Visitation at Tachang
There is a blackout now. I’m typing on battery power on the laptop with the room illuminated by the screen’s glare and a flickering candle. Morale still remains high. Conversations are still going on in the background and some folks are still strumming away on the guitars and singing songs off the cuff.
The mosquitoes here are not to be underestimated. This reporter (liyang) here was shocked to find three bad bug bites just this morning. I’m grateful for the team for their prayers of healing for me. If there’s one thing that is characterizing this trip is lots of prayer for each other, for the Thai people and for the people we have visited today. Most of us have fallen prey to the winged terrors. Please continue to pray for our safety and well-being.
One of the highlights of the day was the house visitations. We visited a home where a young girl dropped out of school and we wanted to encourage her and her grandmother who was her primary caregiver. Little did we know that it would be an emotional trip for a few team members. Some of us were familiar with this girl from the mission trip last year. They were disappointed to see how, within the span of one year, she has transformed from an innocent pre-teen full of hope and sincerity for God to an “emo” teen, listless and disappointed with God. This broke our hearts just as how God’s heart would be broken to see her in this state. Tears were shed for this girl and for these trippers, I think they’re one step closer to emulating and feeling the Father’s heart. After laying hands, praying for her and taking her through a time with God, we could see her countenance change. Praise The Lord !
Clarence was indignant that the family (and many other families here) was in a cycle of debt and that the amount owed is easily surmountable in Singapore
However, it is not all gloom and doom. Hands were laid upon and there was healing. Aunty Lam Pheng’s knee hurts for a few months – so the team laid hands & prayed for her a few rounds and she said that the pain is gone and she is healed. She even tried bending her knees and squatting! J
After our fruitful first visitation, we made our way to Thachang church where a sumptuous lunch (and a very cute poodle) awaited us. We ate to our hearts’ content, resulting in delicious deep fried fish swimming in the hot tom yam-ish soup in our bellies. House visitation was next on the agenda. Below is one team’s account.
The house visitation team was split into three groups, the children club’s team and two others heading to different homes. For Uncle Henry’s team, we went to visit a mushroom farm with three church members. When we reached the farm, there was an old woman lying on a wooden bed, telling one of the church workers that she has been suffering from headache for quite some time, preventing her from going to Sunday service for the past few weeks. We talked to her and got to know her more and prayed for her headache. The prayer was a “heaty” experience as we felt heat coming from our hands. Maybe it was the anointing oil on her forehead but we prayed fervently for her headache to go away. After praying, she felt so much better! They continued to pray for her sister and her nephew who have been suffering from sore throat for quite sometime. We prayed for them but they didn’t get total healing. Then we proceeded to the next house for visitation.
There, we met an old woman who was a regular church member. She told us that the Lord, the “Father of the creation”, was ministering to her just that morning. We prayed for her right ear which was blocked by some unknown reason. We prayed the first time and she explained that some wind came out of her ear but she was still unable to hear anything. We prayed the second time and we felt an intense heat emanating from our hands. She was able hear some sounds but it still wasn’t clear enough! Aunty Carol came and prayed with all of us and we all felt the same intense heat again. This time she said she was able to hear everything now! She was healed!
The third team visit Aunty Wiang, she was in debt too. She has a mother who has diarrhea for a few days and all along she has weak legs and unable to stand most of the time. When we were about to pray for them, suddenly two ‘loan shark’ riding motor bike appeared. Aunty Wiang immediately went out to attend to them. On that day she managed to sell some of the ‘Langsak’ and managed to pay off some of her debt, If not she will have to go into hiding. We also pray for her mother for healing of her diarrhea, she felt much better after that. Seeing some children around, Pastor Eng Kiat told us to start an impromptu children club. By His divine appointment, the children team is with us and we managed to run some activities for the 5 children.
I guess you can ask why God doesn’t heal all the time, but rather than asking that, there are things we don’t understand like how God works at his own time. This experience reminded me of the time when Heidi Baker (please do a Google search on her) had her first healing experience only after the 100th person. The Lord is always good and has His plans, he doesn’t do that to test us but increases our perseverance to wait on the Lord for grace and healing power at his own time.
Children’s Club & Cell group at Wat Yai Soi
The day’s official program ended with a Children’s Program followed by a cell group. The Children’s Program went smoothly and everyone was charmed by the innocence of the young children. The turnout for the cell group was large and over 40 people were squeezed in an area not bigger than half a typical school classroom. Despite the not so favourable physical conditions, you can surely sense the overall fervour and sincerity of the Thai people as they made prayer a key element of the cell group.
Clarence did a teaching / sharing on receiving a prophetic word or impression from God. I think the local people found the prophetic activity amusing. Try putting yourself in a group of 4 people, cover your eyes and one of your group members raises his / her hands. You’ll have to pray for an impression from God and ask God to reveal to you who was the person who raised his / her hands. It’s definitely not something off the mill. Andrew’s group of 5 did this prophetic exercise and they got the correct answers all the time !!!
The day ended with lots of random singing in the song thaew. I think just like how a pirate crew needs to have a musician on board, music and merry-making go hand in hand and that’s one important factor which has kept the team morale high despite being out of our comfort zones and placed in unfamiliar territory.
Overall, though all this, God is showing us in real tangible ways to have compassion for others. Though we are going through some inconveniences like bumpy roads, a blackout and bug bites, I doubt it can compare to the real, hard and everyday bread-and-butter issues these people face. An oft-quoted question, “What makes us so privileged to be born in Singapore
Sincerely,
Liyang (With contributions from Darius)
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