And God Held Back the Rain!
By Linda Mei Lin Koh
Everything was ready for opening night! I was to conduct a reaping campaign in the city of Malang, Indonesia. In the morning, I did evangelism for the children in our church school. The pastors and our children’s leaders had been working hard to prepare the groundwork, but on the first afternoon after lunch, the sky turned dark and soon it was pouring buckets of water down. Oh, no! Few people would come out to the evangelistic meeting in this kind of rain! There was nothing we could do, but we could pray. And pray we did!
We turned to God the Almighty and prayed for the rain to stop on the opening night of the evangelistic series. Praise the Lord! God stopped the rain by 5:30 p.m. as we left for the evangelistic venue which was held in a large auditorium inside the military base.
But, the devil didn’t want to give up. Every day after lunch it rained like crazy. So every day we continued to pray earnestly and fervently, imploring God to work a miracle. One look at the dark clouds and the pouring rain, and our courage would diminish. It was hard to believe that it could stop. But I was reminded of a text in Matthew 19:26 that Jesus said: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Yes, God worked miracle after miracle every night for eight nights in a row! God stopped the rain by 5:30 pm each evening so that many people could attend the evangelistic meetings to learn more about Him. Can you believe that? Miracles in our modern day!
On Sabbath after the last sermon, it was time for baptism. That afternoon God gave us hot and sunny weather for twenty-two precious souls who went into the swimming pool to be baptized, giving their lives to Jesus Christ. Oh, there was joy in heaven!
Yes, prayer is power! Like the song says, we need to “Whisper a prayer in the morning, whisper a prayer at noon, and whisper a prayer in the evening.” God can change impossible situations. He sometimes moves mysteriously, but will provide what you need in miraculous ways. Nothing is impossible with Him. Indeed, we serve a mighty God!
Linda Mei Lin Koh is the director of Children's Ministries for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Download this week's blog and Prayer Requests
World Church Prayer Requests
March 10 - 17, 2019
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for Global Youth Day and Global Children’s Day, which takes place next Sabbath, on March 16, 2019. On this day young people worldwide will seek to “Be the Sermon” as they adopt a prisoner, a patient, or an orphan to show them the love of Christ. Children and teens will participate in community services.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for Linda Mei Lin Koh (General Conference Children’s Ministries Director) and Saustin Mfune (Associate Children’s Ministries Director). Pray that they would have special wisdom for their task as they seek to lead the children of our church to Jesus.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for Gary Blanchard (General Conference World Youth Director), as well as Pako Edson Mokgwane and Dr. Andrés J. Peralta (Associate Youth Directors) that the Holy Spirit would be upon them as they lead our youth.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for Youth and Children’s Ministries leaders worldwide, that the Holy Spirit would be upon them in a special way. Pray that church leaders on every level will empower children to witness for Jesus and to serve their community.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray that many children and adults will give their hearts to Jesus at the forthcoming TMI/TCI (Total Children Involvement) evangelism in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, in the East Central Africa Division in March.
• PRAYER REQUEST: We are now two weeks away from the big Total Youth Involvement event, which will take place March 24-30, 2019. Please continue praying for the General Conference Youth Ministries Department as they prepare to mobilize Pathfinders and other young adults all over the world to preach at 100,000 different sites for Total Youth Involvement. #TYI19 (To learn more visit: https://youth.adventist.org/Total-Youth-Involvement)