An Answer to Prayer

"There is no way you'll be going to church this Saturday!" exclaimed our neighbor Neil. Neil, a yachty who followed the weather throughout the day, stated that a huge storm system was heading directly towards us and would make walking to church impossible. The walk there and back is about 5 miles and the unpaved road would be washed out with all that rain. Ryan was asked to give the sermon so we knew something had to give. We started praying fervently, knowing that this was a chance for God to work a small miracle. Most of our neighbors are non-believers and our prayer was that the same Jesus that calmed the stormy waters for He and the disciples would do the same for us.

Friday the storm came just as predicted. As we listened to the rain beating down on the roof that night in bed, we couldn't help but wonder if maybe our prayers hadn't been heard. So that drove us to pray harder before we fell asleep. We awoke the next morning to a beautiful, calm sunrise. We were so excited that we would be able to go to church and fellowship with our new church family. We thanked God for answering our prayers!

We began our long, yet serene, hike to the first village, Nabasovi, for church. All seven members of the church were there and excited that the storm had been calmed so that we could all worship together. After the service, one of the church members stated that he had been praying for a long time for help in spreading the Gospel on the island. As he began to cry, he thanked God for bringing us to the island. As touched as we were, we shared that we were more thankful to be here on the island, to have time with Jesus, time without distractions, and time to fellowship with such wonderful people of God.

As we walked home from church that afternoon, we encountered Neil on the road. "Did you have a good time at church?" he asked. "We had a wonderful Sabbath, it was such a beautiful walk to church", we replied. As we kept walking, he said that it was strange that the storm had just disappeared the way it did, we just smiled and continued on our way. As we approached our home we truly realized that Jesus answered our prayers.But I believe sometimes He wants to see just how much we want our prayers answered. How committed to prayer are we? How diligent are we willing to be in laying our cares and concerns at the feet of our Savior? We decided thatfrom this point, until Jesus returns to take us home, we will pray like we've never prayed before.