This post could be a lot of things. It could be an apology for not posting a blog update for so long. It could be a scriptural study on the importance of prayer, or a meditation on how vital prayer is to missions. But I don’t feel like writing any of those things at the moment. Instead I just want to share what a blessing it is to have so many of you praying for me, and to share two short, small, but incredibly encouraging examples of how God answers prayer.
I just sent out a prayer update last night. I try to send these out to my supporters and prayer partners on a monthly basis, but this one was long over due. I’d been feeling a little lost in regards to exactly what I was supposed to be doing when it came to support raising, and it was about then I figured I could use some prayer, and remembered I was two months late in sending out an update. This morning I found two emails in my inbox, mixed in with the spam, forwards and day to day work stuff. One was from one of my supporters who, without me asking, just out of the blue said he wanted to double his support for me. The second was from a person who isn’t even on my prayer list, and so didn’t get the email I sent out last night. She said her and her husband had been praying yesterday, and decided they wanted to send some financial support to me for when I do eventually move to Japan.
So often I try so hard to do the things I think I’m supposed to be doing. I know God wants me to go to Japan, so I try to talk to people, and I send out newsletters, and hold meetings, but in the end, it’s all God’s work. Sometimes He uses my efforts, and sometimes He simply answers prayer. Those two little examples are not isolated incidents, things like that happen every time I send out a prayer update. It’s an interesting observation that more seems to happen after sending a quick email asking fifty people to pray, than after I spend hours writing, folding, stuffing, stamping, addressing and mailing a newsletter out to 150 people asking them to consider giving.