A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home
church in Michigan...
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 at the same time talked to him about the 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 medicines. 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 that you were
surrounded by 26 armed guards.
At this I laughed and said that I was
certainly all alone out 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 congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and
asked if he could tell him the exact day that this 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 putt
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 the
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.
This story is an incredible example of how the Spirit of the Lord moves
in mysterious ways. If you ever hear such prodding to pray, go along
with it.
The eyes of the Lord are on the
righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry; the face of the Lord is
against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
- Psalm 34: 15-16
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