Walking down the street one evening a blind woman being led by her grandchild approached us begging for money. We stopped and gave her a few dollars and some food. There was a compassion for her that sprung up inside of us just seeing her broken and needy condition that it prompted us to linger a bit longer. We then started asking her in english and with severely poor and limited khmer language skills if we could pray. We were just about to give up when our tuk-tuk driver Riti drove up to pick us up just in the nick of time, and he speaks enough english to translate! Yay! Gods timing is perfect. Since Riti basically just entered into the Kingdom himself this was the perfect opportunity for him to see the Holy Spirit at work. After asking this sweet poor lady if we could pray for her and seeing her face light up with a huge grin, we then laid hands on her releasing the presence of God and speaking healing. Much to our amazement she starting worshipping and singing out loud with tears streaming down her face! Riti looked shocked and told us that this woman was a believer and that she was SO overjoyed to be prayed for and that her feeling the Lord’s presence released joy into her soul so much so that she couldn’t stop singing praises to Jesus right in the middle of the street. We were expecting a miracle of healing but in the Lord’s presence she got filled with His overwhelming joy and peace instead by Gods spirit. The verse in Psalms is absolutely true!

Psalms 16:11 “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Seeing someone so poor and whose life is so difficult really opened up Riti’s eyes to the truth that although someone may have nothing in this world to hold on to they can still experience true joy and pleasure in the presence of the King of the universe. This also humbled us as it opened our eyes to the spiritual realm in a whole new way. Driving home we realized how important the gospel is to a people without hope. The gospel is the best news to touchdown on planet earth EVER and it enlivens and energizes a person out of the chains of darkness and sadness, into the awareness of a loving Father who is pure love, joy, and peace. And the message of Christ also brings people into the revelation that they can live this short life with glorious and meaningful purpose even in the midst of having nothing material to boast in.