Fred Craddock tells a wonderful story about a young minister, newly graduated from seminary, serving his very first church. He gets a call telling him that a church member, elderly woman who has just given her life to the church, is in the hospital. She's so weak she can't even get up out of bed, and the doctors don't hold much hope for her recovery. Would he go up and visit? Well, of course he will and he does.
All the way to the hospital he's thinking about what he will say to this Christian lady, what words of comfort he can give her to prepare her for her eminent death. He arrives at the hospital, goes up to her room for the visit. He sits and talks with her a few minutes, just small talk really, nothing earth shattering. When he makes ready to leave, he asks if she would like him to have prayer with her. She answers, "Yes, of course. That's why I wanted you to come."
He then asks politely, "And what exactly would you like me to pray for?"
"Why, I want you to pray that God will heal me," she answers in a surprised tone of voice.
Haltingly, fumbling over the words, he prays just as she wanted, that God will heal her, even though he's not really sure that can happen. When he says the "Amen" at the end of the prayer, the woman says, "You know, I think it worked! I think I'm healed!" And she gets out of the bed and begins to run up and down the hallway of the hospital, shouting, "Praise God! I'm healed! Praise God! I'm healed!"
Meanwhile, the young minister, in a stupor, stumbles to the stairwell, walks down five flights of stairs, makes his way to the parking lot and somehow manages to find his car. As he fumbles to get his keys out of his pocket, he looks heavenward and says, "Don't you ever do that to me again!"
He had a mountaintop moment, but he didn't know what to do with it! Life is like that. Profound moments just fall in our lap and we're not prepared; we are caught off guard and unsure what to do with them.

A PERFECT MISTAKE

Grandpa Nybakken loved life - especially when he could play a trick on somebody. At those times, his large Norwegian frame shook with laughter while he feigned innocent surprise, exclaiming, "Oh, forevermore!" But on a cold Saturday in downtown Chicago, Grandpa felt that God played a trick on him, and Grandpa wasn't laughing.

Mother's father worked as a carpenter. On this particular day, he was building some crates for the clothes his church was sending to an orphanage in China. On his way home, he reached into his shirt pocket to find his glasses, but they were gone. He remembered putting them there that morning, so he drove back to the church. His search proved fruitless.

When he mentally replayed his earlier actions, he realized what happened. The glasses had slipped out of his pocket unnoticed and fallen into one of the crates, which he had nailed shut. His brand new glasses were heading for China.

The Great Depression was at its height, and Grandpa had six children. He had spent $20 for those glasses that very morning.

"It's not fair," he told God as he drove home in frustration. "I've been very faithful in giving of my time and money to your work, and now this."

Several months later, the director of the orphanage was on furlough in the United States. He wanted to visit all the churches that supported him in China, so he came to speak Sunday night at my Grandfather's small church in Chicago. Grandpa and his family sat in their customary among the small congregation.

"But most of all," he said, "I must thank you for the glasses you sent last year. You see, the communists had just swept through the orphanage, destroying everything, including my glasses. I was desperate. Even if I had the money, there was simply no way to replace those glasses. Along with not being able to see well, I experienced headaches every day, so my co-workers and I were much in prayer about this. Then your crates arrived. When my staff removed the covers, they found a pair of glasses lying on top."

The missionary paused long enough to let his words sink in.

Then still gripped with the wonder of it all, he continued. "Folks when I tired on the glasses, it was as though they had been custom made just for me. I want to thank you for you being a part of that."

The people listened, happy for the miraculous glasses. But the missionary surely must have confused their church with another, they thought. There were no glasses on their list of items to be sent overseas.

But sitting quietly in the back, with tears streaming down his face, an ordinary carpenter realized the Master Carpenter had used him in an extraordinary way.

THE $10 PIZZA by Brock Kidd in Guideposts for Kids July/August 97

I really liked college, but one thing I missed was being able to raid the family refrigerator any time I wanted. I remember one time when my friend rob and I had been studying for a huge test. We'd been up half the night, and we were starving.

"Got any money?" Rob asked. "I'm thinking Pizza."

I went through my pockets. One dollar bill. Two quarters. I went over to the desk and rummaged through the drawer. Seven pennies. In the meantime, Rob had come up with another dollar and 15 cents.

"Oh, man," I said, "I wish you hadn't mentioned pizza."

Well, now we were desperate to find the money. We could almost smell the pepperoni and cheese. We went to the living room of the fraternity house where we lived. We lifted the cushions on the couch and looked under all the furniture. Another nickel, a dime and a quarter.

"Hey what about our coat pockets!" I said, heading back toward the room.

On the way, something told me to stop at the mail table in the hall. I was surprised to see a letter addressed to me in my sister Keri's handwriting. I ripped open the letter, and a $10 dollar bill fluttered to the floor. "Have a pizza on your sister," I read in amazement. Keri was in the 9th grade at the time. I knew that this was money she had earned baby-sitting. unbelievable that she would send it to me!

