Set Free From Chains

By Andrew McChesney

Screams pierced the air in the rural village in Laos.

A Seventh-day Adventist pastor, who was visiting the village with a small team of church workers, headed toward the loud cries to find out what was happening. He was surprised to see a 16-year-old boy chained to the wooden floor of his family home. “What happened to your boy?” he asked the parents. “Why is he chained up?”

Image © Pacific Press

The parents looked sad. “Our son Aer has been sick for many years,” his father said. “He becomes normal for several hours but then he loses his mind again, several times a day,” his mother said.

The parents had spent all their money trying to find a cure. But the situation steadily had gotten worse until they reluctantly decided to leave Aer in chains all the time to prevent him from harming himself and others. He had been bound to the wooden floor for the past six months.

The pastor spoke with Aer and told him and his parents about the saving love of Jesus. “If Jesus is willing, He can heal Aer,” he said.

He asked for permission to pray for the boy. Aer’s parents happily agreed. Hope shone in the faces that their son would be healed.

A few days later, the pastor and his team again visited Aer and prayed for him. The pastor invited the family to worship in the nearest Adventist church in a neighboring village.

The next Sabbath, the parents arrived at church with Aer, his hands bound in chains. Each church member prayed for Aer, and then the pastor asked the boy’s father also to pray for him. All heads bowed as the father prayed to Jesus on behalf of his son. From that day, the boy was healed. He returned to normal and no longer needed to be chained up.

Neighbors were amazed, and they deluged Aer’s parents with questions.

“Is this the boy who was ill for many years and was chained up?” one said.

“Why is he OK now?” said another. “Who healed him?”

The parents explained that the Christian God had healed their boy.

Not only did Aer’s parents accept Jesus as their personal Savior after the healing, but many other families did so as well. Those families are among 122 people who were baptized at the church in April 2021, filling the church building to overflowing.

“We praise God for performing so many miracles in this area, resulting in many people coming to Him to be saved,” said the Lao pastor who shared the story with Adventist Mission.

Thank you for your Sabbath School mission offerings that support the spread of the gospel in Laos and around the world.

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