Our team sat in a circle and “vision casted” what we wanted out of the month- praying for what the Lord had for us and how we wanted to grow or see Him show up. A common prayer among us was to witness a miracle.
19 days later, on our last day of ministry, He answered that prayer for us.
It started on a Thursday afternoon when our host, Toni, told us about their neighbor, an elderly woman that was destined to die any day now. Cambodians have this sort of urban legend about a specific bird crow that signals that someone is about to die. It’s a little eerie, if you ask me, and reminds me a little of the “death-watch beetle” in the movie Practical Magic, but it’s a part of the culture here. They had heard that bird crow the day before.
I’m actually ashamed to say that while I gave the normal sentiments of “Oh my, that’s so sad…”, I didn’t act. I actually didn’t really give it a second thought until jogging the next morning. As I was jogging, I was praying, and the Lord put this woman on my heart. I realized that she probably didn’t know Jesus, and I felt compelled to make sure she heard about him. She had very limited time, and her eternity was on the line.
After we returned home, I asked Toni if the woman was a believer. When Toni affirmed my suspicions, I asked if we could go tell her about Jesus. She seemed a little reluctant at first, saying that they had already been over to pray for her. So, I asked, can we go pray for her too? This conversation went back and forth a little while longer, until Toni finally agreed.
That afternoon came around, and I started to make up excuses not to go. It’s raining… no one else really seems like they want to go… I’m tired… So lame, I know, but I’m human. As I prayed about it, I felt like the Lord was telling me, “Kim, this woman needs me. Her eternal life is on the line –that’s not something you blow off.”
Right, okay then, God. Thanks for that kick in the butt.
We rounded up the troops (by troops I mean our team, Toni, and her mom) and prayed before we left. We huddled together in a circle and all prayed out loud at the same time. As we were praying, it started to pour down rain on the tin roof of the house, and we had to shout our prayers to even be heard.
Photo Credit: Aubrey Baggs
When we arrived at the house, there were a lot of people there, apparently for some type of Buddhist ceremony they do. They had a large shrine, Buddha posters on the wall, and Buddhist teachings blasting on a radio. We walked past all of the people sitting at the table near the entrance of the house to the bed just behind all of this. The woman laying on the bed literally looked like something was on top of her flattening her out.
Immediately, a few of the girls on the team had discernment that demonic spirits were involved. We laid hands and started praying over this dying woman who was so obviously in pain. She curled her toes, moaned and groaned, and gritted her teeth. As we started praying, the woman’s daughter would place our hands on different parts of the woman’s body that were in pain. During that time, we saw her open her eyes for the first time in a month, only to use her own hand to cover them back up after a few seconds. It was as if this spirit that was tormenting her didn’t want her to see or be able to take care of herself, weakening her body in every way. At one point, she even repeated the words to accept Jesus as her savior.
After two and half hours, our prayer time came to a close, but we didn’t feel closure. There was this feeling that a spiritual battle was still happening over this woman. After seeing the power of our God with her own eyes, the daughter invited us to come back the next morning to pray again.
We returned home, debriefed everything that just happened, and prayed about how the Lord would have us approach it the next day. We knew that He was the only one that could work in this woman, both physically and spiritually, and all we could do was be obedient to Him. We remembered in 1 Kings when Elijah laid down on this boy three times and prayed, and as he did, the boy was raised from the dead! We agreed to do the seemingly crazy, allowing God to do His work.
The next day, we woke up early to prayer walk the street in front of the house 7 times before we would go in, preparing the way for the Lord’s work. We entered the house and during two and a half more hours of prayer, we saw miracles happen in the body of this woman. We did things that might seem kind of crazy to these traditional Buddhists –anointing the house, anointing the woman, washing her feet, reading scripture aloud, praying, singing, speaking in tongues, and even shouting “JESUS!” in unison at one point. When we left, the woman felt okay for the first time in 3 months, had opened her eyes for a long time, and wanted food and water! Praise the Lord! She even told us that she would pray to God if she felt any more pain.
I was awestruck. Words can’t even accurately describe that day, its events, and my emotions. We saw the Lord’s victory over this woman’s soul that day and the seed it planted in her family when they saw His power. He used our team as one body, each playing a specific and necessary role in it all.
There are so many beautiful details to this story. Ask me about it sometime, and I would love to share them with you! But I think for now, His glory is shown in the big picture of this story.
