Pray and Pray on…

Hey everyone…

Have you ever prayed for something, and felt discouraged because you didn’t get a response or the answer that you wanted? Let me tell you a miracle that happened during our recent trip to India.

I’ve told you that this trip was a step of faith. In Chittor (the place where the craniofacial surgeries were supposed to take place and the place where I shared Philip’s testimony) on Sunday morning, we were asked to go to one of the village churches and share with the people. We were ready for the service at 9a.m. However, our liasion who arranged our transportation during our Chittor trip neglected to let us know where or when the meeting would take place. We were disgusted by eleven o’clock (still waiting for a ride in the hotel lobby). He did not call us, or return our many calls to him to ask what was going on. Santhosh and I thought, well, we will go and have our own Sunday service back in the hotel room. At eleven thirty our driver showed up to take us to a village church that was waiting for us. There had already been other painful experiences with our liasion. So we questioned our driver, “Is there any point in us coming to church now?” Their services usually end at noon. Then again we thought, ok, we will go even though are horribly late.

We arrived at the church at 11:45, and found the believers there waiting for us. Santhosh miraculously preached in Tamil. (He is Malyalee, and does not even preach in malyalam!). Truly it was God’s hand in that place. The service ended close to 1pm, and then the pastor asked us to pray for the believers. They all lined up and we prayed for them. I will tell you a few needs. One lady was expecting a child, and she was told something was wrong with the baby. There was one young man who was blind in both eyes. He had no education, just was simply at home. Another young man was pushed forward for prayer by his mother and grandmother. The mother complained about his mischievness and disobedience to her and misbehavior to his two older sisters that were present with him. After praying for them, Santhosh shared Jeremiah 29:11 with this teenager. “God has a plan for all our lives,” he shared. He also reminded him about the obedience a child must have toward parents, as is in scripture. He also advised the mother to speak good things in her son’s life, because her words have power over him. This family acknowledged the verses and left. We did not finish till close to 3pm!

I do not know how many souls were added to the kingdom. I do not know how many, if any were healed. After we returned home to the US, I did pray for the few people I could remember from that day in Chittor. Almost two weeks after we returned to the US, the pastor from Chittor called us at midnight. He told us how many families had come back to him and said the verses given to them that Sunday were just the right words they needed to hear. He also heard from the family of the “mischievous boy.” Apparently the Saturday before church, the mother, grandmother, daughters and son had made a suicide pact and purchased poison to consume the next day. After the prayer on Sunday, however, God worked a miracle in their hearts, and they did not commit suicide.

Sometimes, I don’t understand why things happen the way they do. God reminds us though (Isaiah 55:8+) , His ways are higher than ours, His thoughts are not our thoughts. The word that comes out of His mouth will not return to Him until it has accomplished what God’s purposed. So be encouraged my friends. Pray and pray on….

Even if you don’t see the answer, even if you are tired, even if this breaks your heart, I urge you to pray. I promise you, prayer is never in vain.

Pray and pray on!

Susan

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