Prayer Cures 16-Year-Old Girl’s Cancer

The miracle convinces three siblings to give their hearts to Jesus in Cambodia.

How a Family Became Adventist

In Kong Sokhom’s own words:

My grandfather — my mother’s father — was the first Seventh-day Adventist in our family. He was baptized while living in a refugee camp on the Thai-Cambodian border in the early 1990s.

When he moved to Battambang in 1996 and began to invite my family to church in 2000. I had no idea who Jesus was.

Grandfather told my family that Jesus is the one who created everything. But my family didn’t believe and didn’t go to church.

Then Grandfather began to focus on me. He told me that Jesus is the true God and encouraged me to go to church and to find out for myself.

At church, I heard that Saturday is the Sabbath. I began to participate in singing, Sabbath School, and Bible studies. I enjoyed meeting people at church. They were kind and concerned about others.

After a while, my whole family started coming to the small church of 14 members. The pastor gave the parents a Bible and showed them how to find the story of how God created the heavens and the earth at the very beginning of the book.

About four years later, my parents were baptized. But the rest of the family — the four children — only made a full commitment to Jesus after the tumor disappeared. Marina fell ill in 2007, and I was baptized in 2009.

By Andrew McChesney, adventistmission.org

Sharp pain shot through Men Marina’s stomach, causing her to double over in agony.

The next day, the stomachache grew worse.

It hurt so much that the 16-year-old teenager wept in her home in the Cambodian village of O Mony.

Father put Marina on his motorcycle and drove her and Mother to the hospital in Battambang, Cambodia’s second-largest city, located about 4 miles (7 kilometers) away.

The physician ordered an ultrasound test to seek the cause of the pain. The initial results worried him, and he ordered a second test. With those results in hand, he grimly approached Father.

“Your daughter has a tumor,” he said. “It has to be taken out.”

The physician filled out some paperwork and instructed the parents to bring the documents and U.S.$300 for the operation in three days.

At home, Father gathered the family — Mother, Marina, and three other teenage children — for a special season of prayer. The family prayed again on the second day. On the third day, the family met one last time before heading for the hospital.

“Father in heaven, my youngest daughter has a sickness that requires surgery,” Father prayed. “You know, we are worried because we don’t know what exactly the doctor will find. We don’t have money for the surgery, and we’ve had to borrow it.”

A Big Rain

As Father prayed, rain began to pound against the house roof. Marina was in severe pain and crying. All the family members were weeping with her.

“Father, You are the God who has the power to do all things,” Father said. “Please heal my daughter. I know that You have the power to do that, and she won’t even need the operation.”

As Father finished praying, his cellphone rang. It was the physician.

“Why haven’t you brought in the girl?” he asked. “It’s time to begin the operation.”

Father explained that the heavy rain made it impossible to drive his motorcycle to the hospital. The family didn’t own a car.

“As soon as the rain stops, come immediately,” the physician said. “We need to start the operation.”

The family knelt to pray again.

“Lord, you know that we have this problem,” Father said. “You know our daughter needs this operation because she is in pain. You know we don’t have the money to pay for it. You know that the rain is falling so hard that we can’t go to the hospital. So, we are asking You to help us so our daughter won’t need the operation.”

Twenty minutes later, the rain stopped and the sky cleared.

No More Pain

As Marina climbed onto the motorcycle, she noticed that she felt better and suggested canceling the trip. Father insisted on going to the hospital.

Marina’s sister and two brothers promised to keep praying at home.

At the hospital, Father realized that he had forgotten to bring the required paperwork. The physician couldn’t operate without the documents, so he ordered a new ultrasound test.

“I can’t believe it,” he said as he examined the results. “Everything appears normal.”

He ordered a second test. The results were the same: no tumor. A third test was taken. Finally, the physician said in disbelief, “There is no need for you to stay here. You don’t need the operation. Go home.”

Marina was overjoyed.

“I knew it!” she exclaimed. “I believed in Jesus, and I believed He would do something so I wouldn’t need the surgery!”

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Good News

Mother called home with the good news.

“This is the power of God, and He has healed our daughter!” she said.

The three siblings, who had been praying and crying, grabbed each other by the hands and jumped up and down.

“We thanked God for healing our sister,” said Marina’s older sister, Kong Sokhom, who was 17 at the time.

The miracle prompted big changes at home, said Sokhom, who related the story. She and her three siblings, who earlier had shown little interest in giving their hearts to Jesus, began to study the Bible and were baptized.

“Only our parents were baptized when the tumor happened, and the healing affected us,” Sokhom said. “Our faith was really strengthened, and we believed that Jesus truly is the God who hears and answers prayer.”

All four children are now faithful Adventists. Marina is a healthy, 27-year-old mother, and she sells gasoline in 2-liter plastic bottles from a roadside stall outside the family home. Sokhom, 28, is a Bible worker and first-year university student. She is studying nutrition and will work at a planned Seventh-day Adventist vegetarian restaurant in Battambang.

Kong Sokhom explains why she believes in the power of prayer. (Andrew McChesney / Adventist Mission)