How shall we pray?
During the fall of 1988 I had been praying for the Lord's guidance as to where we should spend the winter working for Him. My prayers went something like this, "Lord somewhere in the World someone is praying and asking you to send someone with my gifts and talents to come and help them. Lord, I want to be the answer to someone's prayer." If we pray like that I don't think that we can miss God.
I wrote three letters to three different mission bases regarding needs that I knew they had and I received three letters stating that if I were to come it would be an answer to their prayers. Now, what do I do? I kept praying. About this time I heard of a need in the country of Zimbabwe, southern Africa. After checking on the cost of the airfare, I wrote this one off because we didn't have the means, "Oh man of little faith."
This need in Zimbabwe kept rolling through my mind and one night in November I couldn't sleep because of this reoccurring thought. I finally got up about 1:00 PM and made a call to the mission base in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe.
When the phone rang in the mission house the director was just walking out of the morning staff prayer meeting. When I asked him how they were praying for the need I had heard about he responded by saying, "We have been praying for over three years for someone to come and build this building for us and no one has come." I responded by saying, "I will be there."
Within a week or so someone in the church donated the amount that we were short.
In the three months that we were there I built and completed a men's and women's toilet and shower facility for a Christian retreat center, plus I got the walls up on a guest cottage.
As I hear the news coming out of Zimbabwe today, I can't help but wonder how those Christians are doing. I know that the white farmers that we knew are gone; their farms have been confiscated and given to the henchmen of the president. I also know that the people are hard pressed for food.
When we were there in 1989 the exchange rate was one US dollar for one Zimbabwean dollar. Today, due to the rape of the country by the president and his henchmen, the exchange rate is one US dollar to 200,000 Zimbabwean dollars. Their smallest bank note is for 500 Z. dollars and that will buy one sheet from a roll of toilet paper. What the government should do is print larger $500 bills, save a lot of trouble wouldn't it?
The farms can no longer feed the population and the government continues to print large amounts of paper money causing the inflation rate to rise over 100% per month.
In a crises situation where there is seemingly no hope, but, there is hope if you are a Christian.
In the eight chapter of Romans we are told, starting with verse 35, "Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Verse 37 says, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
This has not caught the church in Zimbabwe by surprise, because when we were there over 15 years ago the church was preparing for hard times ahead. As we visited the churches and listened with discerning ears, we could hear in the worship and messages that God was telling His people to expect hard times in the future.
Is the Lord preparing the American church for hard times ahead? I think if we listen with discerning ears, we too will hear the subtle hints that He is dropping.
See you next weekend
My email address is
jim@burtonia.com
During the fall of 1988 I had been praying for the Lord's guidance as to where we should spend the winter working for Him. My prayers went something like this, "Lord somewhere in the World someone is praying and asking you to send someone with my gifts and talents to come and help them. Lord, I want to be the answer to someone's prayer." If we pray like that I don't think that we can miss God.
I wrote three letters to three different mission bases regarding needs that I knew they had and I received three letters stating that if I were to come it would be an answer to their prayers. Now, what do I do? I kept praying. About this time I heard of a need in the country of Zimbabwe, southern Africa. After checking on the cost of the airfare, I wrote this one off because we didn't have the means, "Oh man of little faith."
This need in Zimbabwe kept rolling through my mind and one night in November I couldn't sleep because of this reoccurring thought. I finally got up about 1:00 PM and made a call to the mission base in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe.
When the phone rang in the mission house the director was just walking out of the morning staff prayer meeting. When I asked him how they were praying for the need I had heard about he responded by saying, "We have been praying for over three years for someone to come and build this building for us and no one has come." I responded by saying, "I will be there."
Within a week or so someone in the church donated the amount that we were short.
In the three months that we were there I built and completed a men's and women's toilet and shower facility for a Christian retreat center, plus I got the walls up on a guest cottage.
As I hear the news coming out of Zimbabwe today, I can't help but wonder how those Christians are doing. I know that the white farmers that we knew are gone; their farms have been confiscated and given to the henchmen of the president. I also know that the people are hard pressed for food.
When we were there in 1989 the exchange rate was one US dollar for one Zimbabwean dollar. Today, due to the rape of the country by the president and his henchmen, the exchange rate is one US dollar to 200,000 Zimbabwean dollars. Their smallest bank note is for 500 Z. dollars and that will buy one sheet from a roll of toilet paper. What the government should do is print larger $500 bills, save a lot of trouble wouldn't it?
The farms can no longer feed the population and the government continues to print large amounts of paper money causing the inflation rate to rise over 100% per month.
In a crises situation where there is seemingly no hope, but, there is hope if you are a Christian.
In the eight chapter of Romans we are told, starting with verse 35, "Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Verse 37 says, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
This has not caught the church in Zimbabwe by surprise, because when we were there over 15 years ago the church was preparing for hard times ahead. As we visited the churches and listened with discerning ears, we could hear in the worship and messages that God was telling His people to expect hard times in the future.
Is the Lord preparing the American church for hard times ahead? I think if we listen with discerning ears, we too will hear the subtle hints that He is dropping.
See you next weekend
My email address is
jim@burtonia.com
posted by Jim Burton at 8:11 AM
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