A letter from Amy Davisson Galetzka serving in Thailand
May 2015 - Annual Ministry Update, 2014
I work with the Pan Rak (‘Sharing Love’) Foundation in Thailand as the Deputy Director. I manage the staff and finances. I helped get the foundation registered in 2013 and am involved in the planning and formation of the organization whose vision is to share God’s love in tangible ways that bless people, to inspire relationships with God, and to help people share this love with others.
2014 was full and overflowing. I am thankful for all that happened, both the positive and the things that were challenging. I learned, continue to learn, and I am hopeful.
Work Projects:
• Many audits: Every six months we do financial audits of our foundation and some of the larger projects. All have been successful to date.
• Lawa/Wa Ministry:
Lawa/Wa Prosthetic Leg Project, May 2014
The Lawa (in Thailand) and Wa (in Burma) are the names of a people group. The report below comes directly from our Executive Director’s report on the event we helped facilitate.
Pan Rak (which means ‘sharing love’ in Thai) Foundation brought 62 Wa State, Burma (Myanmar) landmine victims, and one Karenni boy born without hands or legs from Burma (Myanmar). The Mae Lao Hospital brought an additional 62 patients from Thailand. All of the prosthetic legs were made by the ‘Prosthesis Foundation of H.R.H. The Princess Mother of Thailand.’ The patients from Burma stayed at a church near the project site from May 10 to 16.
The doctors, Wa leaders, and our prostheses committee celebrated before giving 125 patients 184 legs. It was an international relations event, as Gen. Kumthon Sintawanon from the King’s Privy Council came from Bangkok to officially present the legs on Friday before the Wa and Karenni returned to Myanmar.
• Patient Care Ministry:
A Story of Hope:One of our health projects is caring for patients who come from Burma (Myanmar), where there is no adequate health care. Here is one young girl’s story.
Naw Chi Gay Paw is a 4-year-old little girl who has osteomyelitis of her right femur. She first came to FBR's Jungle School of Medicine–Kawthoolei in July with a three-month history of an abscess of her thigh. This abscess was very deep. An X-ray of her leg at JSMK revealed that the growth plate of the femur had separated from the bone and the entire length of the bone was infected. Trusting that God would provide a way to finance this little one's care, we decided to bring her out of the jungle for more specialized medical help.
Upon arrival at the specialty hospital, Naw Chi Gay Paw was admitted for emergency surgery to try to clear the infection out of her hip and bone. It was discovered that she had a second fracture of her femur near her knee. Pins were used to hold this area in place and pins were also used to try to reattach the growth plate to the end of the femur. She stayed in the hospital for a month to receive IV antibiotics and she ended up having two more surgeries to try to remove more of the bone that had died as a result of the infection.
At this point Naw Chi Gay Paw and her father are staying at a rural rehabilitation hospital, where she can continue to receive IV antibiotics and recuperate. This little girl, who has already experienced more pain in her short life than most of us ever will, still has a very long journey of healing ahead of her. She will need at least four more months worth of medications and it will take a long time for her bone to heal and become strong enough for her to walk on it. Please pray for healing for Naw Chi Gay Paw, strength for her father, who accompanied her to Thailand and is separated from the rest of his family, and for the family who remained behind to continue to be able to farm and keep up their livelihood.
Two Trips to Burma (Myanmar):
Late 2013: • I went with my co-worker Benjawan, a Thai Christian leader, and a longtime Danish ministry partner to visit an amazing organization in Rangoon, Burma (also known as Yangon, Myanmar).
This organization is doing amazing work among Karen communities inside Burma on a wide range of issues including microfinance, women and children’s protection, trafficking issues, and women’s learning centers (among many more). Our Thai and Danish friends gave a communication workshop for the micro-finance participants.
Late 2014: • I had the blessing of traveling with Barry and Shelly Dawson on a trip to visit leaders of church, education and grassroots organizations to build relationships for future cooperation.
Professional Development:
• A positive thing that I was blessed to be a part of was an executive certificate course at Georgetown University for Nonprofit Management. It was a diverse group of nonprofit leaders and an amazing information-filled eight days. This was a great step out of my own work world to learn about what other people are doing and get some new and fresh ideas about good management and just excellence in running an organization in general. Later in the year I will conduct my own mini workshop for the staff at the Pan Rak Foundation to share some of the key things that I learned. For my final project I wrote recommendations, based on my learning in this course, for the boards of Pan Rak and the Thai Christian Foundation (the foundation that provides most of our funds from the U.S.A.)!
Little Nadia (her name means Hopeful!):
• Our beautiful daughter Nadia turned 1 in October 2013 and during those last months of 2013 and first months of 2014 she starting walking and started communicating with us in new and fun ways with her first words! She has a lady from Burma who takes care of her each day and teaches her many wonderful things, including the Karen language, to be a loving person, and to pray and thank God each day. I’m so thankful for ‘Naw Naw’ (Older Sister) Mu Gay, who is precious to us and a huge positive influence in Nadia’s life. She meets us at the office every day and we drop her off on our way home each night. What a huge blessing for them to be at the office with me and our lovely Pan Rak staff.
• 2014: Nadia had an aggressive strep virus in April 2014 that caused an abscess, and she needed to go under general anesthesia, with a breathing tube, to have the abscess drained. We were not in Thailand at that time, but visiting in Colorado. She ended up in Denver Children’s Hospital for five days recovering (one night in the ICU, which her doctors said was unexpected). She had a great recovery. We thank God for amazing care throughout her time there. I was so blessed to have some friends in the area who visited us in the hospital and for my dad, who was on a trip to Colorado at the time, being able to visit.
Through all of this work, I am finding encouragement in God’s Word, and these verses stand out, looking back over 2014:
Transition: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:11-13).
Hope: …through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die (Romans 5:2-7).
I am so thankful for your prayers, for your financial support and the opportunity to share with you about this past year.
Thank you and God bless you,
Amy (for Johnny and Nadia too!)
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 235
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