During the Mau Mau uprising in
Kenya in 1960, missionaries Matt and Lora Higgens were returning one night
to Nairobi through the heart of Mau Mau territory, where Kenyans and
missionaries alike had been killed and dismembered. Seventeen miles outside
of Nairobi their Land Rover stopped. Higgens tried to repair the car in the
dark, but could not restart it. They spent the night in the car, but claimed
Psalm 4:8: "I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make
me dwell in safety." In the morning they were able to repair the car.
A few weeks later the Higgenses returned to America on furlough. They
reported that the night before they left Nairobi, a local pastor had visited
them. He told how a member of the Mau Mau had confessed that he and three
others had crept up to the car to kill the Higgenses, but when they saw the
sixteen men surrounding the car, the Mau Mau left in fear.
"Sixteen men?" Higgens
responded. "I don't know what you mean!"
While they were on furlough, a friend Clay Brent asked the Higgenses if they
have been in any danger recently. Higgens asked, "Why?"
Then Clay said that on March 23,
God had placed a heavy prayer burden on his heart. He called the men of the
church, and sixteen of them met together and prayed until the burden lifted.
Did God send sixteen angels to represent those men and enforce their
prayers?1
Thanks to God for the gift of faith, for the fellowship of prayer, and for the many
miracles He works in our own daily lives.
Sometimes
we hardly even notice those miracles. A far shorter and sadder story tells of a woman
who prayed, "Lord, please find me a parking place."
Moments later,
another car pulled out and a parking space became available.
"Never mind, Lord," she prayed. "I found one already."
May our eyes always be open to all the ways He graciously meets our physical and
spiritual needs day by day.
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