Gayle’s Jungle Mission
Gayle Haberkam is a missionary nurse in the jungles of Thailand. Although she originally planned to stay in Thailand for three months, she fell in love with the Karen people and has served them there ever since. As Gayle cares for the people’s physical needs, she teaches them about the One who can fulfill their spiritual needs.
More about Gayle’s Project:
Gayle Haberkam is a retired nurse living deep in the high jungle mountains of Northwest Thailand. She lives with the Karen people in a small village called BeYoTa. Many people living in surrounding villages had never even heard of the name of Jesus until Gayle began her ministry there. For fourteen years, she has been working with a young Karen man named Blet Jhaw, who shares her goal to reach these people for God. Gayle and Blet Jhaw desire that these people will abandon their bad, sinful habits and be prepared for heaven. BeYoTa is a primitive area with no electricity, phone service, Internet, or shopping. The local people are very poor. They live in wooden or bamboo structures, have no medical care, and most adults cannot read or write.
Opium is the main source of income in that mountainous region. Mostly everyone is addicted to it, and many mainline it as heroin. Opium—along with alcohol, homemade cigarettes, betel nut, and the practice of eating pigs, rats, and just about anything else that moves—destroys the people’s brain cells and removes the precious few vitamins and minerals they need so badly. Consequently, teaching them about the Bible and health message is a slow and difficult process.
The people of BeYoTa and the surrounding villages live much like they did 100 years ago. Their lives are full of superstition, devil worship, and the use of witch doctors. People have come from 130 surrounding villages to receive health care and learn basic health principles. Gayle’s medical work is a bridge to reach the hearts of the people. When God brings healing to someone, or when a life is saved, they want to know about the God whom Gayle worships. Only 4-6 people used to attend her church, but now between 50 and 60 people are attending every week! God has supplied all of Gayle and Blet Jhaw’s needs. Their faith has grown as they have witnessed His day-to-day miracles with the people and when He saves them from poisonous snakes, wild elephants, and the constant dangers of traveling over impossible roads. (To hear from Blet Jhaw’s experience of being a missionary and his point of view of their ministry, watch this Jesus for Asia Now report.)
Gayle and Blet Jhaw feel deep urgency as they have never felt before to reach these people before it is too late. They appeal to you to realize the call of God on your heart–a call to reach the lost. The fund for Gayle’s project helps her to minister to the spiritual, physical, social, and mental needs of the Karen people in BeYoTa and the surrounding villages.
