“We shall have all eternity in which to celebrate our victories, but we have only one swift hour before the sunset in which to win them.” Robert Moffatt
Mathali and Brian stood before our squad in worship, and they shared a miraculous testimony of the power of God. Here’ s how the shin-dig went down. Brian’s ankle was battered and blue. A long night at the ER was were the time was clearly headed. Maithali started to pray with faith that Jesus would heal Brian’s foot. It was healed-immediately. His immense pain- gone. His inability to extend his foot- gone. Swelling-stopped. In a moment by the power of prayer his foot was healed. Does this happen? Really? It sounds like something straight from a sci-fi/ fairy tale movie. But undeniably it happened. It happend, and I went to bed that night asking, “How powerful is prayer?”
The next morning I woke with my roomie Jenn, and she had a sore throat. A sore little throat, not a huge deal right? But this is a bigger problem than it seems. See Jenn is our worship leader. Last time she was sick it was months before she could sing again. If Satan can silence her, he will blow a big defeat to our whole squad. The five girls in our room gathered around Jenn, and in our wrinkled pj’s we prayed. We prayed for healing, and we prayed for health. I told Jenn immediately after praying, that I didn’t really believe that prayer is powerful. I had decided in my mind, prayer wouldn’t heal her. No my fours years of nursing school tells me a otherwise. A mucolytic is the right choice.
“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James 5:16
The next morning I woke with my roomie Jenn, and she had a sore throat. A sore little throat, not a huge deal right? But this is a bigger problem than it seems. See Jenn is our worship leader. Last time she was sick it was months before she could sing again. If Satan can silence her, he will blow a big defeat to our whole squad. The five girls in our room gathered around Jenn, and in our wrinkled pj’s we prayed. We prayed for healing, and we prayed for health. I told Jenn immediately after praying, that I didn’t really believe that prayer is powerful. I had decided in my mind, prayer wouldn’t heal her. No my fours years of nursing school tells me a otherwise. A mucolytic is the right choice. That is how my day was kicked off yesterday. Know a handful a God things happened in between this time, but we are going to fast forward to the meat of the story. Dan and I are now walking around Ho Chi Mihn City, a little bit lost. That tends to be the way Dan and I roll in this city. But we are walking down the street engaged in conversation, and Dan stops and looks at a scruffy man, who is sitting on his parked modo on a street corner. Dan looks at him and bluntly says, “God’s telling me to pray for you”
Ok Dan? A little- or a lot weird. Uncomfortable? Yes. Dan, you could have been a little less direct. If Dan says God wants us to pray, hey why not? The man spoke broken English (and my attempt at Vietnamese is a complete joke). The man kept saying Buddha, and we kept saying Jesus. We placed our hands on this guy and prayed in the name and authority of Jesus Christ. The dude was totally weirded out, and he left (exactly what I would do of I was in his Vietnamese shoes).
So, Dan and I keep walking, and here’s where the crazy part of the story starts kicking. Modo man returns. A few minutes later we look up, and he is ridding beside us on the road. He stops us and pulls over. Modo man was back, and immediately I knew it was divine. Next, he explains he has a hard time understanding English. A random – or not so random- girl driving down the road, pulls over. Her name is Nama and she speaks perfect English. “Do you wan to translate for us?” Dans asks. “Yeah,” she says. We share the gospel. We share of the great love of an awesome Savior. Modo man finds out we are American, and true to foreign assumptions, he expects us to give him money. We said no, and he jets. Now we are left with talking with Nama. Nama is a beautiful woman. She is short with jet black hair and beautiful skin. She is dressed in workout clothes as she explained she just came from playing basketball ( I guess when the entire population of Asia average height is four feet tall…..being five foot makes basketball an easy nitch). “I want to practice my English with you , can we spend some
time together,” she asks. She parks her modo. Then Dan and I hit the streets of Saigon once more, but this time with our new friend. We walked, talked and shared as we took a leisurely afternoon stroll. We finished off our time together in a local bookstore by exchanging hugs and emails.
The day is not over, yet. Its late in the evening and Dan and I are now chilling at a coffee shop a few blocks from our hotel. I sign my self into gmail, and the first email to catch my eyes is from Nama. Heres what it says.
“I write you this right after I came home. Cause you know, I wanna tell you something at once. In the morning I went straight upstairs at the bookstore to look for a ruler. … They said it’s sold out.. So, this afternoon I came to the bookstore… but the store didn’t have what I wanted, but it’s not meaningless at all, cuz I met you and Dan. I think it’s something really amazing and nice! That’s all i wanna tell you, Ashley. How special!”
It is evident that God choose to use Dan and me in drawing Nama to Himself. We are in the process of connecting her with local Christians in the city. Here’s what stuns me about our crazy God. His ways are not are ways. And when he sets His affection on His children He will go to extreme lengths to pursue and romance His chosen. He takes two punk Americans. He travels us literally around the world. He lands us in a land and city, where just one generation ago our countries warred brutally. God is going to extreme lengths in chasing Nama. Right now I am sitting in my pj’s about to go to bed. Just one day later, and the question still stands. How powerful is prayer? God commands Dan and I to pray for modo man. We were obedient. The result is God puts Nama in our life. I makes absolutely no logical sense what so ever. However, I can’t deny this one truth. The day began by the power of prayer.
“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James 5:16 James doesn’t say the prayer of a righteous man is logical and effective. James says powerful and effective.
Prayer is powerful. Let me say it again. Prayer is powerful.
May we dare to pray bold prayers to a huge God.
“If sinners be dammed, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one GO there UNWARNED and UNPRAYED for.” Charles Spurgeon
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