A call to pray

What is it like to leave your home and make a new one? To travel to a new continent so that God can use you to bless other people?

Yesterday we listened to a family who shared their experience of cross-cultural mission work, in southern Africa. Stories of being evacuated by plane with a sick child, and being attacked at home. Seeing people suffering in ways that I cannot readily picture because of my easy access to healthcare and resources. I can imagine thinking 'What is going on? Why are we here?'

But Jonno didn't stop there. He told us stories filled with hope. People healed after prayer. He reminded us of John the Baptist, having seen the anointed, baptised Christ, still needing reassurance when he languished in prison. The messenger who prepared the Messiah's way still needed to hear the good news, to be refreshed...

Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. And tell him, ‘God blesses those who do not turn away because of me.’ Matthew 11:4-6.

No matter where we live, people struggle, life can be hard. When we feel torn apart, abandoned, rejected or broken, it can be the hardest time to remember who Jesus is. Trusting God can be clinging on to a rocky outcrop with fingernails jagged and bleeding.

Jonno and Heather and their kids live among a marginalised, poor group of people. These people come to Jonno and ask him to pray when they are in need. They seek his prayer instead of going to the Moslem leaders in their villages. Prayer has resulted in miracles and people meeting Jesus. It is challenging that these people seek prayer with the same unquestioning faith that leads us to seek medical attention for sickness.

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Again and again, I hear God saying, "You are not helpless. You can pray."

My cousin dies, leaving a son not yet ten years old. They don't live close, I wish and wonder ways to help. There is not much that I can give to bless this boy, to care for my aunt, her children and grand-children. But I can pray.

Thanks today for,

961.  prayer
962.  people who pray persistently
963.  prayer answered with miracles
964.  a glimpse of life in Africa
965.  Jonno and Heather and their family
966.  church family meals
967.  encouraging conversation
968.  people asking for prayer
969.  a God who listens, hears and acts
970.  the mystery of answers to prayers
971.  needing to pray