Lord, enlarge my borders
About the middle nineties I found myself adding a new prayer to my daily prayers. It went something like this: "Lord, is there someway that I can make an impact on Muslims? I admit that I have never even met one and surely don't even know where I could meet one in this part of my world, but I would like to have a part in impacting Muslims."
Now, I prayed that prayer for several years and never saw anything that could resemble an answer to that prayer.
In the fall of 2000 Ruth was experiencing some medical problems. They had been occurring for some time and the doctors didn't consider them too serious, but to us they seemed serious. When a woman who has been through her change in life and all of a sudden starts to pass blood and it continues, it would seem to be serious.
One evening she went to the phone and called our Pastor and asked if she could meet with the elders to have them pray for her as the scripture in James calls for. His reply was, "Ruth we are having a special speaker in church tomorrow. Why don't you go forward after the meeting and have him pray for you?"
After church on Sunday Ruth and I went forward to have this speaker pray for her. He had his wife with him and his wife layed hands on Ruth and prayed for her healing. After she finished the man turned and looked at me and said, "Your ministry is going to change, and it will change before Christmas." That is all he said.
Ruth's medical problem cleared up, but I didn't see any change to my ministry. I received a call to go to Texas for the winter and head up a building project for a Christian organization. This is what I had been doing for more than twenty years during the winter months.
In March of 2001 we were about to come home for the winter. I still remember praying one morning during my prayer time, "Lord, I realize that I don't have too many years of ministry left, I would like to invest my time in people rather than buildings."
We arrived home the first part of April and the first Sunday in church a woman walked up to Ruth and said, "I would like you to have this book." It was a copy of Bruce Wilkerson's "The prayer of Jabez." We both read the book and found that the first part of his prayer was, "Lord enlarge my borders."
A week or so after that the Pastor called us and asked if he could come out to the house and talk with us. While visiting with us he asked us, "Jim and Ruth, I would like you to consider going to the country of Kenya this next winter and teach in a Bible school."
On December 24th, Christmas Eve, Ruth and I were on an airplane heading for Africa.
The first day of school I was talking to some students and someone found me and said, "Jim there is someone in the office that I would like you to meet." I met a young man who had come with his pastor by the mane of Pius. He told us that he had three years of Bible school and would like to transfer into our Bible school so he could get his fourth year. He went on to say that he had no money but the Lord impressed upon him to go to the school this morning and talk to someone. I immediately took one of the staff aside and asked him about Pius and his potential. I was told by a fellow who knew him and thought that he had lots of potential. I immediately made arrangements with the school for Ruth and I to pay his tuition and books and for our son and daughter-in-law to pay his room and board.
Next week will be "The rest of the story"
About the middle nineties I found myself adding a new prayer to my daily prayers. It went something like this: "Lord, is there someway that I can make an impact on Muslims? I admit that I have never even met one and surely don't even know where I could meet one in this part of my world, but I would like to have a part in impacting Muslims."
Now, I prayed that prayer for several years and never saw anything that could resemble an answer to that prayer.
In the fall of 2000 Ruth was experiencing some medical problems. They had been occurring for some time and the doctors didn't consider them too serious, but to us they seemed serious. When a woman who has been through her change in life and all of a sudden starts to pass blood and it continues, it would seem to be serious.
One evening she went to the phone and called our Pastor and asked if she could meet with the elders to have them pray for her as the scripture in James calls for. His reply was, "Ruth we are having a special speaker in church tomorrow. Why don't you go forward after the meeting and have him pray for you?"
After church on Sunday Ruth and I went forward to have this speaker pray for her. He had his wife with him and his wife layed hands on Ruth and prayed for her healing. After she finished the man turned and looked at me and said, "Your ministry is going to change, and it will change before Christmas." That is all he said.
Ruth's medical problem cleared up, but I didn't see any change to my ministry. I received a call to go to Texas for the winter and head up a building project for a Christian organization. This is what I had been doing for more than twenty years during the winter months.
In March of 2001 we were about to come home for the winter. I still remember praying one morning during my prayer time, "Lord, I realize that I don't have too many years of ministry left, I would like to invest my time in people rather than buildings."
We arrived home the first part of April and the first Sunday in church a woman walked up to Ruth and said, "I would like you to have this book." It was a copy of Bruce Wilkerson's "The prayer of Jabez." We both read the book and found that the first part of his prayer was, "Lord enlarge my borders."
A week or so after that the Pastor called us and asked if he could come out to the house and talk with us. While visiting with us he asked us, "Jim and Ruth, I would like you to consider going to the country of Kenya this next winter and teach in a Bible school."
On December 24th, Christmas Eve, Ruth and I were on an airplane heading for Africa.
The first day of school I was talking to some students and someone found me and said, "Jim there is someone in the office that I would like you to meet." I met a young man who had come with his pastor by the mane of Pius. He told us that he had three years of Bible school and would like to transfer into our Bible school so he could get his fourth year. He went on to say that he had no money but the Lord impressed upon him to go to the school this morning and talk to someone. I immediately took one of the staff aside and asked him about Pius and his potential. I was told by a fellow who knew him and thought that he had lots of potential. I immediately made arrangements with the school for Ruth and I to pay his tuition and books and for our son and daughter-in-law to pay his room and board.
Next week will be "The rest of the story"
posted by Jim Burton at 7:47 AM
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