Source: OMF International, April 28, 2017
It was Good Friday and I was driving home after dark with Lai, my house helper, and her four children on our way back from picnicking at a waterfall. Shortly into the drive, on a quiet forested road, I saw a young tribal woman. She was maybe 16 years old, barefooted, and carrying a baby. I stopped the car and asked Lai to approach the girl to see if we could help drive her somewhere.
Through the windows, I saw something like a heated exchange happening, so I got out of the car to see what the problem was. The young girl was hysterical. Through heavy sobs, she was telling Lai how she was fleeing her husband, a drug dealer, who had been beating her. She was trying to get to her parents’ village, but it was so far and she could hardly walk anymore. We told her not to be afraid, but to let us drive her to where she needed to go. She sat in the front of the car with Lai, who held the girl in her arms and told her that Jesus knows all about her suffering and dearly loves her. “I know,” the girl replied. “I was just praying to him. I said to him, ‘If you really love me, Jesus, if you really, really love me, you will not make me walk all this way to my parents’ house.’ Then your car came!”
The girl explained how she had once known Jesus but had left her faith two years ago when she married her husband. “When I was a believer I was happy,” she told us. “Since I left Jesus, my life has been very bad.” Lai lovingly ministered to the girl, giving her advice on what she needed to do to repent and start afresh with God. “Yes,” the girl replied, “I want to start again with God.” We left her in the embrace of her Christian family who thanked us heartily as their daughter, still sobbing, explained how God had heard her prayer and sent us to rescue her.
As I meditated that night on what had happened, it dawned on me that I had just witnessed something like the parable of the lost son unfolding before my eyes. I went to bed that night praising God that though the sheep may wander, the shepherd graciously goes after them.
» Read full story and another from OMF about a former witch doctor and her struggles to walk with God.
» Also pray for Hmong families in neighboring Laos who have been expelled from their village because of their faith (Voice of the Martyrs).