A Witch Doctor for Christmas
Each day here in Cambodia looks fairly similar (as far as ministry is concerned). Four of us teach English in an elementary school each day and the other three of us teach English at a church to preschoolers. Wednesday, December 20th, God interrupted our ‘normal’ ministry routine.
Our host, we call him Pastor, drove his tuk tuk* in to the front yard and four of my teammates and I hopped in. On our way to our respective locations, we were chatting about our lesson plans. Would we yet again go over the alphabet? Would the children understand if we tried to teach them something new? What if we tried more visual aids?
As we neared the school, I looked out to the left where I saw the fields of crop waiting for harvesters. Cambodia, especially the village we are in, is absolutely breathtaking. I took a deep breath and marveled at the beauty God had laid before me.
Moments later, I noticed something ahead on the side of the road. I could make out white cloth and what looked like knees. We passed the thing, and immediately I knew it was a ‘him’. I looked at the girls across from me in the tuk tuk and said, “Wait, that was a human.”
As I said these words, Pastor began to slow down. He parked the tuk tuk and we both hurried to the man. He was an older man, gray and thin. His white beard twitched, and his tanned legs were crumbled under his body. He looked like he had been lying in the sun for hours.
“Is he alive?” I said grabbing his arm.
His clothes were tattered and his skin was hot to the touch. I noticed a walking cane that had fallen a few feet to his left. He had no doubt collapsed in the Cambodian heat.
Pastor looked at me and said, “This man is a witch doctor. He is the ‘magic man’, and he walks all over the community practicing his beliefs.”
I immediately began praying because I knew that this was not a coincidental encounter. Pastor began speaking to the unresponsive man in Khmer* as he lifted his pale face. One of my other teammates had ran up behind us and passed me her water bottle as the other three remained praying in the tuk tuk. I poured some for the man to drink as Pastor opened his mouth. The man sipped slowly as his eyes remained closed.
Pastor looked at us and said, “He is going to die here in this sun. Help me move him over to the shade.”
We lifted his frail body and moved him a few feet. Another teammate had walked up, removed her cardigan, and propped his head off the ground. I took more water and washed his face, legs, and arms hoping that it would cool his fever.
“Well, do we leave him here or what?” Pastor asked us.
The five of us looked at one another and decided that this was not an option. How could we leave a man to die? Collectively, we decided to find and deliver him to his home. We loaded him in the tuk tuk and propped him up on our shoulders. I grabbed his hand and one of my teammates stroked his silver hair. Each of us prayed over him as we tried to give him more water.
A few kilometers down the road, Pastor turned the tuk tuk into the man’s driveway. Two women, the older one gardening and the younger one sitting with her children, looked at us and were startled to see their loved one passed out. Pastor hopped off the tuk tuk to explain the situation to them, and they received the news with gratitude for our help.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” the younger woman said as we carried the man to a table near his tree house*.
We said one last prayer over him, and we left for our ministry sites.
As we traveled down the road, I continued conversation with God.
This man is your in to this family. Go back and they will receive what you have to say.
When we arrived at the school, I asked Pastor if we could go back to the family’s home the next day. He smiled and said yes.
The next morning we set out for the home. As we pulled up in the family’s yard, the two women invited us upstairs where the man was lying on a mat. As we ascended the thin, wooden stairs to the tree house, we noticed the older woman reach down and remove an anklet from her leg. In the present moment I did not think anything of this action, but later Pastor explained that this anklet was one that the witch doctor ‘prescribed’ to ward off evil spirits. Even before we mentioned the name of God aloud, He was already breaking chains in the physical realm; because, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! After she untied the anklet, she followed us up to see the man.
The man slowly lifted his head and looked at each of us as we kneeled around him. He looked much more responsive today. Pastor explained in Khmer what happened yesterday and why we were back. The man looked confused but nodded his head.
Pastor looked at us and said, “Everyone living in the community is afraid of this man because he practices magic. What do you wish to say to him?”
We paused.
“Well, have they heard about Jesus?” I asked.
“No, they have not. They believe in Buddha,” he responded.
My team and I looked at one another, smiled, and the gospel went forth. We shared the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We shared the truth of living life without God and our feelings of emptiness prior to giving our lives to Jesus. We shared our fullness after giving our lives away. We shared the truth about the simplicity of the gospel. We explained that God is relational, that He speaks to us, and that He desires to know us.
The younger girl (the man’s granddaughter) began to weep. We prayed over the family. We prayed for healing over the man, we renounced fear, doubt, and confusion, and we lead the girl in a salvation prayer.
As we were preparing to leave, the older woman grabbed my hand and showed me her right arm and leg. Pastor translated and told me that her right side was immobile due to high blood pressure and potentially a stroke. We laid hands on her and asked for God’s healing. When the prayer was finished, she smiled, moved her right hand, and said that it was better (praise God!).
She looked up at Pastor and looked around at us. She asked him how long he had known us. He told her he had only known us a few weeks and that we were leaving for Thailand soon. She responded by saying that she could tell there was something different about us that she had not experienced before.
“It’s all because of Jesus,” I said smiling.
We hugged each of them and invited them to Sunday’s church service, which happens to be Christmas Day.
Previously for Christmas, I have asked for clothes, Barbies, shoes, and even a pony. This Christmas, all I want is for God to bring this family to church.
UPDATE: The older woman and her great grandson met us smiling at the end of their driveway Sunday in order to come to church! They explained that the younger woman would remain at home to care for the ‘magic man’ as his fever had remained high. They joined us in the tuk tuk and spent Christmas day celebrating the birth of our Savior. God is so good and so faithful!
I expected this time of the year to be the hardest part of being away from home. Instead God has given me a renewed sense of joy in celebrating Christmas by giving my life away. Thank you all so much for supporting me and praying for me. I would not be here today without you all.
*A tuk tuk is the ‘local transportation’ of Cambodia. It is a motorcycle that pulls a trailer with seats on it
*Khmer is the official language in Cambodia
*Most of the homes in the village where we stay are referred to as ‘tree houses’. They are typically one or two rooms (usually 10×10 with wooden walls and wooden floors) raised on beams for flooding purposes
