Prayer Warrior

The men next door were mean. We were not allowed to walk across their yard. We probably would not have done so anyway, but the neighbour girl did and one day I followed her. Boy, did I get into trouble! Respecting property did not apply to them, however, as my dad once had to stop them from standing in our driveway. They were teaching the neighbourhood kids to golf, using stones from our driveway and aiming at our front window.

Another time, when I was very little, I was playing in our driveway. One of the men was driving past, when he suddenly lurched up our driveway, quickly driving straight towards me. He probably was only trying to scare me, but my mom saw what was happening and ran out of the house. When he saw her, he calmly backed up and drove away as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

They seemed to especially hate our family, but they were mean in general. Many of the other neighbours disliked them as well. My mom shared all that had happened with an older friend. “Well, we’ll just have to pray for them to move away.” She nodded resolutely.

My mom shook her head sadly. “We can, but they’ve lived there for generations. I don’t think they’ll move any time soon.” The conversation was almost forgotten when, about two weeks later, a “for sale” sign appeared in the front yard. They were moving away! Everyone on the block rejoiced. My mom tearfully told the good news to the dear old prayer warrior, but she only nodded her head, not surprised in the least.

This event impacted me greatly. My mom kept talking about the wonderful miracle of prayer that had taken place and said, “We need more prayer warriors like her!” It was then that I decided that I wanted to be one — someone who would pray it through and see prayers answered. This dear lady is long gone, along with many other prayer warriors of the past. Who will take over their faithful posts? Will you?