MISSIONARY PRAYER STORY
Friday , January 02, 2004

The New Year turns my attention to prayer. Prayer to the One who is called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

In praying I often times remember those names and I know I am praying to the One with power who will answer my prayers and meet my needs.

If you know me, you know, I am a believer in prayer. Prayer is where all the work is done, and today I want to share a true story with you that was told by a missionary home on furlough speaking to his home church in Michigan. It is about how God relates to us and to those for whom we pray. The story goes like this:

“While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital.

Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and witnessed to him of Lord Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident.

Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicine. He said, “Some friends and I followed you into the jungle. Knowing you would camp overnight, we planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.” At this I laughed and said I was certainly all alone in that jungle campsite.

The young man pressed the point, however and said, “ No, sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.”

At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the Michigan congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary asking if he could tell him the exact day that this had happened. The missionary told the congregation the date, and the man who interrupted told him this story, “On the night
of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf. I was
about to leave when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong; I called men in this church to meet with me here in this sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?”

The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. The missionary wasn’t concerned with who they were, he was too busy counting how many men he saw. There were 26.

God answers prayer!