When God Opened the Windows of Heaven!
By Linda Koh
Our Chinese church was excited when a missionary couple who had just returned from serving a few years in China joined our church. They were willing to offer free ESL classes as an outreach to teach Chinese-speaking people learn basic English. That got our whole church excited too. So, our small prayer group got together every week to pray about this outreach project. We had been praying for over a year that God would send us Chinese students for the ESL classes, but only two students enrolled. It seemed like God didn’t listen to our prayer at all. We left business cards at Chinese supermarkets, put up a banner at the front of the church, but nothing happened.
However, our prayer warriors were not discouraged. We continued to bring this request to the throne of God. Then the pandemic descended upon us and finally the lockdown! Wow! There was nothing we could do now as far as classes were concerned. Even if we had students, nobody would be allowed to attend at all. Social Distancing!
Indeed, this did not dampen our spirit, nor destroy our trust in the Lord. We continued to plead before God. One of our younger members suggested advertising this outreach program in her WeChat platform. We said “Go for it! There is no harm trying.” Yes, miracles began to happen! Within 24 hours, we had over eighty students wanting to register. A few of us immediately formed a governing committee, developed a registration form, put together a schedule, planned the levels of proficiency classes, and got the teachers needed to meet the immediate demands.
We hardly had time to even think about what’s coming up next when God opened His heavenly windows and poured his blessings on us. God saturated us with His blessings! As we had so many students waiting to register, we scrambled around for native English teachers to man the force. In addition to the regular language classes, we also offer health and Bible study classes for the students. We are finishing our first term by September and will proceed to the second term. A total of sixty-five students are still learning English with six students joining the weekly Discover Bible class.
Did God answer our prayers? Yes, indeed! He was silent for a while as we develop our patience and trust in Him. But when God answers, He opens the windows from heaven widely and poured down such an abundance of blessings that we have no room to receive them. We praise God for opening His windows! It is our prayer that many of these students be led to know Jesus Christ and the gospel of salvation.
Linda Koh is director of the General Conference Children’s Ministries.
World Church Prayer Requests
October 9 - 15, 2020
• Please continue to pray for the Annual Council leadership meetings, which started this week. All the leaders of the world church are gathering together on zoom to plan, pray, and make important decisions for this coming year and beyond. Pray especially for the Holy Spirit to guide the meetings and the agenda.
• During Annual Council we’ve already heard some amazing testimonies of how God is working in the different world divisions, in answers to prayer. Please pray that the strong emphasis on prayer will continue to grow, as this is what brings power and effectiveness to God’s work.
• Please pray for our political government and leaders as they have a lot of decisions to make related to the current world events. Pray that God’s plans will be accomplished in His time and His way.
• Pray for this week’s Adventist Mission unreached people group, the people of Bania from Southern Asia. Shockingly, 0% of these 29 million people follow Jesus. Before Jesus comes, the gospel must go to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, and this includes the Bania. Thank you so much for your prayers that God will move powerfully in their hearts!