An Adventure with God

An Adventure with God

Phannee Trangkasombat’s life of closely walking with God

Compiled by Vachiravan Vanlaeiad

I am the eldest daughter of my parents, Raat and Chuen Pestonji. I have two younger brothers. My father was one of Thailand’s renowned movie producers and directors. He was the first Thai director who had been granted awards from various international film competitions. He had also been the founder of the legendary Hanuman Papayon.

My father’s ancestors had migrated to Thailand from Abadan, the southern part of Persia (Iran). He was born in Thailand and had graduated in Machinery Engineering from London University. His former religion was Zoroaster. However, after his marriage with my mother, Chuen Thappatat, he had converted into Christianity.

I was born in 1938 at Bangkok Christian Hospital. I was so thin, being a sickly child. However, thank God that He had spared my life and healed me of many illnesses during my childhood years. When I was 13 years old I had made the greatest decision to accept Jesus Christ into my heart, to be my Lord and Savior.

After graduating from Wattana Wittaya Academy (which was founded by American Missionaries), I was sent to further my study at Upper Chime School – a boarding school in England. The school was located on the Isle of Wight, which is in the southern part of the country. When I was 16 (while studying at that college) God had also rescued me from death when I was alone, being abandoned, lying in bed in the school’s first aid room, and suffering various symptoms of severe stomachache, throwing ups, and having high fevers for 3 nights (without food). I had appendicitis (in the old days when you had an inflamed appendix and the appendix had been broken open, you’d surely die). After I was rushed to a hospital in a city nearby, I had to spend 10 days there.

I had studied in England for 4 years. As soon as I finished high school, I returned to Bangkok to help my father in his movie business. He owned a movie studio called “Hanuman Papayon” I used to be the leading actress in one of his movies (which was my one and only since I preferred working behind the scenes). And when my two brothers finished their education from England, they also helped our father. However, 4-5 years after our father died of heart attack, the company had to be closed down.

While working at my father’s company, I had met my present husband, Wichai Trangkasombat. At that time he was working with the government, I was 24 and he 26. Two years later we had married at Wattana Wittaya Academy Church.

When I was 8-month pregnant with my first son, Wichapan, I had contracted rabies from our own puppies! I had to go through an ordeal of 14-time vaccine injection. My doctor, Same Pringpuangkaew, (presently a former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health) had told me that he could not guarantee the safety of my son, and that my son would not make it to 9 months! Miscarriage would be the result.

That day after arriving home from hospital, I prayed to God: Lord, if this baby were your son, and if You want to take him away, I’d be pleased. But if You want to give him to me, please spare his life: physically, mentally, and intellectually. I had prayed in this manner for 3 days before making the decision to receive injections at the Saowabha Institution. The doctor who were at charge was so kind and tried to treat me gently and asking me all the time while making injection, Are you hurt? I fainted every day. When it came to the 5th time, my stomach was greenish as watermelon shell. My husband’s mother had to soften my stomach with hot water bag every day. When the 14 times were completed, my son was eight and a half month old in my womb.

Then on 17 March 1965, my son, Wichapan, was born into the world with the weight of 4,000 grams. Praise the Lord that even though I had to go through many sufferings both before and while giving birth to him, he was complete and strong: physically, mentally, and intellectually. And in 1970 and 1973, one strong son (Wichaporn) and one beautiful daughter (Wichurapa) were also born into our family respectively (which were the answers to my prayers). These incidents were miracles since I had been through many ordeals. One of them was my beloved father having heart attack (and eventually died in Chulalongkorn Hospital on 17 August 1870) during a meeting between the government representatives and the members of Thai Film Directors Association.

My husband, Wichai, had opened his heart to accept Jesus as a result of God’s answering my fervent ten-long-year prayers. He finally was converted and has been serving this true God for 40 years. God has continually and abundantly lavished His blessings on him. He had worked with the Coca-Cola Co., Ltd. for 31 years. And before his resignation, he was promoted to be the Company’s Senior Vice President (West and Southeast Region), having 16 countries under his supervision. He was the only Thai who had been in such a high position.

