Dear fellow workers,
Please pray for Pan (pictured above), a member in the church in Na Ong village. Pan hurt his foot last month and failed to treat it properly. He’s now showing signs of tetanus and is very sick. After much coaxing, Pro-in and Vanda (our church-planting partners) were able to get him to the provincial hospital in our town. Please pray earnestly for two things:
1. Spiritual protection and perseverance. Under pressure from his wife, along with is own fear, Pan is considering consulting a shaman for healing–a deep-seated, instinctive response for many Cambodians in his situation (in some ways, it’s akin to the way you or I might automatically treat a headache with a couple Tylenol). Pan knows that this is wrong and runs counter to his vows to Christ. And even though it’s hard for us to sympathize with this temptation, please know that the pressure is immense for our Cambodian brothers and sisters. Please pray for that he would persevere in his loyalty to Christ as his healer and protector.
2. Physical healing. Pray that Pan would be willing to receive the treatments necessary for lasting healing. He’s far removed from his comfort zone in a town where he doesn’t speak the language, and he comes with many fears (he’s being told that he will receive a lethal injection at the hospital). Pray that the doctors could diagnose and treat him successfully. And pray for Pro-in and Vanda as they do the extremely difficult work of shepherding a wayward sheep (who is much older than they are—a significant cultural hurdle).
“I really believe that if every particle of prayer put up by the home churches on behalf of the infant churches of the mission field were removed, the latter would be swamped by an incoming flood of the powers of darkness…. Just as a plant may die for lack of watering, so may a genuine work of God die and rot for lack of prayer.”
James O. Fraser