THE MISSIONARY
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
witnessed to him of the Lord Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days,
camping 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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