A letter from Amy Davisson Galetzka serving in Thailand
Quarter 1, 2015: January–March - Papers = Memories
Dear Friends and Family,
My first few months of the year included travel back to Thailand from Christmas and New Year’s with family in the U.S. Getting back into life in Chiang Mai is not difficult; it is very familiar, one of my ‘homes’ on this earth. I am thankful for my many friends in Chiang Mai, for our rental home that is a blessing, and at least in the first month or so, for good cool weather. I am thankful for the office I work in and for the many projects that we are privileged to support.
The days have gone by quickly these three months, but started out filled with papers. We are doing audits of the past five years of financial records of the charitable giving that has been done through our offices in Chiang Mai. The relief work in Burma is the bulk of the paperwork (receipts, reports, agreements, photos, etc.) and took most of the time preparing. After weeks (well, months actually) of preparation, and a stressful week of responding to the on-site auditors’ requests, we got through most of our goals and have reports on everything except one more year’s papers. After the office literally being difficult to walk through, looking at almost every paper (documenting expenses, income, etc.) and every receipt from the past five years made me nostalgic. It was just supposed to be technical double-checking, but I saw the handwriting of many co-workers who were amazing to work with but have since moved on to work in new locations. I was reminded of their care and the fun it was to work with them, even when we were doing things as tedious as some of the paperwork. I actually enjoy making sure everything is in order so that the work of relief, of sharing love and caring for people in need can go on smoothly. But it is tedious many times. While looking through the paperwork I was also reminded of so many of the people who receive the funds and carry out the relief missions, who take care of sick people in the jungle and all the way to the city if they are in more dire need. I saw thankful and dutiful correspondence from our relief team leaders, and from the hostel parents caring for children so that they can have an opportunity for a better education. The content of the papers revived and motivated me to complete this work and continue to strive to make the best system possible, in the least invasive or burdensome way, to help the mission of God’s love continue in our small community. It is a small community that is part of and comes into contact with many others, and my hope is that we will shine Jesus’ love to those who interact with us, whether it is to the auditors by our diligence in doing the best job we can to be accountable for the funds, or to the people who own the building our office is in, or to the countless others we come in contact with every day. I want to be known by our love.
Each time we write we are encouraged to share a personal story from the work we are doing. One little girl has really touched our hearts since we heard her story late in 2014. She is from the Wa area of Burma and I will call her ‘Am.’ Although we are still learning about the exact cause of her difficulties, the basic story is that she fell when she was 2 years old and then about three years later she started to have difficulty walking, her spine has become curved, and she now (at age 5 or 6) has to be carried by her mother everywhere or scoot along the floor. She came across the border to be treated at a clinic in Thailand and one of our employees helps patients like this in this particular area. We were not able to get her to Chiang Mai, to better medical care and diagnosis, until this past week (late March 2015). She is a precious little thing and she now has a patient care team of volunteers and Pan Rak employees taking care of her. She has been put in an isolation ward for TB (tuberculosis) treatment for the next one or two weeks before the doctors decide if and when she can have surgery. The TB is likely the cause of her troubles, not the earlier fall. It is a huge and amazing blessing to have her in the best hospital in Chiang Mai and also to have a generous donor to give a significant amount to cover her diagnosis and treatment and possibly another to cover the surgery. The coordinator for the Lawa/Wa projects just wrote to the patient care team, “Thanks to you and to everyone who is helping Am. It really means a lot to them to feel the love of Christian people. Thanks again.” So we would appreciate your prayers for Am and her healing and support through this complicated and intense treatment and surgery. We don’t know how long it will take, but we ask for and trust God’s provision will see her through whatever she needs.
I thank you for your faithful support, for your prayers, for financial help for me to continue working here, and for getting in contact with me. Please do keep in touch and I look forward to seeing some of you in the coming months/year.
Personally I would like to echo past requests for prayer for good health for my mother, and for quality time as a family. For 2015 I would ask for prayer for successful and major steps to move out of a long transition.
God bless you!!!
With Love,
Amy (for Johnny and Nadia too!)
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 235
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