With April being the Khmer New Year, things here in Cambodia have been pretty slow and laidback. My team has a the chance to teach a couple English classes, speak at a church service,and visit a local village, but overall we’ve basically found ourselves with a month to rest… which, like our contact pointed out to us, God rested on the 7th day, so why not have us rest during our 7th month! Because of the stillness I just hadn’t found anything to write about… at least until now.
This month my team is living in the Preah Vihear provience, at the northern part of the country, just south of the Thailand/ Loas border. My teammate Phil’s family moved to the US from Loas a few years before he was born and it’s always been a dream of his to go. The problem is that we couldn’t really get there without having to buy visa’s. As it turned out, our contacts knew of an island that was right across the river that we could possibly get someone to take us there by boat! So yesterday morning, Angie, Phil, and I headed north with our contacts and some family friends of theirs. We spent the late morning/ early afternoon at the waterfalls near the boarder and then were able to convince a guy to take us to Loas for 30 minutes… all for just $6. It was awesome!!!
The two men just had cuts and bruises, while the older woman next to me had a gash to the head and complained of difficulty breathing. The woman in my lap, Na, had a huge knot on her forhead, but no cuts along her mouth or nose, where blood was gushing out. This did not look good. And then all of a sudden, she went unconscious.
‘Jesus, please don’t let this woman die in my arms.’
I called her name several times without any response. Thinking back on this past year and all the Kingdom authority I now believed I had, I was totally ready to start releasing it and praying life back into this woman if need be. I tried to check her pulse, but the road was too bumpy. Angie rechecked and found it, while I noticed that I could feel her breathing out of her nose, but very faintly. A few moments later she regained her consciouness for a while, but then kept going in and out.
When we entered the nearest town, the men pleaded with Jim to just stop at the clinic… they didn’t have money to go to the hospital. We tried to convince them that Na needed serious help, but they wouldn’t listen and started calling out to people as we drove by. Luckily for us, with it being the New Year, the clinic was full and told us to go the Preah Vihear. But then, as we hit the next town, they told Jim to stop at their family’s house while they got a family member who was a doctor. Again, we desperately told them we needed to hit the hosptial, but they just wouldn’t listen and unloaded everyone out.
As we started to get ready to leave, Na’s sister came out of the house, grabbed Na and headed back to our car. Their relative could take care of the other three, but didn’t feel comfortable wiht Na. When we reached the town, over an hour since coming upon the accident, Carolyn and I were able to get Na into the Emergency Room. After a quick examination, the doctors said she’d be fine and sent us to the recovery room… a room with 12 beds, almost completely full of either other accident vicitims or some sick kids, all just sitting or lying there with IV’s. Are you serious?! I had to remind myself that I was in a 3rd world country… and that God was in control so everything would be ok.
As the night went on, Na calmed down and we were able to talk a little with her and her sister. Since we were foreigners, all the people in the room were crowded around us, trying to figure out who we were and what we were doing. In fact, family members of patients from other rooms were coming in to check us out. At one point I felt led to pray that God would use this as a doorway to bring Kingdom to this area… as soon as I finished, Carolyn told me she had just told them all about Jesus!
A few minutes later Na’s mom showed up and then soon after that we found out that Na didn’t have any head damage… she had just broken her nose and had been going into shock, causing her to go in and out of consciousness. As Carolyn went to talk to Jim, Na’s mother started thanking me, calling me her daughter’s savior. At that I was able to explain to her how Jesus is the ultimate savior and that He had sent us to the accident because He loved Na. As we got ready to leave since everything was now stable, Na’s mom asked if we could pray over her daughter. Upon seeing that, several of the families who had been listening all night asked us to pray over them… before we left we prayed over a sick baby and young child, an accident victim, and a sick pregnant woman!
All in all… Rock climbing throughout waterfalls (the day after watching 127 Hours mind you), sneaking into Loas for 30 min, and then coming upon a tractor accident that led to bringing Kingdom throughout a hospial… was just all in a days work here in Cambodia. And it just happens to be one of my favorite days here on the World Race!!!
