As our church sorted through the Quiet Hour prayer requests that had come in, one request was given to my husband and me, since the person who had asked for prayers lived near us. Not long after we went knocking on the stranger’s door.
The man that opened the door eyed us cautiously. You could tell by his body language that he suspected we might be Jehovah Witnesses or Mormons coming to witness to him. “We’ve just come to pray with you, that’s all!” we assured him. “Look, see, here is the request you sent in asking for special prayer.” Upon seeing the prayer request he had written, he relaxed and invited us inside his home.
We talked for a few minutes and then he asked, “So what church do you belong to?”
“We are Seventh-day Adventist,” we responded. “I’m not interested in joining your church. I like my church,” he immediately spoke up. “We aren’t here to try to convince you to become a Seventh-day Adventist,” we once again assured him. “We are simply here to pray with you.”
And so we prayed that day, and many days after that as he always asked us to come back. Now and then he would ask us questions about what Seventh-day Adventist believed, and we would patiently answer his questions, but then he would quickly remind us, “But I don’t want to become a Seventh-day Adventist.” Again we would re-assure him, “We are just here to pray with you.”
For over a year and a half we kept visiting him and simply praying with him. We never pushed our beliefs on him, only answered questions when he asked. Eventually he decided to start attending our church and prayer meetings. He really loved our prayer meeting and bonded with our church members. Finally one day he told us, “I’m ready to be baptized. Your church is the right church. You have the truth.” Not long after that he was baptized, and he spent his remaining years with us before he died of old age.
Of course we had no idea what would result from those times of prayer. We just were trying to reach out in care to someone in need. We praise God for what He has done, above and beyond all we could have asked for.
Doris Bevins, and her husband Robert love reaching others for Christ, and attend Clarkson Seventh-day Adventist Church in Washington.
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World Church Prayer Requests April 9-16
- PRAYER REQUEST: Please keep praying for the General Conference Spring Meetings taking place this coming week in Silver Spring Maryland where leaders travel in from around the world to discuss and pray about pertinent issues in the church. Pray that God will lead each decision that is made.
- PRAYER REQUEST: This next week, some of the General Conference staff will be visiting the convention center in Indianapolis where the General Conference Session of 2020 will be held. Pray for all the logistics that need to be worked out, and also for the Ministerial team, as they are looking for where to put the prayer room. We had approximately 15,000 people come through the prayer room at GC Session San Antonio and we are praying for an even bigger room for 2020 so that more people can be blessed.
- PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for the upcoming World Mission Institute Turkey that will occur this month and into May. Turkey has been quite hostile to Christianity, so we really need God to work. Pray for our General Conference team as they coordinate the adult and children’s programs. Especially pray for safety for our team traveling into and out of the country, as there has been a lot of protest and fighting recently.
- PRAYER REQUEST: On May 10-13, 2017 the General Conference Departments of Children's Ministries, Women's Ministries, and Family Ministries are hosting an International Leadership Conference in Budapest, Hungary under the theme “Reach the World: Issues Impacting Children, Women, and Families.” Please join us in praying that the presence of God would be at this event in a very special way. Please pray that this event will be transformational for those attending and not just another global meeting of the church. (For those interested in knowing more about what will take place at this event, you can login to our event site by clicking here.)