As I write this, the polls are about to close on the 2020 US election. In these times, let’s pray for America.
It’s time to get back to the basics. It may not be as easy to get together to pray, to worship, to fellowship, to eat, sing and laugh together. Yet, though it may be difficult, let’s not forsake the assembling of ourselves together with our fellow believers.
My pastor, Pastor Burt Lowry, said it well:
“I’ve burned a lot of firewood in my time. One thing I’ve learned about starting a fire in a wood stove is that a log doesn’t burn well all alone. It takes at least one other log to start a blazing fire to last through the night.”
You may not be able to get together with fellow Christians at this time. Yet, God answers prayer! So, as long as you must miss out on church time, double down on the time you spend meeting with our Heavenly Father! Spend time with Him each day like your life depends on it! This is how you can stay on fire for God through the COVID19 crisis.
I would like to teach you a “game” I play that will add some fun to your prayer time It may seem strange, but it helps me to focus on others rather than on myself as I pray.
God is doing some amazing things through Desert Springs Ministries! Yet, we want to be honest with you. It’s not about us… that is, our family. In reality, it’s about you. God uses wonderful people like you to bring His Word to the Nations through MicroBibles and Scripture translation.
One of the greatest illustrations of this reality is the story of how He used a wedding ring to get us back to Chad.
In a time of struggle
It was 2009. We were having a difficult time raising our support to return to Chad.
Since joining AGWM, our support budget had more than doubled. My fellow workers were finding it easy, but we just couldn’t let people know about our ministry like they could. Also, there were so many of us trying to get to the foreign field that year. And almost every pastor I called or visited was already supporting as many of God’s overseas laborers as they possibly could.
One afternoon, while I was out shopping for groceries, I got “THE phone call”. It was the support raising supervisor at Headquarters. He told me that, if something didn’t change in our budget soon, we couldn’t return to Chad.
Around the time of that call, I was scheduled to speak at a missions breakfast at Calvary Temple Assembly of God in Fall River, Massachusetts. We were all given five minutes to speak. When it was my turn, I poured out my heart about our struggle to get back to Chad to continue the work we had started in 1992.
A wedding ring and some change
When the missions banquet was over, a teenage girl and her Mom came up to me. They had been collecting pocket change in a large jar, and the jar was full. And they wanted us to have it.
And in response to the LORD’s prompting, the mother slipped her wedding ring into the jar.
I felt overwhelmed… and didn’t want to receive this gift! But they insisted, “This is meant to go towards your airfare.”
We definitely needed help with our airfare. It was going to cost about $5,000 for all of us to get back there.
At the time, we mentioned this wedding ring to you, my prayer warriors and supporters. Would anyone be willing to buy this ring to help us with our airfare? So, we planned on giving it to the highest bidder.
So, you began to pray. Bids and gifts began to pour in from everywhere. “Keep this, and use it to get back to Chad!”
Finally, the time period for receiving bids for the jarful of change and the ring was over. I contacted the winning bidder. “How would you like us to get this jar to you?,” I asked.
This family replied, “Please, keep the change and send the wedding ring back to the mother who gave it.”
And that’s what we did! We were so relieved.
But before the end of the story, God provided the funds for us to return to Chad… plus a bit more, which we would need for meals and other expenses along the way!
Thanks for all you do to bring the Gospel to your backyard, your nation and beyond, through your prayers and support of ministries like ours.
It’s not about us… that is, our family. In reality, it’s about you. God uses wonderful people like 
When the missions banquet was over, a teenage girl and her Mom came up to me. They had been collecting pocket change in a large jar, and the jar was full. And they wanted us to have it.