Day 2: Prayer

Prayer is our communication with God, our spirit with His Spirit. What a wonderful privilege we have.

As missionaries we were very much aware of our need for the prayers of our supporters. We needed it much more than we needed their financial support. We faced enemy attack on a regular basis as we endeavored to spread the Good News of Jesus and His offer of salvation. I just wanted to share a few of the experiences we had:

When we were learning the Dutch language, Steve had a breakthrough after just 6 months of studying the language and was actually able to preach in Dutch. At the time of the breakthrough we got a letter from a lady in the church we pastored in Northern Nebraska. She woke up with a vision of Steve knocking at her front door, but though his lips were moving no words were coming out. She had a burden to pray for him and it was the exact time of his breakthrough in the language.
Both Steve and I faced death on the field: I after the still birth of our 6th child when I had toxemia and went into eclampsia; Steve in the jungle with malaria: I had given birth to our baby who only lived a couple of minutes after birth. Steve had gone home and I was put in a room all by myself. I was in so much pain that I was in and out of consciousness but at midnight I woke up and needed to use the bathroom. I buzzed the nurse and she accompanied me down the hall to the bathroom. When I stepped in I went blind. She rushed me to emergency and I went into convulsions. No phones then. Steve came in the morning to find me there (He didn’t know my condition so, of course, wasn’t in prayer). On a later check up, that nurse told me that if I hadn’t called her I would have died right there in that room.

Well, 6 weeks later we got a letter from the same lady I mentioned above and she shared that on the same day I was on my deathbed she woke up in the night with a vision of me in the passenger-side of the car just crying uncontrollably. She went into prayer because she knew something was wrong (not even aware that I had been expecting a baby). The Lord heard her prayers and spared my life.

Another time, Steve was in the jungle and had malaria. He’d been in his hammock for 3 days at death’s door. He wrote me and the kids a letter about not wanting to leave us, but that he might not make it. The Lord miraculously sent a plane to the airfield to bring him to town where they were able to save his life. His father had a visualization of Steve at the side of the river of death and ready to cross over, when he interceded for him. Another lady in NC had a burden that same time for Steve and interceded.

Many times there were miracles of provision when we needed money. I’m not going to take the time to share those stories but know that your intercession for the needs of others is heard by a watchful Father who wants you to be involved in His work – whether healing, provision or most important the salvation of souls.