The children who went to Heaven!
The phone is ringing. Ted looks at his watch; it’s nine o’clock at night. Nobody in Cambodia will normally call that late. He takes up the receiver, and he hears a panicking voice on the other end: “Pa Thom, you must come! I believe I have poisoned the kids here!” Ted recognizes the voice of Peter, the leader of the children’s homes. He tries to collect himself: “What did you say?” Peter explains, “Everyone in the children’s home has been together for fasting and prayer the past three days, and we wound up with a soup meal this evening. When we, after the soup, went to the meeting room to pray, one child after the other fell over. Now, all the children are lying on the floor. There must have been something wrong with that soup.”
Ted’s wife, Sou, rushes through the city at full speed. Once she reaches the children’s home and enters the room where the children are, a smile runs over her lips. She looks at Peter and says, “They are not poisoned; they are filled with the Holy Spirit!” The sight that met Sou was simply incredible. All 42 kids were lying spread around the room, totally in their own worlds. It was easy to see, from their body language as well as from the words that occasionally came out of their mouths, that they all enjoyed a strong presence of the Lord.
Slowly, they came back to their senses, one by one. Everyone had amazing stories to tell. All of them had had a personal encounter with Jesus and received a calling to serve him. Some had been taken into Heaven; others had seen the fire of Hell. Some of the kids had gotten a specific calling to serve God through prayer.
A few days later, Ted receives another phone call. This time, it is the leader of the children’s home in Siem Riep. He says that they have a problem with the new building they will be moving into shortly – the house is haunted. This was about such evident, supernatural manifestations that the people in the neighborhood used to gather outside the building to watch what was happening. Foursquare Cambodia had purchased this site at a very reasonable price. Ted did some research and found out that there was a specific reason to that: A mass grave from the Pol Pot era was located there. “If it is that kind spirit which is manifesting there, I really don’t know who can deal with it”, Ted admitted, a bit resigned. Peter, the national leader of Foursquare Cambodia at the time, didn’t either feel qualified to handle this case. But then he got an idea: ”What about those kids that went to Heaven; would they be capable of confrontin these powers?”
Ted wasn’t all that excited about the suggestion; to send kids out to counter the spirits behind Khmer Rouge’s genocide – that sounded a bit too tough. However, Peter reminded him that these kids, who had recently been admitted into Heaven, also had received a genuine calling from God to be prayer warriors. So, they agreed that this might be a possibility.
There were eight children, age nine to thirteen years, who were asked if they would be willing to take up this task. The kids replied that they would be glad to, but they needed three days of fasting and prayer before doing it. As said, so done. After three days, Sou brought those eithg children for a one-day trip by boat to Siem Riep. She had planned to taket hem straight to the children’s home, but then the kids requested another three days of fasting and prayer, in order to get a clear understanding of God’s plan.
Once the three days had passed, the kids were ready. They went to the property, and Sou was just about to cross through the gate when the kids stopped her: “We need to march around the building seven times,” they said. The kids started walking around the house, one lap after the other. After the seventh round, they all entered the children’s home. They prayed, commanded, and declared; they anointed the windows and doors with oil; and they read Bible verses and sang songs as they moved into and out of one room after the other.
Having finished all the inside of the building, they also walked around the outside of the house. After everything was finished, a tangible peace descended on the people and the house. The local tourist attraction had lost its power. The Kingdom of God had occupied the children’s home, and the kids could move in. After this, there has never been any problem in the children’s home in Siem Reap.
