Morning
Thought for Saturday July 2nd 2016
Good
morning, I have a little plaque that says PRAYER CHANGES THINGS, and I do
believe it does.
It
was soon after Mustard Seed Jersey started that I was first amazed by a very
specific answer to prayer. In December 1999 I was in Romania visiting one of
the private Christian orphanages we assisted. The house parents were new and
enthusiastic but the house itself looked tired and much of the furniture was a
bit tatty. I knew we planned another aid consignment in the new year, so I
asked what they saw as priorities.
Wisely
I got out my notebook and wrote the list. The houseparents
identified that the children’s bedrooms needed to be personalised, made more
child friendly. Soon I had a varied list including bedding, toy storage boxes,
bikes, shoes, slippers, socks, pyjamas, other clothes, jig-saw puzzles and some
children’s lamp shades.
The
children’s lamp shades concerned me –while in the past we had received all of
the other items, we had never had lamp shades – let alone children’s ones! But
I remembered the words on the plaque Prayer Changes Things. So I said to the
house parents, “Let us pray together about these needs on the list”. So
standing in one of the kids bedrooms, we prayed – they
prayed in Romanian and I prayed in English. If I’m honest I left shaking my
head and thinking “Children’s lamp shades – never!”
It
was several days before I got home. As soon as I was back in Jersey one of the
volunteers was on the phone and he was a bit cross. “We’ve been given a load of
quite unsuitable stuff – it was from a church jumble sale. Would you believe it
they have even given us some Walt Disney lamp shades”.
“Wow!”
I exclaimed, “that’s fantastic, that’s an answer to prayer. Those lamp shades
are exactly what we prayed for a few days ago. The orphanage
need them to brighten up the kids rooms. God has answered our prayer”.
Just
co-incidence some might say, but I believe it was an answer to our prayer. So
can I encourage you to pray and to ask for what you need, for Prayer changes
things.
Have
a great day and God bless