Feb. 7, 2017:
One day this month in Thailand, our ministry hosts were having a morning meeting, so instead of assigning us one of our “typical jobs” to do of refinishing (sanding, lacquering, etc.) furniture, going to the Children’s Home to teach English, or helping out with their other ministries in a variety of ways, our host Tana told us to have an “Ask the Lord” day for a few hours before we did ministry as usual.
We were excited because our team had been wanting to do something like this for a while, but we were also a little hesitant and nervous because we didn’t know what to expect or how the Lord would show up.
So we started off with Amy singing and plying some worship songs on the guitar she had found in the house and we joined in singing. We had a time of prayer where we asked the Lord where He wanted us to go that day and what He wanted us to do.
We got a few different words ans decided to break off into 2 groups of 3. I joined Mallorie and Katherine, and since Mallorie had gotten the word “hospital” and I got the words “prayer walk,” we set off on our bikes with a hand-drawn map of the town in hand, in search of the nearest hospital, Mae Sot Ram Hospital.
We ended up taking the long way around to get there, but we got to the hospital in God’s perfect timing. The three of us locked up our bikes and walked into the hospital, not quite sure what to expect, or whether we would even be allowed in. I stepped up to the front desk and asked the receptionist if she knew English and if we could go in and pray for sick patients. She didn’t understand, so she called a few more nurses over and they had me speak more slowly, but they still didn’t understand what we were asking since none of us were sick.
Finally, one of the nurses gestured for us to follow her, and she brought us to a male doctor who spoke very good English. We explained to him that we weren’t sick, but we were wondering if we could pray for some people who were. His eyebrows rose, and he said, “Yes! Follow me.” We were amazed that in our most unreached country, we were being ushered in to pray for the sick in a hospital we had never stepped foot in before!
On the way, the doctor asked if we were Christians. We looked at each other nervously, not sure if answering would change his mind or get us into trouble, and then we said yes. He asked if we were Catholic or Protestant. We told him Protestant. He nodded and didn’t say much else until we took an elevator up to Floor 3 (amazingly the number that Katherine had gotten from the Lord earlier!)
We got to pray for 3 male patients who were recovering from a gas fire burn accident. The doctor translated for us what we wanted to do, and each one of them smiled and nodded, allowing us to touch their shoulder or arm and pray for God to heal them. We also prayed for them and their families to come to know God in His timing. They didn’t understand much English, but happily received our prayers and well wishes.
After we got to pray with the patients, we asked the doctor in the elevator ride down if he was a Christian. And he said yes! Suddenly it made so much sense how God had orchestrated this divine appointment for us to be able to meet this doctor and be able to pray for his patients! But God wasn’t done showing up yet.
We walked back to the doctor’s office together and if we could pray for him before he left. He said yes and we got to pray blessings over him and his family, that they would keep the faith and that he would be a light to others in the hospital. He then gave us each his card and told us that he was a director of the hospital!
We were about to leave when the director told us that it was lunch time, and would we like to join him for lunch at the hospital? We must’ve looked at each other with matching grins mile-wide, our eyes in awe of how much God was showing up! We told him yes, we’d like that very much, and followed him to the hospital kitchen.
When we got there, he asked if we all liked chicken. Mallorie and I said yes, but we explained that Katherine is a vegetarian. So he said, “Okay. Chicken. Chicken. And no meat,” then translated that to the kitchen staff in Thai. He then led us into a separate room that looked like a meeting room mixed with a dining room with a long table with a paper tablecloth and chairs on either side. He explained to us that doctors, nurses, and the staff that work at the hospital eat there for free, but today we were guests! God was blessing us with a free lunch!
We made conversation about where he and his family lived, and he told us that he commutes to another hospital in Chiang Mai. We told him about the World Race and how we were going to meet the rest of our squad in Chiang Mai in a few weeks for some of us to go on PVT (the Parent Vision Trip, where some parents come to visit and do ministry with their World Racers on the field), and for some of us to get our ministry assignments for non-PVT. He told us that one of his Christian friends told him about the World Race and he is familiar with what we are doing. He then asked how we ended up at his hospital that day, and we told him we prayed and felt like God was sending us here so we could meet him and pray for his patients. He nodded and said he’d heard of divine appointments like that before.
I felt like saying to him, “Really?!? Because this is the first time we’re experiencing something this cool! And it’s Month 7 of our Race!” But I kept my mouth shut and smiled to myself, hoping that God would continue to show up like this for us more on the Race and the rest of our lives.
A lot of this might not seem like a big deal to you. I mean, anyone can walk into a hospital and ask to pray for people right? And then there’s a chance that you might meet a doctor or nurse who might be interested in why you’re there and invite you to lunch.
But for us, we saw how many obstacles there were for us to even be allowed in to pray for patients that day. For starters, we might not have found anyone who spoke good enough English to understand what we wanted to do. Then once we found someone who spoke English, that person could’ve easily said no, not had the clearance to allow us in to see any patients, or they could’ve started asking us uncomfortable questions about why we wanted to pray for people in the hospital and possibly told us to leave just because we were Christians in a very Buddhist country.
Once we were told that we could go pray for patients, the doctor could have just gestured us toward anywhere in the hospital to pray for people, and we would’ve walked along without direction and without a translator once we found patients. Once the doctor came with us, the patients could’ve easily said they don’t want strangers to pray for them because they have their own gods to pray to, or they could’ve been upset with us for intruding in on them when they weren’t feeling well (we did stay just outside the door of each patient until the doctor waved us in each time to be sure that we weren’t imposing).
Once we finished praying for people, the doctor could’ve said he didn’t want us to pray for him. And it would’ve been very reasonable to end the day there without getting invited to lunch with the doctor (who turned out to be a director!), but in all these ways, God showed up big for us that day.
God confirmed to us in many ways that day that we do hear his voice and that He does reward those who are obedient to Him. As an extra blessing, I am not very fond of hospitals (in fact they really creep me out), but that day, I felt nothing but peace as we walked through that hospital. God gave me the boldness to ask if we could pray for the sick, and I felt that there was no harm in trying. And I also felt joy every time we got to pray for a patient and see their smile afterwards, for us to know that for one day they got a visit from someone outside of their family who cares enough about their health to want to pray for them.
This day was an ordinary, everyday miracle. And I hope that God has many more of these days for me to come, filled with divine appointments, joy, and new friendships.
I hope that this inspires you to step out and do something ordinary, but good that God is asking you to do today. Will you listen to His call? God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.
