This year, I joined Brother Xiao Jiang back to his hometown for the Lunar New Year and visited his relatives and friends. The first relative we visited was an uncle, who would wake up at a certain time every early morning with a piercing pain, as if an awl were stabbing into his brain. Afterwards, almost every relative or friend we met was suffering from anxiety, insomnia, nightmares, fear of death, and physical pain brought on by the death of loved ones or setbacks in life and work. Yet we witnessed the name of Jesus entering quickly into these people’s lives through blessing and prayer.

        On the plateau, where access to medical treatment is inconvenient, people still tend to seek help from spiritual powers such as witch doctors when they face sickness or misfortune, and they may also use such means to curse others. W, the leader of Xiao Jiang’s team, shared that the first person for whom she conducted healing and deliverance prayer was a young girl. In order to heal her long-standing illness, her family had made her drink water mixed with the ashes of burned talismans. W was indignant at the work of evil spirits, and from then on began the ministry of healing and deliverance prayer.

        One day, we went to the home of Xiao Jiang’s cousin (who had already received salvation). From four o’clock in the afternoon until after ten at night, six relatives and friends of her husband came one after another, each bringing their own difficulties. After receiving prayers of deliverance and blessing, they left in peace. The seventh person was the cousin’s husband, the male head of the household. Although he had no particular problem, he too received the blessing of peace and joy from Jesus.

        Xiao Jiang explained that among his people group, there are wicked individuals who, out of jealousy or self-interest, deceive, entrap, and curse others (including their own relatives and friends), causing those who are harmed to fall into depression, anxiety, and even attempts to take their own lives. At such times, what is needed is a good person to help, and the cousin who had received salvation was precisely such a person. “Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave” (Matthew 10:11, NIV). The Revised Chinese Union Version (和修本) and the Worldwide Chinese Bible (環譯本) respectively render the phrase as “a suitable person” and “suitable”; Lu Zhen-zhong translation (呂振中譯本) renders it as “a person who is worthy”; and the NET Bible Chinese version renders it as “who is devout.” “Good,” “suitable,” and “worthy” refer to those who have the capacity and willingness to receive the disciples. Their hospitality can open the door of salvation to an entire clan and community.

         When sharing the gospel in the past, I often used the term “man of peace” or “person of peace.” This term comes from the parallel passage to Matthew 10:11: “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you” (Luke 10:5–6). We often pray for missionaries, asking the Lord to lead them to encounter a “person of peace” in the mission field who will receive them, so that peace and blessing may remain in that household. It is our hope that this “person of peace” will be willing to accept the invitation of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30), come to Him, take His yoke upon themselves, and learn from Him, so that their lives may receive true rest.

         May the peace we ask for also come upon the home of the “worthy person” we visited this time!