Power of Prayer

I was reading this week the account of a worker in another nation of islands who wanted the people she worked amongst to understand the power of prayer and to really learn to pray with fervency. It ended up taking a tragedy of the worker herself being in a horrible accident for that lesson to be learnt, but she was able to look back and see the accident as bringing a great blessing to that people— because learning to pray is powerful.

May light shine on the islands!

One of our island brothers had a burden. He saw all the horrible things happening on the islands— cholera, a broken economy, political corruption, and severe weather destroying crops. He felt burdened to pray for this nation. But not just him, he wanted to see people gathered together to pray. So this past Sunday, we did just that.

A couple islanders led the time and they acknowledged that some people there had probably only prayed for 5-10 minutes at a time before. They acknowledged that usually we just pray for our personal problems or the problems of the people in our group. But this was a call to a new kind of prayer. This was a call to pray for people that they had never met— to pray for the government and politicians that they may not even trust— to pray for big problems even though they can’t even see how they could change. This was a call to ask God to give us new things to pray for. This was a call to become people of prayer— to see something on the news and immediately to pray for it, even if it is a situation that you don’t understand in a country far away.

Most of the time that we prayed— we were all praying at once as new topics were given to us. So I don’t know everyone else’s experience of it. I don’t know if those that had less experience praying were participating the whole time or just watching other people pray. But I know that powerful prayers were said, and I know that prayer is powerful in several ways. It is powerful in that God answers our prayers. It is powerful for the one saying the prayers— shaping our hearts towards what God wants and towards how He views the world. And it is powerful for those who are listening— seeing the evidence of faith, hope and love— and hopefully realizing that they too can become people of prayer.

I don’t know why the islands are having such a hard time. We see the suffering and wonder why?  But if these hard times awaken and produce people of prayer, we know that these islands will be blessed. Our brother reminded us, “We are meant to bless our nation. We are God’s children. We are the ones that need to pray for this place.”

May their prayers be answered with power!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
It seems like the number of cholera cases is finally starting to diminish.  It’s still a big problem, but we are encouraged that we might already be on the other side of the curve.  We are thankful that our newer medical people finally got their authorization to work in the hospital (it’s been 6 months).  They start work this week.  We’re happy to see that Muki is back and as eager to study as ever.  They had a great study this morning and he plans to come back tomorrow.  We’re thankful that our island brothers and sisters felt a great burden to pray for these islands.  The time  was very encouraging to see them praying in this way.  We both feel more or less back to full strength after what was a nasty virus.



Our kids share a meal in our daughter's dorm

PRAYERS REQUESTED

Pray that there would be many people of prayer among the islands brother and sisters and that they would see answers to their prayers.  Pray for healing for our daughter who continues to be troubled by intense shoulder pain.  She’s seeing a PT now, but healing has been slow in coming.  Pray for our medical people starting work.  May they find a good balance to work, family, language learning and community.  May they learn the ways of the hospital quickly as they serve with joy and shine brightly.  Continue to pray for our friends with new babies or babies on the way, for the health of mothers and babies and for doors to be opened thanks to the answers of our prayers for the births of these children.  Keep praying for our teammate and her difficult family health situations that have taken her away from the islands for a time.