“Is there anyone here who is just not medical?”
“Me!” as I shot up my hand. I hate all things blood and needles. However, on this particular evening, we were gearing up to plan a medical camp at a village nearby. All of the girls here come from different villages and every so often we will go and provide basic medical care. Naturally, I was on the prayer team.
The next morning it was time to leave so after picking up all the supplies at a local pharmacy we loaded 2 bins of medicine and bandages, countless water bottles, bags of candy for the kids and about 10 people in the back of a song tow- which is like a giant tuk tuk. We headed for a village about 30 minutes away and had an activity in the car called a “treasure hunt.” Now, this is not like any treasure hunt I have ever done. We put on some tunes and went into listening prayer to see if the Lord would bring any words or pictures to us to “hunt” for in the village. Several of my teammates heard or saw something, but after about 30 minutes of trying to connect with the Holy Spirit I got nothing. I love being able to practice my relationship with the Holy Spirit in a safe environment, but these activities usually leave me discouraged to say the least.
When we arrived to the village I took my place on a concrete bench as the medical team set up a table to survey symptoms and pass out any over the counter medicine that we would think helpful. We were crowded with toothless children and their newborn kittens while a few plates of the biggest cucumber slices I had ever seen were being passed around- not a bad spot to wait on the first person who needs prayer. The language barrier was difficult because these people didn’t speak English or Thai, but a unique native tongue. We had 3 translators per station since we brought some of the older orphan girls with us. My teammate would ask in English which would translate to Thai and then in their native language to see what people needed healing for. The process was quite lengthy. When the locals were ready for prayer, they would bring us a slip of paper with their symptoms written in English.
Most of the time we were praying for general aches and pains to go away, and after awhile I began to feel repetitive. I felt as if nothing was happening, like I was praying to pray instead of encountering the Holy Spirit. We were praying to lift all the pain out of the right hip of this one man. I was praying and praying, but eventually watched him limp off the line when we are finished. The day started with not hearing from God and was shifting into not feeling God at all. I needed a heart check. You know when you do something over and over that you forget how important it is? Or why you even started? I was feeling that way. These are individual people with hand-picked characteristics and unique pains, so why am I speaking over them as if they are all the same?
I told myself that I am doing this all wrong. Yes God is the one providing the healing and not me, but if I am going to pray- I need to pray bigger. If we are going to pray for healing in a small village in Thailand I want to open blind eyes and see the lame walk.
The next man that came over had a tooth ache written on his slip, and while there is no way for me to visibly see his tooth healed- I prayed bigger. I started getting bold and asking God to give us visible proof of what we were doing. I prayed and prayed for the healing of his tooth with my 3 other teammates. I prayed that when I take my hand off his shoulder he will meet me with a smile as proof that the prayer worked. After we closed the prayer the man lifted his head up and turned to look me in the eye- he met only me with a smile and a handshake. Zero words were exchanged, but God speaks them all so it didn’t matter. It worked. From this one healing I was motivated and hungry for more. I asked God to bring us bigger things to pray for so that I can edify my faith from this ministry.
The next woman that came up had a slip of paper that read, “Needs glasses- pray for healed vision.” Now we didn’t know if this meant she was nearly blind or slightly nearsighted, but we prayed as if her eyes had never been opened. We prayed boldly and we even prayed twice. I did the same as before and asked God to give me visible evidence of healing. After we finished talking to God and asking Him to heal her eyes- she looked up at me out of the 4 of us who had been praying and met my eyes and shook my hand. Her demeanor changed to incredibly joyful and she was all smiles.
We will never know for sure if these people were healed, or just happy to have received prayer, but faith is a choice. So in this instance we will choose that these reactions were of the Lord.
Nonbelievers speak of coincidences while the believers speak of miracles.
One more thing- “yim” means smile in Thai.
