One day my group and I were sitting inside our church waiting to head out for ministry. All of a sudden, someone came in and told us that there was a women outside, who wasn’t a believer, that was sick and wanted prayer. All 22 of us hurried outside and circled around her. She listed a bunch of medical issues she had; most of which was causing her pain. We prayed for her to be healed and for the Lord to make this her moment that pushed her to believe. We asked Him to move and He moved.
There was no more pain. She was healed. She wanted to believe.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy for her. She explained to us what her heart desired but what her brain was afraid of. Her husband was buddhist and didn’t want her going to church. He didn’t even know that she came to see us in the first place. We explained to her that even though it’s challenging, our family shouldn’t define our faith. That if she chose to follow Jesus He would provide for her, no matter what. This was enough encouragement for her to decide to go home and tell her husband she was going to follow Christ no matter how he reacted. With that, she stayed for lunch and went home. She ended up coming to church the next morning. Luckily for us, the story doesn’t end there.
A few nights later some friends, my squad leader Abbi, and I went to visit our extremely cute and precious elderly neighbor, Miley. Short snippet on Miley, a long time ago, she and her husband decided to be Christians; as a result, all of their children left them. The only family that would visit them was their grandson who also happened to be a Christian. While we were in her home eating the endless amount of food she generously gave us, and younger woman came in asking for some of us go to her house as well. Thinking she simply wanted to spend time with us, Abbi and I joined her.
As soon as we arrived to her house I immediately noticed the massive buddhist flag post towering over her home; I was confused because the woman has previously said her and her husband were Christians. We sat down, she served us tea, and then she explained to us that her father and older brother also live with her. She went on to explain how both of them weren’t believers and she wanted us to talk to her brother specifically. As she was talking, I looked up and saw another woman watching us. She looked familiar so I stared a little bit longer and realized it was the original woman we prayed for; the one who was scared to be a Christian because of what her husband would do. In that moment everything clicked and the seriousness of the situation came over me.
The older brother came out and we began talking (through our translator Seema) casually with him. We eventually told him that we were staying at the local church and tried to bring up Jesus the best way we could. As we were talking he stopped us and said that he already knew everything about Christianity and he wanted to remain buddhist. We asked him what about Buddhism he liked so much and he reasoning was that his father is buddhist and since he’s the only man to continue on the family name; he wanted to remain buddhist to maintain the family honor. He said he didn’t care what his sister or brother in law chose to do, he’s fine with peaceful religious differences, but already decided he wanted to remain buddhist for his father. Nothing we could say in that moment would change his mind. We reassured him we weren’t there to force him into something he didn’t want but also that we would be praying for him and that the Lord would reveal Himself to him.
Once again we started talking casually and the common “What do you do for living?” question came up. He said he was a police man and his father was a buddhist lama (basically a really respected and high up leader in the Buddhist religion). We’re told to stay away from government officials because they’re trying to make the gospel illegal again. If they know you’re trying to spread it violence towards the pastor is a common outcome. If you try to talk to religious leaders normally they will shut you down and have you be on your way. Honestly, we should’ve been kicked out. The fact that we were able to sit down and speak peacefully with them about Jesus is miracle in itself.
“40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
41 Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.”
Mark 1:40-42
Keep an eye out for part three, “The Lame Shall Walk”
Peace out Brussels Sprouts,
Maddy 🙂
