Most all big breakthroughs come out of a lot of small steps. In my head I have always believed that, but this past month, I experienced this truth up close and personally.
In Thailand, my team and I were working with “Abba House.” The place itself is a witness to the “small things” concept. It was not started by some big-funded mission group or even a missionary’s lifelong work. Instead, it was started by a man and woman from Kansas who had recently retired and desired to do more with their new-found time. The “Abba House” began simply as a rented house where street boys and girls who were selling themselves for some rice could find shelter.
Then the news starting getting out about was happening in Thailand. CNN and 60 Minutes aired stories on sex tracking in Thailand. People started looking for ways to help, and this couple with a rented house had one of the few places already set up. The money came in big time. Today, “Abba House” is a fully-funded powerhouse ministry against sex trafficking, offering education, working skills, food, and housing for over 100 kids.
One morning early in our month there, my friend Christian and I were talking about what we wanted this month to look like–our theme, our focus, and the places we could help the most. It was super cool that we both felt the call to focus on prayer.
Our ministry was set up to focus on night ministry (which is a whole other story in itself) so we had until 1 pm each day to plan out lessons for the day. It was amazing to have extended time with Jesus before our day got started. Having a lot of free time has never really been my thing, probably because I have always filled it with something. This month, every day Christian and I would pick a time and just pray while walking around the campus. Day after day we did this to see, well, really nothing happen. That is until one day when an old man just came up to us. He was at Abba House for an English class later that day and saw us praying. He asked us if we would come and pray for his wife. He couldn’t speak that much English at all. All we were able to understand was that he lived near “this tower” and the time that worked for us to come.
The next day we started walking and kind of joked that we had no way of finding his house because we had no real idea of where it was. We went to the tower and the man just showed up out of nowhere and saw us on the road.
We followed him to his house where he told Dawo, his wife, that we were missionaries and that we were going to pray that she would be healed. Dawo had had a stroke 3 years ago and couldn’t move the left side of her body. I had no idea what to do. I do believe that God can heal and does heal. I also believe that praying for healing does something. What that something is, or if there is a right way to pray, though, I did not have a clue. I was a fish out of water. All of that being said, I had been praying for great things all month so why not one more? So Christian and I just started praying that she could start moving the left side of her body. We didn’t stop. After a while, we asked if she could raise her left hand. To her shock (and honestly mine too) her left arm went right up with the other one. Her husband Weso was so excited he told her to stand up. She did, and then she started walking! God had clearly given us a window to present the gospel, so I asked Weso if he could translate for me. And out of nowhere he could now understand English! I explained that Dawo’s healing had nothing to do with me or my friend. It was all the power of the one true God. Really it was fastest conversion ever. She wanted whatever could do what just happened. I told her about sin and what Jesus did and she asked Him into her heart then and there. I then asked her to church that next Sunday and she came. She sat right in front of us. We also were invited back for her 82nd birthday party.
Looking back, there were so many things that should not have happened that day. I shouldn’t have been seen praying. We should have never found her house. People that age don’t regain movement in a whole side of their body. But God is God, and that day He wanted to show His love one more time to a woman named Dawo.
When we decided to pray in the mornings, a miraculous healing was never on our minds. Now I often wonder what God will do in people’s lives if they will just say yes to the small things.
