Meet some miracles

Fruit is one of my favourite things about Thailand and this is my favourite fruit season. In this picture you can see why - dragon fruit, mangosteen, rose apples, lychee and mangoes! 

I recently had the opportunity to join my Thai friend Silk (who leads the house church I attend) for a day of watching 'fruit' ripen - the fruit of 5 years of sowing seeds and waiting. We visited these wonderful miracles of God in the villages around Ubon. I came back full of joy. Here is why:

Meet Po Bun and Mae Phoon. This is their house, one that I don't think I could ever live in! It is surrounded by rice fields, far from the village. They are extremely poor. Kris and Silk met Mae Phoon the day they were driving around asking the Holy Spirit if there was a person of peace in that village. They felt they should stop when they saw Mae Phoon sitting at the side of the road. She was paralysed and couldn't walk, so was waiting for someone to give her a lift to the town. They helped her, but also offered to pray for her healing, and she got up and walked!

She decided to give her life to Jesus and Kris and Silk began to visit her weekly to read the Bible together. 

The Isaan people aren't big on reading and understanding, it is more of an oral culture. So instead, they use Bible storying - telling the story twice, then asking them to tell it, and discussing three key questions - what does it teach us about God? What does it teach us about man? How will we respond in obedience to this?

Her husband, usually drunk, wasn't interested for a long time. However one day, he had a drunk-driving accident on a motorbike, which left him covered in blood and in excruciating pain in a forest off the side of the road. In his pain, he remembered Jesus. "Jesus, if you're real," he said, "take away this pain, and I will follow you." Immediately, all pain went. He made it through the night, and decided to follow Jesus from that night on. Both now study the Bible diligently, with the hunger of first love. 

Meet Mae Nan. She is an amazing businesswoman. Suffering from mysterious pains which the doctor couldn't diagnose, she went to see the monk. He said it was a curse that someone had put on her, that would result in death. Worse still, he demanded a large sum of money to do the necessary rituals and chants to lift her curse. Wondering how a spiritual leader could be so set on material gain, she began to ask questions about the God that the Christians who visited her mentally handicapped brother.

She received prayer, and was completely healed. Kris and Silk then began to visit her weekly and read the Bible with her. One day, the Buddha images that she had on a pedestal in her shop spontaneously fell on their face while they were studying the Bible. She immediately knew that this meant she had to get rid of her idols and give her life to Jesus. She was baptised weeks later.

 When we visited, she shut her shop so that she could study the Bible without interruptions. We talked about how a Christian should deal with the Buddhist traditions and festivals that are such an integral part of the culture, like spirit houses, ancestor worship, Buddhist festivals and ceremonies like weddings and funerals. Finally we talked about thanking God before meals. Asked to practice, she prayed a grace that you might expect of a 10 year old Christian rather than a 10 week old one! This lady had a gift of listening to the Holy Spirit and obeying immediately, and a passion for the lost, that makes her a beautiful 'person of peace' (Luke 10).

Finally, meet Mae Ying and Po Som. This lovely couple have been Christians for a few years, but are only now getting to know their Saviour through personal relationship and reading the Bible. They are passionate about sharing what they are learning with others in their village hungry for truth. Here, Silk helped them with questions they didn't know how to answer, and helped them understand the book of Esther by story-telling it after they had already tried reading it. Finally, they shared about problems with forgiveness in their marriage, and received encouragement to forgive, as Christ forgives us, in order to really love. Their sweetness and humility touched me deeply. 

Only Jesus! He heals hearts and bodies, restores relationships, breathes new life. These are walking Miracles.