A picture taken at Kamakwie Secondary School in 2002. The Principal, Mr. Hemo Brima, on the left.

Scripture Union camp was a spiritual highlight for secondary school students in Sierra Leone, West Africa. As chaplain and Bible teacher at Kamakwie Secondary School, it was my delightful privilege to participate in these camps. I am thinking particularly of a camp held at the Secondary School for Girls near Magburaka. It was always the custom at these camps to spend one night in village evangelism. We had walked to a nearby village. The young man who was to preach the gospel that night stood facing one of the houses. Fifty or sixty feet separated him from the house. The congregation was gathered in those fifty-sixty feet and on the houses’ veranda. I was sitting as inconspicuously as possible in a back corner on a side-wall in the shadows. A small Mosque was located next to this house. At the hour of evening prayer a half-dozen or so men entered this Mosque and began to pray. The Mosque’s hurricane lantern cast their shadows where I could see them as the men bowed to the ground and then again stood. With one ear I listened to the rhythm of these Arabic prayers, with the other, to the passionate proclamation of the Gospel of Christ. The difference was striking. 2 Corinthians 4:5 makes one aspect of this difference clear: “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (ESV). A “Muslim” is one who is a servant or slave of God. We, however, who follow Jesus, are not simply called to be God’s servants or Christ’s servants, but servants of others for Jesus’ sake! We follow the one who said, “I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:27 ESV); “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14 ESV); and “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  (Mark 10:45 ESV, cf. Matthew 20:28). And then he proved it by going to the Cross!

My wife Rosa had a dangerous, life-threatening delivery with our oldest daughter. We were in Sierra Leone. Although I was in the operating room, the attending lady physician, a colleague and close friend, would not look me in the face—her face was pale and her lips were tightly pursed. God told a godly African woman, known as a prayer warrior, to go and pray when she heard Mrs. Cockerill was in labor. God answered that prayer, and we have been thankful ever since. Some mission boards require missionaries to have several hundred prayer partners before they can go to their place of service. God invites us in Scripture to pray for our needs, for the needs of others, and especially for those engaged in his service. We know that God is not limited by our prayers, and yet sometimes we pray and ask others to pray because we feel that the more people who join us in prayer the more likely God is to answer.

When we turn to the eleventh verse of this passage (2 Corinthians 1:3-11), we are astounded: “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many” (2 Corinthians 1:11 ESV). Paul urges the Corinthian believers to pray for his deliverance and the furtherance of the Gospel, not so that God will answer, but so that they will increase the number of those who give thanks when God does answer! Paul is so confident of God’s answer that he is sure it will lead to thanksgiving! God chooses to act through our prayers—and sometimes not to act if we do not pray—because he wants us to know that He is answering! He wants to draw us close to himself through his gracious action and our grateful thanksgiving. What a privilege to pray aright (praying aright may be a topic for another day), to witness God’s answers, and to give thanks.