The Armed Guards

Author Unknown

Have you ever felt the urge to pray for someone and then just put it on a list
and said, "I'll pray for them later?" Or has anyone ever called you
and said, "I need you to pray for me, I have this need?" Read the
following story. It may change the way that you may think about prayer and
also the way you pray. A missionary on furlough told this true story while
visiting his home church in Michigan..."While serving at a small field
hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle
to a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days and required
camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived
in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine
and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital.
Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been
seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked
to him about the Lord Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days, overnight, and
arrived home without incident. Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon
arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told
me that he had known I carried money and medicines. He said, 'Some friends and
I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to
kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into
your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.' At this I laughed
and said that I was certainly all alone out in that jungle campsite. The young man
pressed the point, however, and said, 'No sir, I was not the only person to see
the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because
of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.' At this point in
the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted
the missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact day that this happened.
The missionary told the congregation the date, and the man who interrupted told
him this story: 'On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning
here and I was preparing to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge
to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong, I called men in
this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of
those men who met with me on that day stand up?' The men who had met together
to pray that day stood up. The missionary wasn't concerned with who they were --
he was too busy counting how many men he saw. There were 26."

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