Too Much for Old Folks?

It has been a very busy week.    Ron left early Monday morning to fly from Dallas to Jacksonville, FL.    When he got there, he rented a car and drove straight to the Mayo Clinic for a check-up.   He had a mitral valve heart surgery in April at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN but they were too busy to work him in at this time.  His heart is doing fine. 

We are leaving November 13 for a five-month trip to Asia.  We both want to be sure Ron is as healthy as possible because we don’t want to deal with health issues while there.    Ron has had some dizzy spells, some unstable episodes and though he might have had some mini-strokes.  


Apparently, the problems stem back to the major fall he had five years ago on Nov. 4, 2014.   At that time, he cracked some vertebra and in his spine near the neck.   He was in a body and neck brace for 10 weeks.    They did not recommend surgery then.  It is not surprising that neurological problems exist due to the old injuries.    His neck is not fully in alignment with the spinal column and the doctor believes this is the problem that creates the symptoms of dizziness or a feeling of passing out.    There was no evidence of having a stroke.   He does have a brain aneurysm that is not leaking and appears to be old and probably occurred at the time of the fall.   There were no strong recommendations for a stent to be put in the aneurysm or surgery on the neck.   Just knowing that he has lived with this condition for five years relieves us of some questions.    Ron is very blessed not to have more severe problems such as paralysis or brain damage.  God blessed him with only lingering symptoms that he can live with.


We will finish our visits in the Waxahachie, TX area on Sunday.   Monday night, we have a dinner appointment in Temple,TX and Tuesday we will relocate to Cherokee Children’s Home in Cherokee, TX.    We are on our final countdown to arrive in Alvin, TX at the Westside church of Christ on Sunday, November 10.   We will pick up our son and daughter-in-law at the airport when we arrive late in the afternoon.


Ronald and Gigi, our “kids” from the Philippines are arriving to report to their supporters in Texas until the end of January when they will return to their home.   They will get a crash course on driving and living in an RV for two days before we leave for Thailand.    We have been busy going through things that we can pack up so they have some space in the RV.  

I have made a list for the doors to the pantry areas listing what is on each shelf.    My daughter, Leigh Ann, would be very proud of me for my organization of the pantry.  Every time she came home from college, she had a project to straighten and organize my pantry.   There are some things that are just more important than keeping spices in alphabetical order!   However, there are more problems with my pantry than that. 


People wonder what we do all day in the RV.    Almost everywhere we go, someone asks what we do during the week when we are not visiting at a church.  


When we get up on Monday morning, our workers in Asia have completed their work for Monday and we are loaded up with email.   They get a day’s head start on our work each week.   Ron and Jackie Feng answer questions and direct the workers in every aspect of their work.    Ron does the banking and transfer of funds to the various locations.   Jackie reviews all of the workers’ petty cash reports and budgets for the next month’s operation.   

We have over 200 girls in about 20 locations.    We have sponsors for every girl.   As workers send me reports, I review and edit the reports (correcting grammar, spelling and sentence structure) and email the report to the girl’s sponsors.   Some sponsors write letters to their girls and the workers send the girls’ letters back to the sponsors.   About 99% of our work is done by computer, receiving and sending reports and handling all aspects of the work.

We add new girls and assign them a sponsor.   When a girl leaves, we send a report to the sponsor and assign a new girl to them.   Maintaining accurate lists of girls and their sponsors is a critical part of my job.    We have 13 locations in Nepal but that is all one work; five different locations in Laos with each under a different worker (minister) and one in Thailand.  We still have seven girls in advanced education in China.   
  

I don’t do the accounting but I do maintain a donation log, posting every check that is received by our bank.    I send Thank You cards to first-time donors and if I see a check for a new sponsor for a girl, I write them to assign them a particular girl and add them to my list of sponsors.


In addition, I assist Ronald and Gigi with the Philippine work.   I don’t spend nearly as much time with their work but at times, it is also time-consuming.


Ron will be 83 next June and I will be 82 in May, 2020.   People do not believe our age because we are doing so much.   While I enjoy the work, I am concerned that we are pushing our luck at our age and really need people trained and ready to step in if necessary.   Not many people, unfortunately, want to do mission work and stay this busy.    We really do not have much spare time and the work is never really caught up.


I am never too busy to receive emails from anyone that wants to write.   My email address is patbrown10@gmail.com.    Please keep in touch if you have any questions about Save Asian Souls or the Philippine Mission.    Go to Facebook:  Casa Esperanza of Angels for the orphanage in the Philippines.   


I may not have time to post again until we begin our trip to Asia.   I will post about our travels, the people we meet, the girls we visit and keep you well-informed about our work.   Thank you for your interest in our mission work.   Thank you for the encouragement.   Thank you for prayers on our behalf as we complete the next six months of our busy lives in Asia with constant travel. 

Prayers needed again for Ron

Ron will fly from Dallas to Jacksonville, FL on Monday, October 21 for a check up at the Mayo Clinic.    We are praying that the testing will show him in good health and no further treatment for anything is needed.    His heart seems to be doing just fine since the mitral valve surgery in April.  We want to be as assured (as much as possible) that our trip to Asia (Nov. 13 to April 1, 2020) will not have any setbacks due to health issues.   We both have days when we do not feel well, but we are "burning the candle" from both ends, so to speak, and with aging, getting the work done is often exhausting.  

We are not complaining.    God has blessed us tremendously with success in the mission work and with our health.   So far, we have not slowed down.  As the workload increases, the free time seems to be less.   Many people, our age or even younger, do not understand how we are able to keep up the pace.  When we make a commitment, carrying out the things needed to accomplish the work requires the input.  We just keep working as long as the Lord gives us the strength.  Usually, when someone asks Ron how things are going, he will say:   "It only goes when you 'push or pull' and sometimes we have to do both to get things done."

We are winding down our RV travels with only three more weeks left.  We have recently visited churches in Greenville, Mount Pleasant, Wylie, Wieland, Denton, Commerce, Sulfur Springs, and Sherman, TX.  We have one more appointment in Tyler and then a short trip to Cherokee and LaVernia before arriving in Alvin, TX on Sunday afternoon, November 10.  We are now parked at Brown Street church of Christ in Waxahachie:

When we arrive in Bangkok, we will rest a few days before traveling to Mukdahan, Thailand.   A lady in Bangkok transferred the title for one acre of land to Save Asian Souls and Bands Ministries (a Dallas, TX foundation) is funding the construction of a safe house on the property.   The proposed house will provide a home to 60 girls.  Ron's background in construction is needed to see that the foundation work for the house is done correctly.   Construction work in foreign countries is not the same as in the U.S.   We will spend a good portion of our time in Mukdahan, but we will travel to the safe houses for girls in three locations in Laos as time permits.  Toward the end of our trip, we hope to visit Nepal and the Philippines for a short time.  

I will begin writing more as we leave Houston and arrive in Bangkok.   I hope to write about our progress each week and take pictures to post on this blog.   We will miss Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with family and/or friends but we probably will not miss the cold winter weather.  This is the peak season for tourists because it will be warm weather in the Asian countries we visit.

Thank you for your prayers and for your interest in our work.     We love and appreciate our family, friends and supporters.