in Bangkok. Kim and I have much in common; both of us are boys named after the book Kim, for example. But the similarities went on and on. Kim and Diane filled up our faith with their wonderful testimonies and we really loved their surprise visit. We were fast friends and we will see them again

David Blackmore and Anchalee: Friends from way back..

David and Jill Blackmore also dropped in with family members: Loraine, Renee, Daniel and Tully. It had been too long since they were here last. We had a great time working on projects around the yard and using stone-age technology to move a 1000 kilogram boulder which was blocking a stream. We also finished a dam I have been rebuilding. We christened it Tully Dam; after David and Jill’s grandson; who got his first taste of concrete work that day.  David also did a three part teaching on the Holy Spirit which was enjoyed by all. Thanks so much to all of you; it really changes things here for us, just by having some friends around.

Monocled cobra wasn't included among our approved visitors

There is too much going on to include all of it today. We are all doing fine, and our morale is up real high. We owe it all to our friends and our supporters, who keep us here in the center of God’s will, doing good works and demonstrating the reality of God’s love for all. Be blessed.