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Friends United Meeting |
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July 1997
Prayer: It Really Works!
By Johan Maurer, FUM General Secretary
In 1975, I decided to remove my sister from my parents' home in Evanston, Illinois, to my relatives' home near Ottawa, Ontario. I did this to avoid police action against my family after a series of truancy and neglect complaints caused authorities to threaten to remove her from home.
A Christian lawyer helped prepare papers for her to become a ward of my cousin Axel Heyerdahl. The one blockage: despite risk of court action, my mother refused to allow my sister to leave. At this point, Axel and I drove to my parents' home with legal papers in hand. We sat in the car and Axel prayed. In simple, faith-filled words he laid the whole matter in the hands of "our heavenly Father." We sat quietly for a moment and went in.
My mother was at the dining room table. We explained that it was time for my sister to come with us back to Canada; would Mom sign these papers? I was trembling-there were eight copies of the crucial form. Did Axel realize the odds against this iron-willed woman ever bending enough to sign even one?
Before my astonished eyes, she picked up a pen and signed one, then another, and another until she ran out of copies. By that time my legs had turned to rubber, but my heart was singing.
That was my first conscious experience of answered prayer. Since then, I've rejoiced with many who have had similar experiences, but I have never exactly been surprised. I know what God can do. It has been harder for me to recognize that what God can do for an individual or family, God can also do for a church.
I am not alone; as FUM has promoted corporate prayer and intercession, we hear that this is a new thing for some meetings, at least in recent years. It isn't new in theory; everyone seems to know the wonderful stories of early Quaker heroes of prayer.
Making room for genuine corporate prayer and the voice of God was the reason we rejected formal ceremony in the first place. But today, in practice, we need some encouragement to expect the same living reality.
Here at the FUM offices, we have been taking the advice we give others. Hundreds of Friends receive our Intercessors' Letters in their English and Spanish, paper and electronic editions. Those letters list our own corporate prayer concerns.
Among the concerns we have included more than once are the requests to pray for a principal for Friends Theological College, Kenya, and a director for the Ramallah Friends Schools in Palestine. Both concerns have been answered: we have made excellent appointments to both positions. In both cases, the appointees- Rich and Sandy Davis to Kenya, Laurie and Marilynn Ann Hadden to Palestine -have reported the sorts of multiple confirmations that Cindy Jacobs mentions in her interview with Mary Glenn Hadley (page 6).
In the case of the Haddens, I had the amazing experience of being "used" by God: I got their name in a conversation with a denominational executive in Chicago in February...I called them out of the blue one morning ("Hello, you don't know me, but would you consideworking in Palestine?")...a few follow-up calls later and Laurie was making plans for a two-week visit to Ramallah...only later I found out that they had been in the process of applying to other Christian volunteer agencies for a service opportunity when I called.
Even later I found out that he graduated from the same university as the principal of the Ramallah Friends Girls School. You saints of prayer who are reading this: you're thinking that this is old news, everyone knows that God answers prayer. Not exactly. Some doubt, while others simply have more hope than experience. It is up to us to go beyond theory and tell our stories.
Actually, now it is your turn.
Johan Maurer is editor of Quaker Life and general secretary of Friends United Meeting.
Copyright (c) Friends United Meeting 1997
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