Y’all, Cambodia is nuts! It’s like Africa meets Asia. Incredibly fast paced, no street rules, street kids everywhere, no understanding of personal space, just an overall pedal to the metal place, and a breeding ground to see The Lord do some awesome stuff.
Our team is working with an organization called Love146 which combats/does research on sex trafficking in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We aren’t allowed to work closely with them until are background checks are complete (understandably so since this organization was burned by previous volunteers). So until then we have been doing daily prayer walks. A few days ago during our prayer walk The Lord put on my heart the river front area, I felt like we really needed to start going there especially for healing ministry (physical and spiritual).
So, I voiced it to the team and for the last 3 days we’ve gone to the river. And for the last 3 days my mind has been blown…
Our first day Lindsey, Will, and I stumbled upon a dead man. You read that correctly, a dead man. He was laying half in half out of the river. A group of “doctors”, policeman, and citizens were surrounding the man. Knowing we came to the river to make the glory of God known we figured let’s pray for this body to rise. So we made our way down there through the crowd and asked a policeman if we could pray. He gave us the okay so right there on the edge of the river in Phnom Penh we began to call out to our Lord to raise this man from the dead. I have never had so many Cambodians stare at me before as in the moment where we were unashamedly calling out to Jesus. People were entranced. A couple people asking if we were praying to Jesus. I know you are all wondering, no the man did not wake up. But that doesn’t make me lose hope. I don’t know our exact purpose there. Maybe that guy knew Jesus and there was no reason for him to come back. Maybe those people may have never seen anyone cry out to God like that in a desperate situation in which there seemed to be no hope. Where they thought there was no hope we had hope. Either way I trust in The Lord and His plan.
The very next day we go back to the river. We started off worshiping and I began to pray that God would just send people to us today. It wasn’t 10 minutes before a bunch of street kid ran up and hung out with us. A few minutes after them, this teenage guy came up and challenged us to a dance off! It was too funny. Come to find out the kid is deaf. So we began to pray for his hearing to be restored. It was not restored in that moment, but remember this kid because I will come back to him.
We bought some water for these kids and I had one extra so I took it to a guy laying down in the park. As soon as I gave him the water I realized something was wrong with his arm. Unfortunately the guy didn’t speak English, BUT come to find out he is from China! So once again my 3 semesters of mandarin pay off! I find out he is paralyzed on the right side of his body due to a head injury that happened 4 years ago. He wouldn’t let me touch his arm, but he said I could pray. So I began to pray for complete healing and reconstruction of things in his brain and body. However, once again no signs of a physical healing.
I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t somewhat disappointed. I really desired these people to be well and wanted them to be healed, but I felt like I wasn’t seeing it! I continued to believe God put this on my heart for a reason and I know his power. Even though I didn’t see them healed physically, I pray that through prayer and intercession they begin to have their eyes opened spiritually.
I went and sat down next to my deaf friend (whose name is Sokha) and asked him to play paper, rock, scissors (because that is what you do when you can’t communicate). He then began to sign to me that he can’t because he broke his wrist in a motorbike accident. He begins to show me he can only move his wrist up and down. Knowing God’s nature to heal I ask if I can pray for his wrist, and he nodded yes. So Heather and I start prayin. Nothing different about this time around than any other, we simply called out to the Creator of everything and asked Him to heal our friend. We finish praying and look at Sokha and all of a sudden Sokha begins moving his hand in full range of motion!! He grimaces, points to a certain part of his wrist, and gives his wrist back to me to pray more. So we pray again. This time when we are finished he begins to move his hand in full range of motion with no pain!!! Healing!! Jesus completely restored Sokha’s wrist! It was so cool! Praise God! I began to sign to him Jesus (shout out to all those who taught me the hand motions to ‘Jesus Loves Me’) healed you. Side note- I saw Sokha again today and asked him about his wrist and he gave me the thumbs up! So cool! Even cooler is when he pulled one of my teammates this month aside to go pray over one of his friends who was sick. He has realized the power of prayer! God is alive and active y’all. We will continue to pray for Sokha’s hearing every day we see him and I hope to write again soon about God restoring his hearing.
That was just the first 2 days of ministry y’all. Who knows what all is in store this month.
***I do want to make sure people understand I don’t think physical healing is what it is all about. We want people to know Jesus. I think that can happen through evangelism, but I also think it can happen through healing ministry or other types of ministry. So please understand I am not desiring the gift more than the Giver. I just think God uses different methods in different situations, and in the last couple days that has been what He has put on my heart.
