Prayers for our Nation

We continue to be blessed by incredible guest speakers at our local church here in Trivandrum. Last Sunday, they broke their rules of having women preach and let a woman who was a former member visiting from the US preach that day. She was born in South Africa but is of Indian descent and has lived in the US with her husband for many years. Her testimony was amazing. She was raised as a Hindu, but when she finally heard the gospel and accepted Christ, she said that her prayers were actually answered, which was something she had never experienced with the false Hindu gods. She spoke about the need for Christians to have a true relationship with the Holy Spirit so that we can hear what God wants for us. She has had several experiences where she heard the audible voice of God, mostly in times of struggling with His will for her.

What was really impactful for us was what God has been doing in her life over the past few years. When she and her husband moved the US years ago, all she wanted was to just get a job and have a normal life. She felt God telling her that no, she was to be in the ministry full time. In fact, God wanted her travel each month to a different nation and pray for that nation! She told her husband about it, and he agreed to let her go, but every other month. They also had very little money, so God was going to have to provide the financing. Since that calling, she has gone to over 20 different nations on nearly every continent. Nearly every time she has to travel and stay with people she’s never met and endure long flights. Every time she books a flight, she has to trust that God will provide. She had boarded planes many times with either little or no money in her purse. She recently went to Israel, which is very expensive, and the Lord provided miraculously for her while she was there. In the three days that she spent there, the 40 dollars that she had in her purse never disappeared even though she had to spend a lot on transportation and meals. She said that on the third and final day there, she realized that this was happening and couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t really thinking about it because she was so busy with the ministry. She asked the ladies that she was with, whom she hadn’t met before this trip, if they had put money in her purse and they said no.

The story that stuck with me the most for several reasons was her recent trip to Fiji. Israel one month, Fiji the next. Crazy! Anyway, she lives in Florida, so for that trip she had to fly to San Francisco, then to Australia, then to Fiji. Her experience in San Francisco stressed me out just listening to it, and then it convicted me. While she was waiting at the terminal to board the plane for Australia, activity at the gate was chaotic. While she waited, she heard the ticket agent call her name. When she came up to the counter, the agent asked her to show him her visa for Australia. She explained that she was not staying in Australia, just changing planes, and that it wasn’t needed. They went round and round about it, and then the agent asked for her e-ticket. She handed it over, and then after some paper shuffling and 10 minutes had passed, the agent again asked for her ticket. She said that she had just given it to him 10 minutes ago. Apparently the man kept looking and looking and couldn’t find it. Meanwhile, it was time to board and they can’t find the ticket. The agent also did not remember her giving him the ticket, so he wouldn’t allow her to board. She was only planning on being in Fiji for three days and staying with a missionary family over there, so the plans were getting totally disrupted because she would have to spend the night in San Francisco and fly out the next day. Eventually, the plane took off without her. After it left, she asked if she could come behind the desk and look for herself, because if they didn’t find the ticket, she’d have to pay for new one, plus the hotel for the night, etc and she had no money. She was desperate at that point. She went behind the desk and looked in the trash can, and there was her ticket right on top. The agents, in astonishment, all swore that they had looked there.

So that was the part that stressed me out. The part that convicted me was what she did next. The airline paid for her room for the night, and instead of being angry and just going to bed, she called a friend and they prayed together for hours. She felt that the enemy had orchestrated this attack, and she meant to derail his plans and turn it into a blessing. She and her friend spent those hours praying for the city of San Francisco and its people. She eventually got on a flight the next day and made it Fiji. Another convicting part of what she shared was that she felt that God had called her to move to the United States to intercede in prayer for our nation. Wow, here we are (or were) a Christian nation (despite what people want to say these days) and now we need people from other nations to intercede for us. She shared of how God told to her to go to Washington D.C. when all of the Muslims where gathering there for that day of prayer, to pray that God’s hand would overcome. For those who didn’t followed this event, it turned out that the number of Muslims that actually participated was far, far less than projected, and there were an equal number of Christians there to hand out pamphlets and share the Gospel with them! I knew about the event weeks prior, but I didn’t even pray about it. This woman later felt God tell her go to the Mojave Desert, to pray with those gathering to save the cross that was mounted as a memorial that some atheist group protested. Again, I had seen this on the news and had even been on an archaeology job right near there years ago, but I didn’t pray about it. What struck me was, boy, what am I doing for my own country? In truth, I get angry at the way our country is headed yet do next to nothing to try to bring about change. I look on with ennui at each news story about how God is being removed from our nation. Thank God for folks like this woman, and for people like Tony and Janat who do prayer walks around their neighborhoods. What a humbling lesson.

The pastor closed service afterward by mentioning that Kerala received the gospel over 2,000 years ago (when Thomas shared the gospel here), and the people of Kerala sat on the message and didn’t share it, even with other states in India. America, with the same message, sent people out to share it and was blessed by it. I pray that our nation doesn’t lose sight of its heritage.