It was a Tuesday afternoon, a regular day in my current life of being a world racer here in Cambodia. I was 10 minutes into my 15 minute tuk tuk ride to teach my afternoon English class at the village school. I was doing my usual routine of praying and looking out into the vast fields, ponds, and trees driving along our little dirt road and we saw him.
“That was a person!” we all exclaim as pastor immediately stops the tuk tuk. Out jumps our team as pastor runs to see if the man is alive. We find an older man, tattered clothes, grey and thin. His legs tanned from the Cambodian heat, unresponsive, but alive. Immediately we try to help, assessing the situation, he looked about 85 years old, very weak, dehydrated, hungry, and currently unresponsive. Pastor begins to wake him, while my teammates give the man water. “He is going to die if we don’t move him into the shade”, pastor exclaims. We move him and pastor instructs us to pick out some leaves to try and feed him. The man was so weak that he couldn’t move, barely able to open his eyes. “Do we bring him home?” pastor asks us. “OBVIOUSLY” we all respond.
We put him inside the tuk tuk, grab his sandals, walking stick, and pack him inside with the 5 of us. One girl comforts him as the other continues to give him drinks of water. We drive him home, a few kilometers down the road where we pull up to a treehouse. We are greeted by an elderly woman, a woman in her late 20’s and two young children. That was when I found out who he was. He was the local witch doctor, or as they call him, magic man and almost all the people in the village fear him. We carry him to a cot and say some prayers for healing. The women thank us, in Khmer (their official language), our pastor translates, and we decide to come back tomorrow to check in on the man and pray for the family.
This is the local witch doctor, we just helped save his life, and now we have a chance to talk to him and his family about Jesus. Yep. This is what we came here for.
So we show up today, we pull up to his treehouse, and are again welcomed by the women. The older woman, the witch doctors wife, and the younger, his granddaughter smile and thank us again. We ask if we can come pray for the man, they say yes, and they invite us inside their ‘tree house’. It was a structure about 10ft. off the ground made completely out of wood. We walk up about 7 wobbling stairs as we step inside. The man is already in the hut. First, his granddaughter goes in, then our pastor, then the 4 of us, and finally the grandmother. Right before coming up the stairs the old woman takes off an anklet she has been wearing. In ‘magic man’ custom, the witch doctor often sells bracelets and anklets to ward off evil spirits. Before we had even begun telling this family about Jesus, chains were being broken.
The hut had wood walls and wood floors. There are apparent holes in the floor and I say a quick prayer that all 9 of us don’t fall through. The man is laying on a mat in the corner of the room. They proceed to pull him up, and our pastor translates why we are here. So we begin. We ask them if they’ve ever heard of Jesus and they say no, they’re buddhist.
“Okay God, here we go” I said.
We begin to explain to them who he is, what he has done and why he loves us. We explain the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We tell them our stories, we tell them how we once were lost, but now we’re found. We explain that God is relational, and he speaks to us, He desires to know us. The old man said nothing the entire time, but sat listening. The wife, who sat in the corner listened with intent and the granddaughter sat quietly weeping. We invited them to accept Christ, and began to pray, we denounced fear, doubt and confusion. The holy spirit was present in that place, we could all feel it.
I heard Jesus remind us that the gospel isn’t complicated, it’s simple, it’s about love. The grandfather’s eyes revealed the confusion that he’d been living in for years. Jesus isn’t the author of confusion, but of clarity and a sound mind. As we pray, we ask if anyone wants to accept Christ and we lead the granddaughter in a prayer to become a child of God! She was eager to know more of the joy that Jesus brings when he comes and was left with a smile on her face. After we pray, we invite them to church on Sunday, which just happens to be Christmas day.
As we are saying our goodbyes, the grandmother stops one of my teammates and begins to to point to her injured arm and leg. Pastor interprets that the women would like prayer for healing, so again, we begin to pray. We pray for healing, for miracles, for God to show up amidst this witch doctor and prove who he is. After praying, the woman, with a smile on her face says she feels better and thanks us. They proceed to ask our pastor if he had known us for long and he explains no. The grandmother says she knew there was something different about us, something different about the way we walked and talked.
So today I prayed for a witch doctor, a woman felt healing, and a girl gave her life to Christ. Chains were being broken, both physically and spiritually. I believe the Lord is going to continue to heal this women, speak to the granddaughter, and prove his power to the magic man.
In this time of the year we are reminded of the perfect gift that was sent to us in Jesus’ birth, and sitting there in Cambodia, we are again reminded that our God is alive. Jesus thank you that you are the gift that keeps giving.
Much love & Merry Christmas from Cambodia!
