The Week of Prayer

 With great joy and unutterable thankfulness to the God of all the earth, I will tell about the week of prayer at Sunshine Orchard, September 11-17.The staff at the school asked me to do a week of prayer for them before I left for BYT.  They said that near the end of the school year they would invite a nearby pastor to do another one.  To be honest, I had greatly desired to do a week of prayer there for some time.  But at this point in time I would only have one week to prepare, and I have never done a week of prayer before.  My instant reaction was to have the other pastor do it now and I would study and do mine later.  Then the sweet voice of conscience spoke saying, “You better pray and ask God what He wants you to do.”  So I fell on my knees and asked the Lord to please give me ideas of what He would like me to talk about if He wants me to do it this soon, because I had not a clue.  Immediately a flood of thoughts came into my mind.  I would present 7 steps to Jesus, one each morning, then in the evening I would speak simply about the last days of Jesus on earth, taken straight from the Desire of Ages beginning with Gethsemane and ending with the resurrection.  So many meetings coming up so soon boggled my mind, but I kept praying, knowing that if He was asking me to do it He would definitely give me the words.The Lord prepared a place for me to study away from the multitude of interruptions of the school.  I stayed in a small motel room just 6 kilometers away.  There it was quiet and I even had a table and chair!   God met with me there and how sweet was the time spent. When the meetings began I was surprised at how attentive the students were from the youngest to the oldest.  This gave me great freedom to speak earnestly from the heart in a great effort to bring Jesus and the light of understanding to these precious students that I have come to love so much.  The presence of God was there and I was filled with joy to overflowing at the response to each call for raised hands or to stand.  No one could have been more blessed or privileged than me, as I studied the beautiful account of Jesus from Desire of Ages, saw myself as the horrible sinner that I am, and then looking into the eager faces of the students each meeting.  How humbling, yet uplifting at the same time!I was so thrilled to have Blet Jaw for my interpreter.  He truthfully put it this way:  “You know, you are important to these meetings, but I am even more important, because I am the one they will receive understanding from.  He felt a true responsibility for the conversion and salvation of each one.  Oh how wonderful to have someone so conscientious and godly to work with!  At the close of each evening meeting we divided into small groups to pray. The ones who did not know how to pray were learning. The last meeting was the Divine worship on Sabbath.  The topic:  The Resurrection.  So powerful!  At the close I asked those who had made a decision to follow Jesus, who were not afraid to confess Him before others, who wanted to love and serve Him with their lives to come forward.   Many came.  This means a lot here, because in Thailand and among the Karen, 99% are Buddhist.  Some are stronger in their religion than others.  Many of the students who choose to be baptized and follow Jesus are persecuted.  Some are threatened with beatings or other punishments, some with disowning, some even with death.Please join me in praying for all these students that they may have the courage to continue on growing with Jesus and sharing Him with others.  Oh please pray that they may join us in heaven forever!