Before the hour was over, Rob and I were eating the best pizza of our lives.

The Bible says that if you delight in Him, God will give you the "desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4). Now, I'm pretty sure the Psalmist wasn't talking about Pepperoni Pizza. But I'm certain that on that night, God showed His love to 2 tired college kids by sending them what they wanted most. And it came in a big square box from the local pizzeria.

Rees Howells was a man of prayer. He had learned the power of intercessory prayer thru years of working within the missionary fields of Africa. He had been involved with the establishing of Bible Schools, Orphanages, & Missionary churches and had repeatedly seen God's hand at work because of his prayers. One very exciting answer came during WW II when Rommel's forces were pushing virtually unopposed southward into Egypt.

After a week spent in prayer, the college where Mr. Howells was at called for a special day of prayer for the entire college. That Saturday, the chapel was filled with petitioners asking God to turn the tide of the war. At the end of long day of prayer, Rees Howell stood before those present and said "I thought Hitler might be allowed to take Egypt," he said, "but I know now he will never take Egypt - neither Alexandria nor Cairo will fall."

One week later, while scanning the newspaper, Mr. Howells read how grave the condition was that Saturday when they called the extra prayer meeting. That very weekend, according to the article, Alexandria was saved. Involved in the battle was a major Rainer, the man responsible to supply the 8th Army with water. Later he described the incident in a book, "Pipe Line to Battle". Rommel, the Desert Fox, was moving his men toward Alexandria with hopes of capturing the city. Between him and the city was a remnant of the British Army with only 50 tanks, a small number of field guns and 5000 soldiers. The Germans had approximately the same number of men but held decisive advantage with their superior 88 mm guns. One thing in common with both armies was sheer exhaustion from intensifying heat, and urgent need for water.

Major Rainer relates, "The sun was almost overhead, and our men were fast reaching the end of their endurance, when the Nazis broke. Ten minutes more and it might have been us. Suddenly the Mark IV tanks lumbered back from the battle smoke. And then an incredible thing happened: 1100 men of the 90th Light Panzer Division, the elite of the German Africa Korps, came stumbling across the barren sand with their hands in the air. Cracked and black with coagulated blood, their swollen tongues were protruding from their mouths. Crazily they tore water bottles from the necks of our men and poured life giving swallows between their parched lips."

Later in his account Mr. Rainer gives the reasons for this totally unexpected surrender. The Germans had gone an entire day and night without water. While the battle raged they over ran British defenses and to their joy discovered a 6 inch water line. Craving water they shot holes in the pipe and carelessly began to gulp the contents. Because of extreme thirst they consumed tremendous amounts without realizing it was sea water.

Major Rainer, the man in charge of the pipe line construction, had decided to give it one last test. Fresh water was too valuable for testing and therefore sea water was used. "The day before, it would have been empty... "Two days later," he added, "it would have been fresh water." The Nazis didn't detect the salt at once since their sense of taste had been anesthetized by the brackish water they had been used to, and by extreme thirst."

The startling point to note concerning this entire event is that intercessory prayer was responsible.

WHAT IF SHE HADN'T BOWED HER HEAD? True story from Guidepost

When four-year-old Charles Odam, a neighbor's son, strayed from home everyone in our heavily wooded, rural area pitched in to look for him. After checking out a big deep spring climbed the mountainside, calling the boy and listening. No answer.

At the top of the mountain. Green moss grew in a thick carpet on the woodland floor and late afternoon sunlight glimmered through the trees. I dropped to my knees and prayed to God for His help. Raising my head, I noticed a faint trail I had never seen before - just a trace used by forest animals.

An enticing trail for a little boy! But it ended where someone had cut logs. No sign of Charles there. The sun was going down. Time to go back. Just then I heard a wild animal's cry, a little "miaow" like a bobcat's kitten. Again it came. I peered through some bushes. There was Charles! He'd cried till he could only make that funny little sound.

He locked his arms around my neck and I carried him all the way home. On the way I thought about the hidden trail. What if hadn't bowed my head to pray? - Nadine Moody, Batesville, Arkansas

An effort was once made to change the course of the Mississippi River. During the Civil War, the river's course was a hazard for the North because it looped past Vicksburg, Miss., right under bluffs that gave the Confederates command over 17 miles of water.

Boats passing below could not raise their guns high enough to fire at the.. fortifications above. Vicksburg was an important prize because it linked Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas with the rest of the South.

In 1862, Union Gen. Thomas Williams tried to build a canal to reroute the Mississippi and bypass Vicksburg but rising waters foiled him. Then in1 863, at President Lincoln's request, Ulysses S. Grant tried to widen Williams' canal to make it usable. Four thousand men were put to work with dredges, picks and shovels. Grant called this "a series of experiments to consume time, and to divert the attention of the enemy, of my troops, and of the public generally." That was all the canal accomplished, for the effort was unsuccessful. On July 4. 1863, Grant finally took Vicksburg by more conventional means. Thirteen years later, heavy rains did cause the Mississippi to change its

course bypassing Vicksburg.

