Missionary stories are a great source of apocryphal illustrations…
A missionary came back from Africa and went to some churches that had supported him.
At one of them, he told of how at one point, he had camped in the jungle overnight.
The next day he came into the nearest village, where the people came out to greet him in fear.
They told him that they had heard he was on his way, so the night before, they had gone out to kill him and steal his money and medicine. But as they approached his camp, they saw that his tent was surrounded by twenty-six armed guards. They asked him where those guard were.
“I don’t have any guards.”
But the people continued to insist that they had seen them.
At this point in the story, a man jumps up and says, “Can you remember the date that that happened?”
The missionary tells him.
“Well,” the man says, “that morning I was playing golf and felt this over-powering need to pray for you. In fact, I called into church and had them put you on the prayer chain. I wonder how many people here got that message and prayed for this missionary?”
The missionary was moved to tears as 26 men in the congregation stood up.
I think I got this in an e-mail and didn’t forward it to ten people, thus missing God’s blessing on my life that day.
I posted it here instead of forwarding. I can’t wait to see what I get.
I think God is giving out $50 Applebee’s gift certificates this week. Or an iTouch.
I’ve heard this story so many different ways. Heck, I even heard it from a Mormon.
I’m still working to get little Billy “Smiles” Evans a body transplant.
I got this in a forwarded email, too. Gotta love stories like this that have no names mentioned, so there is no way to prove whether or not it’s true.
Sounds like that story of the girl walking alone in a dark alley who didn’t get raped because she had 2 angels with her.
The African people were probably hallucinating on ‘shrooms. We all know that’s all they do over there anyway.
I have to laugh at myself… Despite knowing the spurious nature of the story, I still got goosebumps from reading it!
But did you get chill bumps from “the top of your head to the bottom of your feet?!” That’s how you know the “anointing has fallen!” and the presence of God “is in this place!”
I first heard this story nearly forty years ago.
You know, it’d be so ironic if it turned out this story was true… and it happened to a Roman Catholic.
Nah, We’ve got real armed guards for our meds and food.
I’ve heard this story told a couple of times, sometimes giving actual names (not the same names for each account, though), sometimes with the “a missionary I know”, and sometimes just “a missionary.” For some reason, the first thing that came to mind when I read it here was that the guy who was playing golf must be an expert on time zones or something, since I’m pretty sure that there is a significant time difference between here and “somewhere in Africa.”
My parents have their own version of this that they tell, just not as dramatic or with the obligatory “Africa” thrown in.
It reminds me of a chain letter my Dad received. It stated that something bad would happen to him if he did not forward it. It came in the mail two months after he died.
For the past 40 years I have pondered what that ‘bad’ thing might be.
And you have to wonder why there were only 26 guards if the first man felt like he needed to pray – wouldn’t there be 27?
Math, people. It’s a thing.