A Testimony To Answered Prayers 

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.  This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.                1 John 5:13-16

 I do not understand how God works when natural disasters hit like Hurricane Katrina.  When I see such events about to take place, I do not know how to pray.  If I pray for the hurricane to turn, I know it will have to turn into someone else.  When human life comes into contact with such power, tragedy is inevitable.  In all this tragedy, I cannot explain why some survive and others do not, nor why some are hit with the storm and others are spared.  Such questions are beyond me.

 However, I can testify about God answering specific prayer.

 On Sunday, August 28^th, I asked the congregation to pray for specific people I know who were still in LaPlace, LA, in the path of the hurricane.  We prayed for all the people, but I asked for specific prayers for specific people.  In my own prayers, I prayed for reduction in the storm’s strength.  I prayed for a turning of the storm.  I prayed for God to make a distinction between His children and others, so that He would protect His children just as He did between the Israelites in Goshen and the Egyptians.

 We prayed for Chris, our sister who runs a bar, who gave her life to Christ and who has served her Lord by aiding many people in that bar.  She has helped more disadvantaged people than most disciples I know.  Two days before the hurricane hit, she was taking her extra money and buying supplies for older and handicapped people she knew who did not have the supplies to get through the storm and who would not be able to evacuate.  While others were rushing to get out, she was rushing to help others. 

 Chris rode the storm out in her home in LaPlace with her son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.  We talked a couple of times before the hurricane hit in full force.  She was at peace knowing God was going to take care of them.  Sustained winds of 150 mph hit LaPlace.  Three large trees in her back yard snapped, none falling on her house.  Though Lake Ponchartrain came out of its bank in Kenner and broke through a levy causing major flooding, no flooding took place in LaPlace where there is no levy.  Chris’s neighborhood is in a low lying point of LaPlace that always floods, but not this time.  When the storm was over, the house next door to her had a fallen tree on it.  The houses across the street sustained significant damage.  Her house did not have one broken pane of glass nor one shingle missing.

 Another Christian had evacuated.  He came back to find many houses on his street with major damage.  Yet, his house, too, suffered no damage, not even a shingle.  His sister’s car which was left in the drive was not damaged.

 Another brother’s house was unscathed, while one across the stree had a fallen limbs on it’s roof.

 One brother’s trailer lost only a supplemental roof he had built over it.  Another family of believers in the same trailer park, lost only their shed but not their trailer.

 A counselor we have on staff here had relatives who were in New Orleans but who lived in Biloxi, MS.  She had not heard from them since the hurricane hit.  Then she found out they had gotten out of New Orleans safely.  They had left New Orleans and gone to Biloxi near to where the eye of the hurricane came on shore.  With all the devastation around them, their house did not even lose a shingle.

 As I said, I do not understand how God works in hurricanes.  I only know today that we prayed specifically for these people and these are the reports we are hearing.  Not one life was lost. So far we have heard of none who suffered significant damage to property.

 Thank you, Father, for answering our prayers!