Romans 1:10 - Thank You For Your Prayers

First,let me thank you for your many, many prayers as we traveled this past week anda half to Egypt, to Jordan, and to Slovakia. And because of your prayers, wefelt like we had a prosperous journey. That's what Paul would ask the churchesto pray for him. He often asks prayer for safety, for deliverance from evilpeople, and also for the opportunity to share the gospel. Read the epistleswith Paul asking for prayers. My friend, prayers are answered when we believeGod for wonderful things that are according to His will. And so, I thank you somuch. It was a wonderful trip.  Someof you might remember I started a story, and I said, "You'll get the restof the story when I get back." So today, let me just finish the story ofJanet, the Egyptian lady that sat next to us in the airport at Istanbul on a three-hourlayover there. It appeared to us that just randomly, she sits next to us.  She didn't speak any English. We didn't speakany Arabic. And she sat for a while, and as we said, she asked for help withgetting a connection to her iPhone that was dead. We were able to help her withthat. Then a little later we noticed she was reading an Arabic Bible.  Sowe struck up a conversation and immediately the first thing she did was show usthe passage of scripture that she was reading and that was Colossians 1:15-18where she was reading: “He is the image of the invisible God, speaking ofJesus the firstborn over all creation for by Him all things were created thatare in heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible whether thrones ordominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him andfor Him. And He is before all things. And in Him all things consist. And He isthe head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from thedead, that in all things He may have the preeminence”. And she just keptsaying, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." Like Jesus is everything.  Itwas difficult to understand exactly what she was saying, but my nephew Jasonbegan using his iPhone app translator with AI and we were able to then recordwhat she was saying, and it would translate it to us. And the first thing she mentioned,and was translated was: “The first time I saw him, God told me to go sit besidehim safely.” So that just amazed us that she's sharing with us is that she satthere because God told her to. And then when we asked about whether she was afollower of Jesus Christ, she replied with these words.  “Myname is Janet. I married this man when I was miles from God. Didn't even know him.(She was apparently speaking of her husband that she had married). He wouldhurt me. He was harsh, cruel stuff. Slap me, drag me by my hair, once even useda knife. And me, I wasn't blameless: cursing, lying, living rotten through andthrough. His cruelty isn't an excuse. But God helped me find a pastor, put himin my path, and I poured out everything to him, everything. And today, I thankChrist because He picked up someone like me anyway.”  Aswe began to go back and forth with her with a translator and she shared more ofher story, she said, "I need you to pray for me, my sons Tamous and Daniel,that they would know Christ." Tamius, he's been all alone since his daddied three years now. Haven't seen him. He's down with a wrong crowd. Hash anddrugs and always wanting cash. I don't live anymore without him coming back. Ijust want him to repent and turn to Jesus.” Itrust you'll put this young man Tamous in your prayers and also her son Daniel.Janet actually lives in the States in Richmond, Virginia and works in a Walmartthere. And I'm still just amazed that without any knowledge of the Englishlanguage, but thank God she's a born-again follower of Jesus Christ. What awonderful story. In Cairo we had another amazing experience at the Monastery ofSt. Simon. Our guide there told us of a miracle that took place where an entiremountain was moved by prayer alone!!!!