The following account is my most unforgettable adventure with God. It happened when the big boss from Coca Cola travelled to Bangkok and the company had escorted him to visit the Thai Nam Thip plant in Hatt Yai (a district in the southern province of Songkhla). During that time there was a big flood in the south. My husband had brought me with him, intending to go by car and return by plane. However, all flights were fully booked so we had to drive back to Bangkok.
After having a wonderful trip, we started our eventful journey back from Hat Yai at about 9.00 am. While driving along the road, there was another car driving in front of us and then abruptly stopped. This was resulting in our car having violently bumped against the rear of that car. The boiler fan of our car thus had problems. We then had to drive slowly to find the shop to repair the fan and it took a long time to find it. While a mechanic was repairing our boiler fan, we prayed all the time until the repair finished. Then we resumed our journey.

There were altogether 4 persons in our car: the driver, the driver’s friend, and my husband and me (who sat in the back seat). The driver drove rather fast since there’s going to be heavy rain. When he drove for a long while, the evening was drawing close and we had arrived Trang Province. Then the boiler at the front of our car produced smoke. We had to stop again to find water to fill up the boiler, but did not know where to find it.

Finally, the driver drove the car and stopped it at the back of a car parked by the sideway. There were 4 men standing outside of the car. My husband had walked to ask them where was the nearest village…for us to ask for water to fill our boiler. One of the four had stern and frightful looks. They all looked at us strangely. Then all our three men got out of the car, leaving me sitting alone. When I saw my husband, who had now a strange expression on his face, walking back to the car, I asked him what the four men said. My husband immediately told me to lock all the four doors and not to get out of the car! The man who had stern looks walked to me and produced his ID card. And when I saw that he was a policeman, I then opened one of the car’s windows to listen to him. He said, “Madam, you’re in danger! You have to get out of this place before sunset.”

Suddenly there was a truck delivering Thai Rath newspaper arriving at the place we parked our car. The policeman thus quickly waved his hand signaling the driver to stop the truck and order him to “give these 3 people a lift.” While our driver had to slowly follow us in the hope that he could find water for our car. Three of us had ridden the truck for a while then the truck driver told us to get off, saying, “I’ll go elsewhere, not to Bangkok!”

We then got off the truck and stood groggily by the sideway, not knowing what to do next. It was getting dark at that time. However, we thank God that our driver had made it in time, finding water from a farmer living faraway and then drove the car to pick us up.

We resumed our travel and arrived at Petchaburi Province. During the time it was heavily raining and we thought of spending a night in a hotel. However, we saw many drivers who had already gone to that hotel and were returning back, they all told us unanimously, “Don’t drive into that hotel because the sea level is rising very high.” At this, my husband and I prayed to ask for directions from God. And God told us to turn left and turn right and then to stop exactly in front of the auto repair shop since there were some problems occurred that our car could not run further!

So, four mechanics had to repair our car all through the night. Then we restarted our journey and heard the announcement on the radio informing us which way we could travel and which way we could not. The traffic jam was so heavy, producing a very long line of cars. The driver and his friend started to complain and show their fear of death. We quickly consoled them, “We have God. He will help us to safely journey back home. Don’t fear!”

After that we had prayed so hard and God had inspired my husband to order the driver to further drive the car or stop the car. And the driver had strictly obeyed his orders! Finally we arrive at Hua Hin around midday. Suddenly God told my husband to drive further quickly and as usual the driver had followed the orders. At that time we had heard the sound “Crack, crack,” my husband then told the driver to stop the car.

When the car stopped, I had jumped out to see the source of the sound. It appeared that the road had separated! Our car was at the curb of one side of the road while the other truck was at the other roadside curb. The huge separation gap was like hell because of some heat and light flashing below. On seeing this, my legs shook. We then quickly get on the car and thank God that He had saved everyone of us from dangers.

And finally we arrived at our home in Bangkok around 8.00 pm. After taking a shower, my husband and I had meal together. I then asked him, “When you met those four guys, what they said that made you look so serious?” My husband answered, “They talked about capturing the woman and shooting the three men and then stealing the car.” However, the stern and frightful looking policeman told them, “Don’t do that. It’s not good.” Then the policeman told me to be careful and quickly get out of that place before sunset.

These events had shown God’s greatness and mercy which had saved our lives. Praises be to Him! The Bible says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4), and “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:11)

Thank God for everything!