It was on a
prayer walk Thursday morning in Ubon Ratchithani Province that God reminded me
how He prepares the way. If we listen and obey, God will show up in big ways.
Jesse,
Charity, and Lana plus six Thai youth were present in my group, 10 in total. FYI-
not one of us in the group could translate well between Thai and English.
I found
myself at the back of the pack towards this the end of the walk. This is when I
paused near a man sitting alone on a pile of rice sacks. I did the whole walk-past-stop-reverse
maneuver. Talk to Him. Okay, God.
I approach
the man and say “Sawadee Ka” with the wa (a bow with the hands together at your
face). This is the traditional Thai greeting. He responds with a “Sawadee Kap”,
smiles, and looks directly at me.
I am in
shock when I look into his eyes; this man is blind. (You would, God).
Testing my assumption,
I act as if I am handing him a bible, making sure to not touch him with it. No
response. Yes, He is blind. In that moment, I step aside to reassess the
situation and ask God what to do. I see Lana and tell her what I just learned
about this man.
“No Way?!”
She responds this way because of our encounter with a blind woman 3 days
earlier (Read here).
We both walk
back over and by this time have attracted some attention from our Thai youth
group.
Lisa” “Choon Chu Lana” “Nice to meet you” he responds in English. “My name is
Bo Ki… Mister Bo Ki!” We both reach for his hand and he holds on longer as if
to memorize the details of our hands.
We make it
clear that we want to pray for his eyes, but first ask if he believes in Jesus.
No, he is Buddhist and doesn’t know about our savior. We go ahead and give him
a bible and he holds it and fans through it upside down. We try to have one of
the youth read Romans 8 in Thai but he is soon distracted and begins to ask
questions about us. We’ll ask his family to read after we leave…
So, at this
point I decide we will go ahead and pray. “Can you tell him we are going to
pray to Jesus Christ? There is power in His name. We are praying to the one and
only God” I hop up in the rice sacks with him and hold his hand. Lana prays a
prayer a little like this:
penetrate his soul. Despite the language barrier here move through this
encounter. Open the eyes of his heart to see your love and mercy. Amen.
He couldn’t
stop smiling and one of the Thai youth translated his response to our prayer:
“I am happy.”
Although an
odd situation, we were right on track.
This man is probably an outcast often helpless and forced to rely on others. Thursday,
I did not expect to pray over a blind person yet God led me right to this man.
Keep leading me to them Lord.
I know God
is going to move in Mister Bo Ki. Whether he regains his sight and opens his
eyes physically, or opens the eyes to his heart, its all the work of God.
Pray God
works in his entire family. Pray they come to know the love of Christ, who
loves everyone, even this ONE blind man sitting on rice sacks in Ubon.
