A missionary returning home from Africa, was sharing his story with his church family.
“While serving at a small field hospital, every 2 weeks I traveled to a nearby city for supplies.
On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then begin my 2-day journey back to the field hospital. Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured.
I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him about the Lord. I then traveled 2 days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident. 2 weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines. He said, ‘Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.’
At this I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone in that jungle campsite. The young man pressed the point, however, and said, ‘No sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My 5 friends also saw them, and we all counted them. ’ ”
At this point, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and asked the missionary if he could tell him the exact day this happened. The missionary told the congregation the date, and the man who interrupted told him this story: “On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong, I called men in this church to meet with me here to pray for you. Would all those men stand up?” The men who had met to pray that day stood up. The missionary wasn’t concerned with who they were, he was too busy counting how many men he saw. There were 26!