Once upon a time a group of faithful, devout, joy-filled Christians prayed for months and months for a group of foreign missionaries to come to their small town of Thoen, Thailand. After months that turned into years of asking the Lord, He provided. And me and my team just so happened to be the answer to their prayers.
Humbling, right?
I can honestly say I have never felt like the “answer to someone’s prayers.” But that’s exactly what Pastor John told us when we arrived in Thoen. Pastor John (aka “PJ”) has prayed fervently for over 2 years to have foreign missionaries come work alongside him in Thailand. And as always, God provided.
One of the believers that had been praying alongside PJ for foreign missionaries to come to this small town in Thailand was a woman we visited a few days back. I don’t know how to pronounce her name (because Thai is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn), let’s just name her Joy because joy is what was written all across her face when we went to her home.
So we met Joy.
Four years ago, Joy fell down the stairs in her home which resulted in her enduring a major back surgery and she has had back pain ever since….and she can barely walk. When we met Joy, she flashed us a big smile and grabbed her crutch so she could slowly make her way into the house to talk and pray with us.
Joy’s legs have not been working properly ever since her fall. She is nearly paralyzed. As she makes her way around the house she clings tightly to her crutch to stabilize her so she won’t fall down, again. Joy was eager for us to be there to pray to God with her for healing.
So we prayed.
Three times we prayed over sweet Joy. We don’t speak the same language, but you could see the earnest desire and faith Joy had in the Lord to provide complete healing over her body.
After the first “Amen”, we helped Joy walk around the room without her crutch to see if her legs were any better. She said they were a little better, but then told us she had very bad back pain and proceeded to show us the scar from her surgery.
So again, we prayed.
After the second “Amen”, I helped Joy up out of her chair and we walked around the room. She walked much better than she was before we arrived, but she was still squeezing my hand so tightly for support. We knew God wanted to heal her even more than He already had, so we gathered around her once more.
So for the third time, we prayed.
We asked God to do what only He could do and provide sweet Joy with the healing she so longed for. After the third “Amen”, I helped Joy walk around the room and this time she barely used my hands at all!! Praise Jesus! She was walking around pretty much all by herself and was even dancing a bit!
We were all cheering and praising God, I truly believe we saw a glimpse of heaven.
Joy began to tell us that she had no more pain in her body and we praised God. We saw Joy again a few days later and she said she still had no more pain in her body. Thank you, Jesus!
Our first week of ministry here in Thailand has been nothing short of an adventure. It hasn’t been easy to say the least, but the little moments like we had with Joy make even the toughest of days more than worth it.
Week 1 of ministry is in the books, can’t wait to see what the next 2 weeks will hold!
