The Science of Long Distance Prayer

I Thes. 5:17. Pray without ceasing.

Years ago when we were missionaries in England, a thought occurred to me.  If our supporting churches went under, we would go under.  If we went under, our mission church would go under.  Therefore, it was the responsibility of our mission churches to pray for our supporting churches!  Are you still with me?

James 5:12. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another,that ye maybe healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

With that in mind, I designated our January Ladies Meeting to be a TEA–a PRAYER TEA–a MISSIONARY PRAYER TEA!  During our meeting, I handed out a list of all of our supporting churches and asked each lady to pray for these during our prayer time that day and throughout the year.  -Our livelihood depended upon it!  God did some miraculous things through our Teas!  While we were praying for others, God saw fit to return more blessings on our own ministries!  Twice, we literally saw our mission churches double in attendance!  Miracles didn’t happen after every Tea but at times, they did!

[We eventually turned that church over to a National.  We needed to return to the states for some medical issues but, during that time, my mother was diagnosed with cancer!  God had us where we needed to be and when we needed to be there!  I became my mother’s caregiver and, after many years of praying, I had the blessing to lead her to the Lord ten days before she passed away.  That is another subject though!]

After her passing, the Lord directed us to the Caribbean Isle of Aruba so, I kept the Teas going.  When we retired, (several issues but one being my husband’s health after he had cancer), I saw the benefits of the Teas so, again, I continued them here in the states, only, this time, praying for the missionaries that our church supported.

This past January, I hosted my first Tea at our new church.  Anytime I begin having “Annual Teas”, I always start the first one off with a devotional about “The Science of Long Distance Prayer”.  I read an article on this subject in a Christian magazine delivered to our church while in England.  It made a great impression on me that really burdened me to pray more for my missionaries.  It started out with several statistics that I want to share with you and then expand it further.

Acts 6:4b…”But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.”.  If we would give ourselves continually to prayer, we would see the windows of heaven open just as those in this “scientific prayer study” experienced!  Listen to this!

1. In 1988 a double-blind study was conducted with 383 coronary patients.  Half were prayed for and half were not. None knew they were being prayed for!  After 10 months, those who were NOT prayed for needed 5x more antibiotics and had 3x more complications.
2. In 1998, a similar test was repeated with 1000 patients with the same results!
3. In 1990, a double-blind study was conducted on 20 AIDS patients. Those prayed for spent less time in the hospital and developed fewer AIDS diseases.
4. The doctor was in such disbelief that she did the test again with 40 patients. Still, she had the same results!
5. A similar study was done with a group of women going through In-Vitro Fertilization.  Half who were prayed for became pregnant while only 1/4 of those not prayed for became pregnant.
6. In 1997, several British churches banned together to address 5 specific crime problems in their city.  Their crime dropped 15%.
7. Another city’s churches heard about this and began praying.  Their crime dropped 45%! 

I was impressed!  Here, is the evidence of praying without ceasing!  If God did that for those people, what could and would he do for us in our churches?–IF, our ladies were really serious about prayer!  Now, to see how these same methods applied more spiritually to the situations of missionaries!

1. Our city officials in Exeter, England,  gave a “dance” club license to an establishment seeking to do business in our city; only to find out after the fact that its real purpose was to be a LAP dance club!!!!  They were at the bottom of the hill from our church and we began praying.  Within a few months, it closed down!
2. A missionary lived at the top of a high-rise apt. bldg. when the elevator cable broke…She was on the first floor when it happened and sustained no injuries.  That day was her birthday and she remembered one particular church who had a missionary birthday prayer calendar and knew they were praying for her that very day!
3. Another missionary was checking the grounds of their compound after hearing some disturbances.   Then, he heard a missionary in the room next to theirs scream.  A man was trying to rob her and she had awaken.  The robber’s intent had been the other missionary’s room.  People were praying!
4. An earthquake hit a town and then another tremor hit a few nights later.  The missionary wife could not be awaken until after it stopped.  This scared her, wondering that, if another ever hit, would she wake up to save her children since her husband was often gone on ministry trips?  Then she received a letter that her family and church had been praying for her, not realizing what was going on!
5. Another of our OWN experiences was that we were blessed several times to host several youth groups coming to visit us and do missionary work.  While a group was visiting us in England, my husband felt led of the Lord to change our itinerary one day to go canvassing instead of passing out tracts in the city centre,  We learned later that a suicide bomber had planned to set off a bomb in the area we would have been in but it malfunctioned earlier.  

The next day, we were happy to be getting out of town (!!!) and taking the youth group through Plymouth to view where the Pilgrims departed while in route to help another missionary.  Several teenagers needed to exchange some of their money so, while one of our men took them to a bank, we instructed the rest of the group to stay with us in the center of the plaza.  That way, no one would wonder off into a store or around the corner!

In the meantime, (and unbeknownst to us), the police had been informed of the bomber’s accomplice….who was living in Plymouth!  With concealed weapons in their duffle bags, they traced the accomplice to a sidewalk cafe to arrest him….This was in the same plaza we were standing in!  If he had had a weapon and gunfire was exchanged, we would have been caught in the crossfire!  The families and church of those kids were praying that week for all of us!

I could go on with other examples that I skipped but the point is how important our prayers are, even if we don’t know the person or don’t hear the results.  We know, so many times on the mission field, we were likely in harm’s way yet, God protected us!

Your prayers are the lifeline for missionaries.  Even if you don’t know what to pray for, God can take the earnestness of those prayers and bless, protect, or supply the needs of a particular missionary!  Our prayers are also the lifeline for others we may know or for strangers someone has asked us to pray for.  When we think our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, remember that God IS hearing them!  He may be keeping the door shut for some things but in His grand plan, He is listening and working His perfect will out accordingly!  Will you earnestly pray for your church’s missionaries?