East Asians Reach Out to Neighboring Countries

East Asians Reach Out to Neighboring Countries

While our East Asia medical team was arriving for a short-term trip to another Asian country, four Christians, including one foreigner, had just been arrested for violating the new anti-evangelism law in that country. After preparing our medical team to pray for the patients they would encounter, we were told it would not be wise to pray openly this year. Last year, over a dozen patients were healed by our Father through prayer. As has become the norm for work in sensitive areas, we reach out with warm smiles, soft touches, and silent prayers while trusting the Holy Spirit.

The week before we left, it rained every day, prompting our concerned host, the Wesleyan national leader, to exhort his flock to pray. Those prayers were emphatically answered. Our Range Rovers easily climbed the steep mountain roads; many of them improved from the last year. Not once did we fear a vehicle would lurch out of rain-slicked ruts and tumble down the mountainside. As we headed to these remote tribes, the scenery did not disappoint. Nor did the people.

Men and women effortlessly climbed rock steps to our clinics. They were mainly sustenance farmers. Females carry loads with their hands or on their heads, so most of the female patients complained of head and neck pain. Diagnoses typically weren’t complicated. Our care contrasted that given by witch doctors and shamans. In this country where the majority of people are Hindu and Buddhist, our work showed that Christians care for their neighbors. It builds up the church in those villages or prepares the way for a new church plant.

One day we served inside a church where we could legally minister. Sam* strongly sensed that one Hindu patient with pain in many of her joints would be healed through prayer. Despite the persistent, gentle offer from our translator, she refused and moved on to our pharmacy. A four-year-old girl, who had experienced some improvement to her infection after seeing a witch doctor, visited our pediatrician who asked Sam to pray for her. This young girl wanted her mom to bring her to church. Sam had a strong impression that this girl may already be discerning and seeing the peace in the church. He spoke life over her so that someday she would speak healing, truth-filled words to people so they would be set free.

Our team from East Asia, the United States, and Japan will return next year, while some will also serve in other Asian countries this year. From everywhere to everywhere, these teams are reaching many with the love of Jesus through ministering to their medical needs.

*Names omitted or changed for security reasons.