At our weekly Good News Club meetings at E. Rivers, the children have the opportunity to write down their praise and prayer requests, for which the club leaders pray during the week. The prayer requests are varied: asking God for help in school, for their parents getting a job or promotion, for good health for grandparents, for safety, confessing sin (like hitting their little brother!), healing for a family member with cancer, healing for their guinea pig, thanking God for His blessings. Recently, some of the requests have been to pray for one of our leaders who is hospitalized: “make Mr. Carleton be healthy.”

We’ve taught the children that prayer is not a celestial vending machine, but that God is sovereign and answers prayer in various ways (yes, no, wait). We’ve talked about different aspects of prayer with the ACTS acronym (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication).

And we’ve assured the children that they can bring anything—no matter how “little” and no matter how “big”—to the Lord in prayer.

Our missions stories are another way to show and teach about the power of prayer. This semester we are learning about Hudson Taylor, missionary to China in the mid- to late 1800s. We’ve learned that the earnest prayers of his mother and sister for Hudson’s conversion were answered by Hudson’s accepting Jesus as His Savior. We will be talking about how Hudson fully relied on God for every need, taking everything to the Lord in prayer—during his years of preparation for missionary work, during his voyage to China, and during his many years of sharing the Gospel in China amidst tribulation, danger and adversity.

In his autobiography, Hudson tells of an early experience, during his time of medical training in London, when he was totally broke and down to his last coin (a half crown, worth about 60 cents). A man came to Hudson and implored him to come pray for his very sick wife. Hudson agreed and was led to the roughest, poorest part of town, and up to a cramped and dirty room. In the room were five children, all very thin and looking like they were practically starving. And then there was the mother, who was moaning, obviously in pain and quite miserable. She was very thin as well. This family was on the verge of starvation; they obviously needed money to buy some food. But, Hudson himself needed money for his own food and rent. Hudson relates:

It will scarcely seem strange that I was unable to say much to comfort these poor people. I needed comfort myself. I began to tell them, however, that they must not be cast down, that though their circumstances were very distressing, there was a kind and loving Father in Heaven; but something within me said, “You hypocrite, telling these unconverted people about a kind and loving Father in Heaven, and not prepared yourself to trust Him without half a crown!” I was nearly choked.

Hudson proceeded to kneel by the sick woman to pray. He somehow uttered a prayer, but “such a time of conflict came upon me then as I have never experienced before or since.” Hudson arose from his knees, greatly distressed. The man said, “If you can help us, for God’s sake, do!”

Just then the word flashed into my mind, “Give to him that asketh of thee,” and in the word of a King there is power. I put my hand into my pocket, and slowly drawing forth the half crown, gave it to the man.

Immediately joy flooded Hudson’s heart. Hudson walked back to his home—which was just a little room that he rented. He was totally broke, but totally happy. He didn’t know how he was going to pay his bills or pay for food to eat, but he knew he could fully rely on God, trusting God to provide for his needs.

Morning came. The postman arrived with a letter addressed to Hudson. Hudson looked at the letter—he didn’t recognize the handwriting, and the postmark was blurred, so he couldn’t tell where the letter had come from. He opened the envelope. Inside was a folded blank piece of paper, and inside the paper was a pair of kid gloves. As Hudson took the gloves out, something fell out—it was half a sovereign (which was a coin worth about $2.50)! The coin that Hudson had given away the previous night was worth 60 cents. But the coin that Hudson received was worth four times that much.

“Praise the Lord!” he exclaimed.

Hudson had trusted God—and God had provided for his needs in an amazing and totally unexpected way! Not only did God answer Hudson’s prayers for money, but God also answered his prayer for the woman who was dying. She got well! Hudson wrote in his journal:

I cannot tell you how often my mind has recurred to this incident, or all the help it has been to me in circumstances of difficulty in after-life. If we are faithful to God in little things, we shall gain experience and strength that will be helpful to us in the more serious trials of life.

It is encouraging in our own Christian walks to see how God answers the prayers of others—be they missionaries from more than a century ago, or fellow Christians in our everyday lives. May we learn to trust God and fully rely on Him, as we “cast on Him [our] every care.”

And since He bids me seek His face, believe His Word and trust His grace,
I’ll cast on Him my every care, and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

– Jan Robinson, Director of Children’s Ministries