The story of Friday, conclusion

Okay, this will hopefully wrap up my story of my Friday in Thailand, and then tomorrow I can move on to my personal reflections about the events.

Anyhow, we headed out to the village in the truck, praying and preparing our hearts as we went. I felt particularly led to pray against any bitterness or resentment we might have against the man, given what he had "done" to Lynn, in order that we could come in a true spirit of love and blessing.

It had turned out that the team had a pre-existing connection with the spirit doctor's son, and so the original intent was to connect with the son, in order to have him introduce us to his father. However, our first stop in the village led us to believe that might not be the best idea. In our search for the son, we connected with another friend, who let us know that the father/son relationship was not the best, that the son didn't spend much time around his home. So, rather than seek out the son, we found out where the spirit doctor lived and went in search of him.

He was not at home, but out in the fields, and someone else from the village went to tell him he had visitors. Lynn, Amy, and Silk waited outside for him to return, while Randy and I stayed in the truck, praying. While we were waiting for him to come, a woman with whom the team had a prior connection came up to the house. It turned out that she was the spirit doctor's wife. There was a connection there already that we didn't know about.

Anyhow, the man we were looking for finally arrived. I don't know what you think about when I use the term "spirit doctor", but I'm guessing (as it was for me), you picture someone a bitter more menacing that this guy. This was just your average, ordinary, little Issan man, and he was all smiles as he came up to the house and saw his visitors. I wish we had been able to get a picture of this guy (it was one of our goals, but it didn't happen) so I could post it for you, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

Now of course, you'll remember that I was in the truck for all this, so some of the finer details are coming second hand, since I couldn't hear anything, but the conversation went very well initially. Lynn said things went quite well, up until the point where he stated their purpose in coming - to bless him in the name of Jesus. That got him very uncomfortable, and as Silk started to share with him about God's love, he resisted and said he didn't want anything to do with that. Eventually he got up and left. Even from the truck, it was clear that he was very agitated and was running away. After getting an update from Amy, we were praying for him to come back and give us just 5 minutes, and an opportunity to get a picture, but that never materialized, he was clearly running. So, Silk and Lynn blessed the property, we left behind some fruit we had brought with a note, and left. On the way out of the village, we saw him walking towards us. That is, of course, until he saw us, at which point he turned around and headed towards another house where there were people outside. Again, we just blessed him and prayed against his fear.

In addition to what we learned about the brokenness of the father/son relationship, we also learned from our conversation that this man clearly has some sort of difficulty seeing. On the way out of the village, Amy suddenly was having trouble seeing out of her left eye. We took this as a word of knowledge and prayed for physical, emotional, and spiritual healing for this man. Amy was soon able to see clearly again, but still felt a kind of shadow or presence by her eye, so we prayed again binding whatever spirits might be at work in this man's life. Amy's eyesight was completely cleared up by the time we got home.

So, while we didn't have the particular outcomes we were hoping for, we really believe that some significant things happened that day in spiritual terms, and we're just waiting to see the results in the physical world. I'll be reflecting in more detail over the next couple days, but one thing God clearly showed me through the seat I had for this encounter was that this man is not the enemy. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, after all. My heart was just broken for him, as I sensed an intense loneliness stemming from this broken relationship with his son, along with the physical brokenness he seems to be experiencing with his eyes. I don't see him as some evil menacing "spirit doctor", but as a lost and hurting child, who is a prisoner to something he doesn't even understand. And I believe wholeheartedly that in this encounter, the man was curious and interested, but the spirits he's given his life over to had to run. I believe there will come a day when the spirits will run again, but this time they will have to leave the man behind, and then he will run towards the team, much in the same way he ran away from us last Friday. If you're so inclined, I encourage you to pray to that end as you have opportunity. (The man's name is Paw Wang)

So, while this "concludes" my story, it's really only the beginning of a much larger story, which I can't wait to have the opportunity to tell.