'A guy named Doug Coe lives in the Washington DC area, and has a ministry in which he kind of hob-nobs with politicians, and runs in the circles of the affairs of state.
Doug became acquainted with BOB.
BOB is an insurance salesman.
BOB is completely unconnected to any government circles.
Because of his relationship with Doug, BOB gets interested in the things of scripture, and he becomes a Christian. He began to meet with Doug as a means to assisting him to grow in his new-found faith experience.
One day BOB came in all excited about a statement that he had read in the Bible, in which Jesus says, "ASK whatever you will in MY NAME, and you shall receive it!"
"Is that really TRUE?" BOB asks, a little skeptical.
"We-el", Doug counters, "It's not exactly a BLANK CHECK. You have to take it in the context of everything else the scriptures teach about prayer, but it really is TRUE.... Jesus really does respond to our prayers. He really answers our prayers!"
''Oh, GREAT" BOB replied, "I've got to PRAY for SOMETHING!"
"I think I'll pray for AFRICA!"
Doug wants to guide BOB in this whole experience about prayer,
and he says, "Well, you know that's kind of broad, why don't you narrow it down to just a country."
"OK, I'll pray for --- --- KENYA!"
"Do you know anybody in Kenya?"
"Nope."
"Have you ever been to Kenya?"
"Nope."
BOB just seemingly felt impressed that he should PRAY for KENYA. So Doug makes a highly unusual agreement, and a highly unusually arrangement with BOB. He challenged BOB to pray every day for KENYA for 6 months. If BOB would do that, and nothing out of the ordinary happened, Doug would pay him $500! BUT, if something remarkable DID happen BOB would pay Doug $500! And if BOB did not pray EVERY DAY for 6 months, the DEAL WAS OFF!
"BOB began to pray. And he prayed for a long while. And guess what? Nothing happened.
Well then one night BOB was at a dinner in Washington with a number of people that he was not familiar with. And as people were going around the table introducing themselves and explaining who they were, and a little bit about their lives, one woman said that she helped to run an orphanage in KENYA. And BOB for a moment saw $500 begin to fly away! But he was so riveted that he had run into a woman from KENYA that he could not stop his curiosity. You see, up to this point, he had not really participated much in the conversation at the table, and now he began to pound this woman with question after questiion, and finally the woman says: "You are obviously very interested in my country. Have you ever been to KENYA before?"
"No."
"Do you know anybody in KENYA?"
"No."
"Then how is it that you are so curious about my country, KENYA?"
"Well, somebody is kind of paying me $500 to pray for KENYA."
Well, she asked BOB if he would like to come and visit KENYA, and tour the orphanage, and if BOB could have, he would have left that very night.
When BOB did arrive, he was appalled by the poverty, and the lack of basic health care, and upon returning to his home in Washington, he simply could not get KENYA and the orphanage out of his mind.
And he began to write large pharmaceutical companies describing to them the vast need he had seen. He reminded them that every year they would throw away large amounts of medical supplies that went unsold.
"Why don't you send them to this place in KENYA?" He included in his letter.
And some of them did.
And the orphanage received a million dollars worth of medical supplies from American pharmaceutical companies.
BOB receives a telephone call from the woman in KENYA.
"BOB, this is amazing! We've received the most phenominal gifts because of the letters you wrote. Would you like to fly back over! We'd like to have a big CELEBRATION!"
| "So BOB gets on the plane and goes back to KENYA. While he's there the president of KENYA comes to the celebration, because this is the largest orphanage in KENYA . He meets the president of KENYA, and the president invites BOB to take a tour of Nairobi. During the tour, they visited a prison. And BOB asked about a particular group of prisoners that were incarcerated. "Well, they're political prisoners," he was told. "That's a BAD IDEA!" BOB says, rather forthrightly. "You should let them out!" Well, a couple of days later, BOB flies back home. Sometime later back home, the telephone rings. It's the State Department of the United States Government. "Is this BOB?" "Yes." "Were you recently in KENYA?" "Yes!" "Did you make any statements to the president of KENYA about political prisoners?" "Yes." "What did you say?" "I said he should let them out!" The voice from the State Department went on to explain that they had been working for years trying to get the release of these political prisoners to no avail. All diplomatic and political channels had simply run into a dead end, but now the PRISONERS had been RELEASED! And the State Department had been told that it had been largely because of --- BOB. So the government was just calling to say - THANKS! Some months later the president of KENYA called --- BOB. He was about to make some very important decisions about some new personnel in his cabinet. Would you, BOB, please be willing to fly over to KENYA here and spend THREE DAYS praying for me as I make these decisions? So BOB, not politically connected at all, flys back to KENYA, and prays, asking God to give the leader of the nation of KENYA wisdom.'' Our prayers make a difference! So .. after reading this i thought : ''I can do that to . I can pray for 6 months .'' Of course i didn't have a bet with anybody but in the end i hope i will win something much more important then money . Today is my 5th day of praying . But i am not praying fror Kenya . I am praying for my country : Romania . I am praying for the orphans and the homeless , i am praying for our hospitals and for our orphanages . And i will pray for them for the next six months . And i hope that my prayers will make a difference too ! |
