House visits in Cambodia..
We're at one of our last house visits for the day. We are welcomed by an elderly Buddhist woman who is cleaning off a place for us to sit. We sit down and she hands us each a mango. We know nothing about the woman except that she has allowed us to come and sit with her and her grandchildren. We find out that she has heard the Gospel before and doesn't have any prayer requests. My teammate Emily prays a general prayer for the family. As Emily is praying I am overwhelmed by what I feel. Feeling a strong spirit of religion on this woman, so strong that as Emily finishes and its time to go I can't just walk away and say goodbye. As everyone is saying their goodbyes I walk up to the woman, place my hand on her shoulder, and begin to pray. Praying for the spirit of religion to leave her in the name of Jesus. I finish my prayer and start walking away. Just as I was walking away the woman pulls up her pants legs to Emily and points at her knees. Emily calls to me and the rest of our group and says “guys, she wants prayer”. We turn around, lay our hands on her knees and pray. While I don't have a miraculous story of healing to tell you about I do have a miraculous story of a softened heart. After we left the woman, our translator comes to me and says, “that was a miracle, that was amazing.” “What was?” I ask. She then tells me that the woman has had many Christians come to her home and has never let anyone pray for her specifically and that she definitely has never asked for prayer like she did today. I tell the rest of the group and we all start praising God.
It's funny how most of the time we classify a miracle as someone getting healed and we forget to see miracles in the “small things.” I like to think that God doesn't see something like this as a small thing at all. I like to think that to Him it's such a big thing. Such a huge moment.
While I think healing is definitely a miracle and such a sweet thing, I think too many times we get caught up in praying to see the miracles just to see them. I believe that if we notice God in the “small things” such as softened hearts, our eyes will open and we will look at the bigger picture- that it's not even about a seeing a miracle. It's about that person having an encounter with the one and only living God.
