One time I was asked the question: "Why is it that the churches in Asia are growing fruitfully?" My answer is simply because Jesus is very real to Asian people. He lives in their daily lives. He meets all their human needs. Jesus brings healing, restoration of broken relationships, answers to financial problems, and fulfillment in their spiritual longings. To illustrate this reality among our Asian brothers and sisters, I am sharing here a story that was shared to me by one of our pastors. (Also, I have shared this in our Clemente Newsletter, June 2021.) Here is the story "God's Working Wonders" I have copied for your reading below:
When she saw the bloody face, she felt an inner peace, a sense that, starting today, everything is going to get better. This was the story of Sita (not her real name), and her encounter with Jesus and the healing that came as a result of this encounter. This story was shared to me (David) by one of our pastors from South Asia, Pastor Ek, early this year.
One day in January 2021, Pastor Ek got a call from from one of his relatives whose mother, Sita, was sick and in need of healing. Pastor Ek prayed over her and, by God’s grace, she got healed. He shared the gospel story of Jesus and Sita accepted Jesus’ gift of salvation.
At this point, Sita shared her story to Pastor Ek. She had been sick with some unknown ailment the last 12 years. On this particular January day, the sickness was so severe that eventually she was taken to the hospital. But the hospital’s medical examination indicated that she was okay. So she returned home and decided to rest at her house. After a few minutes of being home, her symptoms got worse. She fell down on the floor and was hyperventilating and gasping for air. Being a devout Buddhist, she asked someone to call her Buddhist priests for a time of prayer and incantation. They came and said their prayers. On previous visits, her priests and Buddha Master would pray and she would feel some kind of relief. On that day, however, they could not do anything. Instead of helping her, they also fell down on the floor and could not get up on their own. It was during this position of helplessness that a vision of a bloody face appeared to her by her left side. She was confused because she knew that the Buddha usually appears in yellow color or the “35 colors as taught by the Buddhist masters.” She started to doubt her religion. In her dilemma, she begun to ask: “So, whose face does this bloody face belong to?”
In the middle of this quandary, Sita received a deep sense of peace and calmness in her being. From within her thoughts, she heard the bloody face speak to her, telling her to ask Pastor Ek to come and visit with her. And this was the day when Pastor Ek came and shared the gospel to her, and God’s healing came over Sita in a miraculous way.
A few days later, Sita sat with Pastor Ek for a time of fellowship with some other brothers and sisters. The group was watching the movie The Passion of Christ. Sita told everyone that the bloody face in her vision was the same as the bloody face of Jesus in the movie.