Some people find the story of Peter's fishing trip, recorded in Matthew 17, difficult to understand and to accept. On that trip, Peter cast in his hook, and the first fish that he caught had a piece of money in its mouth.

The Calgary Herald once carried this story: "Thelma Aanan, of Oslo, Norway, was delighted when her 15 year-old son, Robert, brought home a nine-pound cod he'd just caught in the fiord. "She was even more pleased when she gutted the fish to prepare it for dinner later that day. In its stomach she found a diamond ring - a family heirloom Mrs. Aanan had lost while swimming in the fiord three years earlier."

With regard to Peter's fishing trip, when we know God, we do not find it difficult to believe that He is in complete control of every living thing and He can bring a money-loaded fish to Peter's hook. God surprises us often in the way He meets our needs and answers our prayers.

THE POWER OF PRAYER IN WW2 from Guidepost Mac St. Johns Thousand Oaks, CA

In the Winter of 1944 during World War II, I was in France, a platoon sergeant in the Yankee Division under General Patton. About mid-December I received a letter from my mother back in the States.

"Can you remember," she asked, "where you were on Thanksgiving Day?"

Could I remember? How could I forget the odd thing that happened that day. At dawn I was sent to check out a crossroads where an enemy strongpoint was suspected. Normally I would have had my men fan out so that they could move with the cover of the trees. But just before we started out that Thanksgiving morning, I stopped. I stood stark still arguing with myself about what I should do.

Then, going strictly against the book I walked my men right down the middle of a road in an exposed column. No one fired at us; there was no evidence of the enemy. We found the crossroads unoccupied and turned to walk back. There, on the backside of the trees where only the German soldiers would have seen, were signs cautioning "MINEN". The woods were mined. We could have been blown to bits!

Mother's letter continued. She told me how she awakened after midnight on Thanksgiving Eve when it would have been daylight in France:

"I had a strong feeling that you were in great danger," she wrote. "When I opened my Bible, a phrase in Second Chronicles [20:17] gleamed on the page: 'Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord with you..."'

Stand ye still. Stark still.

WHAT ABOUT HYMN! 3rd Bathroom Reader

In 1950, Life magazine reported that 15 people barely missed disaster by an intricate stroke of luck. The 15 members of a church choir in Beatrice, Nebraska, were supposed to meet at 7:15 p.m. for practice. Each one got delayed...each for a different reason! For example, one had car trouble, another was finishing house chores, another was catching a radio show, etc. Whatever the reason, they were all lucky to be late: The church was destroyed in an explosion at 7:25.

LORD PROVIDES WITH UNOPENED LETTERS Our Daily Bread

A needy widow in Chicago lived by the motto: "The Lord will provide." Even when severely tested, Mrs. Hokanson never lost her ready smile and triumphant faith. Casting

her care on God (I Pet. 5:7), she found that He always took the burden and supplied the needed blessing.

Mrs. Hokanson was the sole support for her mentally retarded son. Eventually, chronic arthritis confined her to bed. When a church youth group went over to Mrs. Hokanson's

house to cheer her up, they were amazed to discover that she was not depressed. They inquired, "Now what will you and Arthur do?" She gave her usual quiet, confident response, "The Lord will provide."

When Mrs. Hokanson died, many people wondered what would happen to her son. But when friends and neighbors went home with Arthur after the funeral, he proudly showed them his collection of stamps. Instead of tearing the stamps off the envelopes, he had intercepted and kept scores of letters intended for his mother and left them unopened. Many contained substantial gifts-enough to care for the boy for the rest of his life.

THE TIMELY GIFT Guideposts January 1993, p. 33

I spent three years aboard the U.S.S. Columbia in the South Pacific during World War II. One night I woke up at 3:00A.M. and could not get back to sleep. So I got out of my bunk, went to my locker, and found a pen, paper and my checkbook. I wrote a letter to my pastor and enclosed a check. I asked him to cash it and give the money to a woman who'd been my Sunday school teacher when I was a boy. I knew she was bedridden, because I had visited her from time to time when I was ashore. The next day, after mailing the letter, I had second thoughts. In fact, I was embarrassed. What on earth had possessed me to get up in the middle of the night and do such a thing? I had been praying for guidance about tithing, but this hardly seemed like an answer.

It was six weeks before I heard from my pastor. "Jack," he wrote, when I arrived at Mrs. B's house with the money, I learned it was the exact amount she needed for a new hearing aid she had ordered COD-but now couldn't afford. Without your gift, the post office would have had to return it to the sender."

Suddenly I knew what-or rather Who-made me do what I did.

Jack Reynolds, Santa Cruz, California