Hilary was born in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, the eldest of five children. Their mother brewed alcohol to make money to support their little family. Technically, making alcohol this way was illegal, but it was good money, and she had to support five kids alone.
Cambodia, like many of its Southeast Asian neighbors, is a hotbed of spiritual beliefs.
The country is at a central point of the peninsula and home to Cham, Chinese, Vietnamese and French philosophical counterpoints where sacred traditions and animism have blended into a chimera of religion.
Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
“War broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail … So the great dragon was cast out … he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7-9).
We are in a war between two eternal powers: Satan’s principalities and powers, and God’s only Son, Jesus. This war started eons ago in heaven with the archangel Michael and an army of angels fighting against Lucifer and the rebellious angels who had aligned themselves with him.
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty” (2 Timothy 3:1, ESV). Right now things are taking place we could never have imagined. Jesus predicted that men would become lovers of themselves, lovers of money, hateful, proud and arrogant. Today if someone has the nerve to mention sin, he is called a bigot and made an outcast. As God’s Word is moved to the sidelines of the culture, sin becomes more and more prevalent.
We often expect God to move in one of two ways: either by sending a supernatural outpouring of his Holy Spirit to sweep multitudes into his kingdom, or by sending judgment to bring people to their knees or even destroy them. But, beloved, that is not God’s method of changing things in an evil day. His way of rebuilding ruins has always been to use ordinary men and women whom he has touched. And he does this by filling them with his Holy Spirit and sending them into the warfare with great faith and power! “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4).
Today, Matthew and Deanne Ward join us to discuss Matthew’s battle with cancer, the journey of faith and grief they went through, and how their family grew together in this difficult time.
