Prayer Underestimated

There is this great guy who works with us who comes from the southern half of our planet. I will call him Fredegar. Last year he and his wife wanted a bunch of folks from their home church to come and visit them here. Eleven of them to be exact. Well, the people of Gondor are very hospitable as I mentioned in my last post but their Government can sometimes be confused. Last year the Foreign Ministry went through some internal turmoil and for a short while nothing good was happening. Fredegar's friends put in for visas through a tourist agency and they were all rejected. No explanation, no second chances. Fredegar and his wife were devastated. How could this be? Eleven plus people had prayed and planned and now the answer was no? It couldn't be.

I called Fredegar over to the office the next morning. I felt that the Lord had a plan. I mean this- don't miss this point! This is about the King and His story, not Strider. Anyway, Fredegar finally showed up at about 11:00am. Being who I am I told him a story. I had some friends in a town to the north of us who had some trouble a few years ago. Ok, it was eight years ago, but hey, time flies right? So, these friends of mine were seeing some real success in planting churches and the local officials did not like it. The mullahs were preaching hot and heavy every Friday at Mosque and naming my friends publicly. They wanted my friends out. The local secret police arrested all the people attending any meetings with foreigners and were fairly thorough in their interrogations. People began dropping out of the churches and non-believers were avoiding the churches and the believers like the plague. But remember that the gates of hell are only going to fall if they are attacked. So, my friends went down to the secret police headquarters, stood on the front steps, and prayed out loud. They called on God to call off the heat and protect the young flock. It was the middle of the day and no one stopped them or addressed them at all. From that day on no one else was questioned and there were no more sermons by the mullahs. It just stopped. (For the sake of integrity in my story telling I will say that the persecution picked up again just last year. My friends are gone and the locals have really struggled.)

I then suggested to Fredegar that we go down to the Foreign Ministry and pray just like my friends did. He thought that was a great idea. Off we went, I drove down and parked, we got out and began to walk around the outside of the building. I was walking calmly along praying in a normal voice for God to bless the Ministry with a spirit of peace and hospitality when I looked behind me. Fredegar was walking with his hands straight up in the air and with a look of sheer passion on his face was praying loudly for God to intervene. I sped up and walked a few paces in front of him. Well, I thought there were some pedestrians who gave us a rather wide berth but over all we were completely ignored. Ah, the City.

I suppose it goes without saying that we asked the travel agent to resubmit the visas and he got them the next morning. The King is faithful. He cannot be manipulated and His plans will not be foiled. The question is will we walk in boldness and faith so as to see His love and faithfulness?