Daily Devotional

One can only imagine being in the Church of Antioch as the Apostle Paul and his missionary companions shared about the ups and downs of their missionary journey. Missionaries do the same today. Some call them Tiger Stories. I have shared a few of these in my last couple of devotional that were adapted from an actual report from one of my first missionary journeys to the Philippines in 1990. Here’s a few more:

Tiger Story #6
After staying the night in Manila, we headed out to the conference center. We were rested and relieved, hopeful things were finally going to run smoothly. Satan had a different plan.

A few miles from the camp, a young man darted out from nowhere and we hit him traveling about thirty miles an hour. In a split second that seemed like an eternity, his body smashed against the front of the car, flew to the hood, and slammed against the windshield which then sent him flying about thirty feet in front of us. Before we could stop, we were on top of him again. The young man staggered to his feet, and we put him in the car and rushed him to a nearby hospital.
             
While he was in the car, we laid hands on him and prayed (and cried). We got him to the hospital and left him in the hands of the doctors and the Lord. We finally arrived at the camp, obviously shaken up. We asked every pastor at the conference to fervently pray for the young man. God miraculously answered. After staying in the hospital overnight for observation and tests, they treated his amazingly few scratches and released him. Two of the men at the conference were able to share more about Christ with the young man’s Catholic family. The family was astounded at what they, too, knew was a miracle.

“Thank You, Lord, for Your healing in that young man’s life. May he come to know You had Your hand of protection on him.”

Tiger Story #7
Our team members were surprised to hear our stories. Unlike us, they had spent the last few days resting and enjoying the marvelous hospitality of two local missionaries. Little did they know they were about to experience a tiger story of their own.
             
While I was teaching the pastors, three of my fellow missionaries decided they would like to walk into town, just a few hundred yards from the camp. One of them had the foresight to
 suggest they should ask our bodyguard to walk with them. As they left the camp, the bodyguard prayed that God would protect them and give him wisdom to know how to react to any situation.
             
They were walking down the street when the bodyguard calmly announced to our three team-members, “Don’t move, the man across the street is pulling a gun on you.” At that moment our bodyguard drew his gun to fire. The man with the gun saw him and quickly held his gun with two fingers and shouted, “Do you want to buy a gun?” Whether the man was intending to shoot or to sell his gun, we’ll never know. None of our team volunteered to ask!

“Thank You, Heavenly Father, for Your specific wisdom in difficult and dangerous
situations.”
 
Tiger Story #8
The conference was going reasonably well as we taught all day on several subjects. However, we sensed very early in the conference a great deal of discouragement in many of the pastors. Concern over the Gulf War had truly impacted them, their churches, and their extended families, many of whom live in the Middle East. Others could not explain why they were depressed. We quickly recognized this to be another of Satan’s attacks.
             
We committed ourselves to specifically pray for God’s deliverance and healing from this cloud of unusual despair. The very next morning we saw a tremendous breakthrough. Miracles began to happen in the lives of these men as they joyfully and enthusiastically soaked up all we could teach them.

“Lord, continue to give these men wisdom, power, and insight as they teach Your Word to the people of the Philippines.”

New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.