The following is a true story relayed by missionary David Watson:
Recently two Africans came to faith in Christ. These were unschooled, ordinary men who could barely read. They wanted to take the gospel message out to the surrounding villages in their region, and so they took one Bible and the clothes on their back and started walking. After a day they came upon a village, entered it, and ask to see the chief.
They said to the chief, “We would like to tell you a story that’s changed our lives.” The chief replied, “No, not today. My wife has died and we are making preparations to bury her. We will bury her by nightfall.”
They walked out of the chief’s hut and, while leaving the village, one turned to the other and said, “Don’t that book (the Bible) talk about raising the dead? Should we do that?”
“I dunno if it says it or not. But we should try it.” His friend replied.
They went back to the chief and said, “We would like to pray for your wife in the name of Jesus. Would that be okay?” The chief agreed, but then the two friends said, “We would like to move her body to the center of the village, so that when we pray the villagers will know that we’re not using witchcraft or black magic. We want them to know we’re praying only in the name of Jesus.” The chief agreed to their request.
So they moved her body to the center of the village. “How do we do this?” the one said to the other. “I don’t know. How about you pray at her feet and I’ll pray at her head.”
And so they prayed. They prayed that Jesus’ kingdom would come and that he would confirm the message of his gospel by raising this dead woman to life. They prayed for two hours without stopping. Then four hours. Then six hours. After six hours the grave diggers came back to the village and the chief approached the two men while they were still praying.
“It’s time to bury her,” he said.
And right after he said that, the corpse sneezed. And then it sneezed again and her eyes opened. With the chief staring in amazement, and the entire village watching, the wife stood up and started speaking!
That day, the entire village came to Christ.
And those two men who prayed for her? They now travel from village to village asking, “Has anyone here died today?” And if the answer’s yes, they pull the body into the center of the village, and pray until God raises it back to life. To date, 13 more people have been brought back from the dead by the faithfulness (and guts) of these two new believers.
I find this story amazing. The more I hear about what God’s doing around the world, the more I get this sense of me being on the outside looking in, wanting to be a part of what He’s doing. Stories like this stir up a Godly discontent with my life and build my faith. How about you?
