The Prayer Warrior

Let your yes be yes…Matthew 5:33-37

In September of 2001 my sister was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer.  In October of that year, I went to Cuba to work with the local church in Media Luna doing evangelism.  As we were having lunch at the church one day I was sitting by a very sweet Cuban lady named Calidad.  As we visited she told me she was having health issues and asked me to pray for her.  I told her I would and wrote her name down in my notebook with good intentions to be diligent in prayer for her.  Then I told her about my sister and wrote Cynthia’s name on a piece of paper for her.  She took it and promised to pray for her.

After that trip I returned to Cuba several times to other parts of the island and met many Cubans, I had a notebook full of names and Calidad was just one of many.  And then I returned to Media Luna after three years. One afternoon we stopped at a store and I got off the bus to buy water for our group and a lady came up to me; her first words, “how is your sister Cynthia, I hope she is well, I have been praying for her?”  And then I recognized her, but I couldn’t find her name.  I hugged her and she said, “it is Calidad;” I was amazed that she took her promise to pray for my sister so seriously; she had been praying for her daily for three years. I felt good seeing her again, and yet so deficient in my promise to her.

I know there are many true “prayer warriors” out there, but I also suspect that there are some shamed ones like me.  It is Jesus who taught me how to pray, but I am grateful to Calidad who taught me to let my, “yes I will,” be done.

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Cynthia lived ten years fighting cancer.  She was not alone in her struggle. Many prayers of the faithful laborers went up for her.  Below is a part of Oswald Chambers devotional on prayer.

There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.     Oswald Chambers

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Photo: I don't have a photo of Calidad, these are Cuban Christians in Santiago De Cuba.