“Tremendous power is released through the passionate, heartfelt prayer of a godly believer.” James 5:16

God Provides

Recently, I was awake during the night, praying. I started thinking about the power of prayer, and how grateful I am that we can communicate with God through prayer.

The wonder of it all is that He hears our prayers, every one of them. And He answers! Sometimes He says “yes”, sometimes “no”, and sometimes “later.” It’s not unusual for Him to let us know He has another way, another plan.

I started thinking back through the years of some sweet answers to prayer that we’ve experienced. I remember my first overseas outreach as a young 16-year-old. I knew God had spoken to me to go, but it was a huge challenge to my faith to trust Him for the finances. I was nervous, and wondered if it would all work out. I prayed like crazy! It came down to the wire—six hours before the plane took off! But I made it, and I learned a valuable lesson that has helped me all my life. Where God guides, He provides…and when He speaks, He comes through to help us! It was a foundational lesson for the life I would live.

In another overseas outreach, I was leading a girls’ team working in rural villages. We slept on the floor in schoolrooms and small huts. Halfway through the outreach, my air mattress sprang a leak. I tried and tried to fix it, to no avail. In desperation for my poor aching back, I asked my team one night to pray with me—for God to “heal” my air mattress. There were a few giggles, but they all prayed with me—and my air mattress never leaked again!

Floyd and I were working in a small village in Kenya when I got very sick. There was no medical care, and very limited transportation. My condition deteriorated rapidly, and we realized I might not make it. We prayed desperate prayers! Amazingly, Floyd found someone with a car who could take us to a hospital a couple hours away. The doctor said I was just a few hours from death. He was amazed I survived.

Months later we were visiting my mother in Texas. Very casually one day she asked what was happening on a certain day, at a certain time. When we compared notes, we found out that God had woken her in the middle of the night to pray for me. God spoke to her heart that it was a matter of life or death. It was at the exact time that Floyd was searching for a way to get me to the hospital.

At Christmas in Amsterdam, we would serve a big meal on Christmas day to people off the streets. We’d go out and find people wandering around who had nowhere to go, and bring them to our coffee shop to serve them a lovely meal with songs, decorations, and lots of joy. It was always a very special day, and we usually fed hundreds of people.

One year we had worked hard cooking the meal, put it in the refrigerator, and got up Christmas morning ready to serve the feast…only to find out that the fridge had gone off and all the food was spoiled. No grocery stores were open. We called our staff and asked them to bring whatever food they had to help…and we started putting together meals. We knew we’d have to cut off the serving very early because we just didn’t have enough food. But we asked God to multiply our meager rations.

We served one of our biggest crowds that day, and at the end of the day had more food left than we started with. Sound familiar? I’ll never forget that Christmas day!

“How grateful we are, Father, that You hear our prayers, and answer them. Build our faith by reminding us of all You’ve done for us. Amen.”