"My heart was burning..."

Okay, this post is mostly for my own sake, to help me process an extremely significant experience than it is to succinctly share for your benefit.

After one of the program visits mentioned in a nother recent post, our guide, Geof (the Australian with an incredibly booming voice and hearty laugh, who visited College Park not long ago) because of his interest in ministering to the Deaf community of Cambodia, asked the Village Leader if there were any deaf people in the village...

Now, I have to tell you: We were he first foreigners to visit this village in many years. How do I know? Several of the villagers who were clearly over 40 years old, told us this was so. Their hospitality was overwhelming. they were soooo glad to see us. Most of the children could not take their eyes of us...

Remember, all of the staff of WR who go into this village are themselves Cambodians.

So the Village Leader told us yes, there was a deaf girl and we were shown down the road to her household. To help Geof with his developing ministry for the blind, I and a couple others of our team went to her house, one of whom was Doug Enas, digital video camera under his arm.

But before we got to meet the deaf girl, the mother of the house showed us her other daughter. Under the stilted home, atop a bamboo table, surrounded by make-shift bug screen sat a girl that was in very bad shape. When the mother first lifted the bug screen, and I first looked at her it literally took my breath away. Her head, most of her face, and shoulders were... what were they... I could not tell. She just looked hideous. I'm sorry to say it like that, but I can think of no better word. "Repulsive" would not be accurate because I did not want to turn away, but rather push through that hideousness and show her love).

So we stood near her and through our interpreter, we learned she used to be a beautiful young woman with long hair. She had a job in a factory when one day her long hair got caught in the machinery. It literally scalped her and crushed part of her face. As we got closer to her, and the large crowd that followed us looked on, we could see she had a very bad infection. The wounds were running with puss, only scabbed over here and there, and the accident occurred 18 months ago.

Again remember, while many of these people had seen foreigners a few times in their lives when they went to the Big City, no one with us had seen white people come to their village.

Maybe I'm wrong, but knowing Cambodian culture, I'm pretty confident this household (with a deaf girl and her sister, this accident victim) would be considered cursed or having really bad Karma. So you could tell the other villagers were not helping her much.

Our guide, because of the large crowd gathering, asked if we could go up into the house, to get the video interview with the deaf girl. We did. Up the thin, bamboo-framed ladder into the house. There our guide asked the mom some questions.

[Since writing this post, we have uploaded video clip(s) related to this experience here.]

After the interview with the deaf girl, we asked permission to pray and lay hands on her. The mom eagerly accepted. So our guide prayed one of the most beautiful, Christ-centered prayers, asking not only for healing and a good life, but that this young girl and her family and her village would know the One True God, Jesus Christ ("Preay a Yah soo" in Khmer language) and be filled with the holy Spirit. The family all was crying a bit. It was an awesome privilege.

The best was yet to come...

Then we shimmed back down the rather precarious ladder back to where the accident victim daughter was, to pray for her as well. The large crowd, most of them young children, looked on as Geof laid hands on the accident victim. then he did something I am sooo glad he did: Geof asked Doug to pray. Doug is an honest young man (maybe 17) who is seeking to know Truth. Young men too often get passed over for leadership opportunities in ministry. This was just an awesome moment. The full weight of this privilege and burden to pray was being offered to Doug and he took it, no doubt with trepidation, but he prayed as the village and all the kids listened. He asked God to show this woman that He sees what men do not see.... that He loves her more than is possible to know... and that she would get the help she needs.... and that she would come to know the love of God offered in Jesus.

After this, as we walked back to the van, I was trembling, and my heart was literally burning inside me. I have such a deep sense that that God will bless this village and especially this family... and that the Holy Spirit really moved in a supernatural way... perhaps not only in relationship to the two girls for whom we prayed, but in the on-lookers as well. So many young eyes drank up the sight of us touching the girl, caring for her, and shedding tears with hands raised to the heavens as we prayed. What a tremendous privilege to be an ambassador for Christ on this day.

... By the way, we did "not just" pray... but actually made arrangements for the accident victim to get safe transport to a clinic near her village, and are going to tell their doctors about her needs before she comes. Also, we are connecting the young deaf girl to resources for the deaf she and her family were not aware were available.