Kingdom Kindness: Laughing All the Way
Author: Andrew Comiskey
June 10, 2024
We
celebrate Pride Month by showcasing Jesus’ Kingdom kindness: how His love
invites and enables sexually wounded people to become fruitful. May every
testimony we feature this June persuade you that ‘the kindness of God leads us
to repentance’ (Rom. 2:4).
‘Joy
is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.’ Pierre de Chardin
Misdirected
devotion is no laughing matter. Idolatry, be it spiritual or sexual, enslaves
us. Yet the grace through which Jesus liberates us (and through us, others) elicits
joy like sparkling water. No matter how narrow the way ahead, Sue and I
laughed. For 30 years!
Sue Hunt was desperate when I met her at a Living Waters conference (early
nineties) off Hyde Park in London. ‘Please pray for the healing of my
lesbianism,’ she asked. I assured her that Jesus gave her a new self; I prayed
for much grace to reconcile Sue to the gift of her womanhood.
Not
long before, Sue had left a Buddhist temple in England, after deciding to
become a Buddhist nun during a stay in a temple in northeastern Thailand near Ubon
by the Laos border. Spiritual in the tradition of Buddhist ‘detachment’, Sue
came alive to Jesus, the living God, even while a nun in a Buddhist temple.
She
had a lot to sort out. Raised in the east of England by postwar parents that
wanted fun more than family, Sue distanced herself from a painful relationship
with mom and her own womanhood, a disidentification strengthened by the childhood
sexual abuse she experienced for years from an older male relative.
An arm
of Thai Buddhism in the UK gave her some rest after the sexual idolatry of her
young adulthood. Only Jesus gave her freedom, and a fighting chance to heal.
She came to intern with us at Vineyard Anaheim in ’97 where she faced hard interpersonal
stuff in community while participating in miraculous expressions of conversion
and healing.
Together
with a small team we wrote and piloted for months an agile open group for any
seeker of sexual wholeness called Cross Current. Many were plucked out of the
fire, set in route to wholeness. Hard work, great joy.
Sue
returned to Thailand, this time Bangkok, where she began to master Thai while networking
with churches wanting to offer spiritual and sexual wholeness. Sue had unique
authority in her attunement to Buddhism and sexual sin (shrouded in shame and Thai
smiles). Thailand’s economy depends upon prostitution and adultery, as rural
women are sent by their families to cities where they exchange western men’s money
for themselves.
Sue
preached Jesus with signs and wonders following. Many Thais were set free as
they found their footing in local faith communities. Hard work, great joy. We
at DSM participated with Sue in Living Waters trainings throughout Thailand for
the next (nearly) 25 years. (She ensured good translation of our materials and
in time became Thai fluent. Miraculous.)
It
was tough, and with Sue, always fun, even after agonizing bouts with people
skewered by adultery and idolatry. We laughed: Jesus ever risen, rising in
Spirit to raise her up. All we did was lift her head and hands. She was still
healing too, always before Jesus and trusted others to maintain good boundaries
and stave off the dulling deceiving impact of idolatry.
She
raised up a good leader to take over for her in Bangkok so she could write two
excellent books under the pseudonym of Esther Baker on coming out of Buddhism:
I
Once was a Buddhist Nun and
Buddhism in the Light of Christ.
Sue
is completing her days in Thailand near the Buddhist temple (Ubon) where she started
decades ago. Jesus sent her there so she could serve the nearby villagers, like
those who brought food to her when she studied at the temple years before. She expressed
her gratitude by inviting them to know the living God.
Last
month, I did the last conference that I might ever do with Sue in Ubon (she is
returning to the UK for ministry purposes). She taught with slow burn understatement
of how Jesus healed her relationship with mom, an unbeliever. Ailing in a rest
home in the UK and reliant upon her daughter, mom remained as conflictual as
ever for Sue.
The
Holy Spirit whispered: ‘How do you expect your mom to welcome Me, the God you
worship, when you dislike her so?’ That broke Sue, and released weeping, a
grace of repentance and forgiveness that led to her mom’s conversion, and a
grace-filled ending between mom and child.
After
Sue spoke, we invited any suffering soul to come and bring their deepest wounds
to Jesus. A dozen surrounded a simple bamboo Cross: the Holy Spirit fell and
released torrents of tears as Jesus bore their infirmities. A young
couple—unbelievers—were among them. He had been a student of Buddhism, of
detachment. He had never wept as he did that day over his pain-filled life.
Both he and his girlfriend accepted Jesus. They discovered that only His wounds
could heal them.
Thanks,
Sue, for opening your life to Jesus and many Thais. Thanks for giving us a
share in the joy. Thanks for the laughter.
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