During the Race, I’ve been really wanting to grow in my
prayer life. You always hear about people who are amazing “prayer warriors,”
and that has just never been me! I think I just have a hard time sitting still
long enough to really take the time to pray like that. Anyways, ironically
enough I have been praying for more faithfulness with prayer, and God answered
my request in a much different way than I expected.
On our first Sunday in Cambodia, we attended the church
downstairs, which is all in the Khmer language. Afterwards we were asked to
come up to the front to pray for one of the local women. We didn’t fully
understand everything, but we were told that she had been involved in some kind
of magic and that she had been having really bad pain in her left side and
thought she was possessed with some kind of demon. As we began praying for her,
she started having all kinds of crazy manifestations and the left side of her
body would shake and twitch uncontrollably. We prayed for a bit and it got a
little better, but afterwards she asked if she could come back at night for
more prayer.
Since then, she has asked us to continue praying for her
every night until we leave, and we have done just that. The first few times,
the manifestations continued. I had never really experienced casting out
demons, so this was all new to me. It was good to reflect and discuss it as a
team though. During one of our prayer sessions, the woman started shaking her
head like she was saying “No,” but more uncontrollably. Another time, we went
to pray over her house and for her family. While we were praying, the woman’s
arm suddenly swung up and came down hard on Cody’s head. We all heard it (it
was pretty loud), and looked up to see what had happened. We saw Cody’s shocked
face, but continued to pray. Afterwards, our friend apologized sincerely, but
clearly she had not done it in her own power.
After a few times of praying for her, we were confused that
the tremors were still occurring. We prayed one last time though, casting
things out, and all of the shaking stopped. Since then, we have seen no sign of
any manifestations. They are completely gone, along with her pain. Every day
she seems happier and now she brings her daughter with her as well. We pray for
wisdom and growth in their faith and reconciliation between the family and
their neighbor who is the own who put a curse against them and did some kind of
strange Voodoo (though the woman had also gone to a witch doctor or something
too).
In regards to my prayer life, this whole experience has been
amazing. The women had come to us for intercessory prayer and it has actually
blessed us to experience her faithfulness. She truly believes that God can do
amazing works and that prayer is powerful. As I pray for her every night, I
have been learning more and more about God’s desire for us to talk to him and
trust Him when we ask Him for things.
