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The Power of Forgiveness

As people came to say their last apologies, Mah-nah started breathing again.

“Not often does an announcement have to be made from the mosque that someone is alive again,” said Heather Williams, an Alliance international worker who serves in Cambodia. She was referring to her friend Mah-nah, a former witch doctor who had been struggling with a spirit of unforgivenss.

Mah-nah had become a follower of Jesus, and Heather was discipling her. “At one point the village elders demanded that she stop seeing me,” Heather said. “We spent one last time together, and Mah-nah promised that she would never leave Jesus, even though she would have to break off ties with me in order to keep the peace with her people.”

As a result, Mah-nah became angry with the religious leaders, her extended family, and her neighbors, who continued to oppose her decision to follow Jesus. “This anger piled on top of the bitterness already in her heart toward the Khmer Rouge soldiers who murdered her first husband and children.”

Later, when relatives of those soldiers were unkind to her, Mah-nah harbored resentment toward them as well—especially after they split up the first fragile group of Jesus followers in her village. Sometimes she was so angry that she would spit on the ground after someone she resented walked by.

Whenever Mah-nah’s anger became especially fierce, it gave Satan a foothold—and she was tormented by sickness, weakness, and depression. As Heather discipled the woman, they looked repeatedly at verses in the gospels where Jesus talked about forgiveness. Mah-nah’s standard response was, “I am human, not an angel. It is fine for Jesus to do this—He is God. But I am not! How am I to do this? It is impossible!”

And so she suffered along, unforgiving and hurting.

One night Heather received a phone call from Mah-nah’s daughter, Selpriah, saying that her mother had died after a brief illness. All the villagers came to Mah-nah’s home to begin preparations for the funeral. The religious leaders opened the mosque during the night and announced that Mah-nah was dead.

As is customary in this culture, people came to say their last apologies to the deceased. During this time, “Mah-nah started breathing again—and moving!” Heather reported. “Everyone got excited and continued apologizing, but now she was listening!”

When Mah-nah first returned to consciousness, her throat was tight and she could not speak. “Others tell me she just cried,” Heather said. “But then she started speaking words of forgiveness to everyone . . . one by one, to the religious leaders, her neighbors, and her family. The more she spoke forgiveness, the more easily she was able to talk.”

The village elders returned to the mosque to make another announcement: “Sister Mah-nah is not dead! She is fine!”

Later, Mah-nah spoke blessings over her family members, including the one whom she had been most unwilling to forgive.

The village leaders have given Mah-nah permission to be friends with Heather again. “They struggle to understand this power that is so strong it can change hearts,” Heather observed. “Perhaps this is our chance! Mah-nah has a platform now. And her heart is different.

“God never does anything normally. I stand amazed at His creativity.”

—adapted from a prayer letter by Heather Williams, who serves with The Alliance in Cambodia with her husband, Jeff

Pray

Use the weekly Alliance Prayer Requests to join the Alliance family in interceding on behalf of our teams in Cambodia and worldwide, who often serve in challenging circumstances that require Holy Spirit–inspired perseverance, wisdom, and creativity in demonstrating God’s love to those who don’t know Him.

 

 

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