And They Prayed

Don’t you just love long prayers? To be honest, I’m not always enthralled when someone prays on and on and on. But what happened two days ago was different.

I had landed the Pilatus PC-12 in a hot, steamy, lowland village and unloaded 2,200 pounds of cargo.

Next I set up the nine passenger seats and loaded nine adults, who were as sweaty as I, and two leaky infants.

Just before our departure at 2 p.m., with the sun blazing, I delivered the standard safety briefing and asked, as customary, if anyone would like to pray before we left. A few hands went up, and I asked one man to lead. He started to pray in the local language, and everyone else joined in.

While they were comfortably seated praying, I was squatting between the seats by the doorway in the direct sunlight, pouring sweat. And they prayed. My shirt and pants became completely soaked. And they prayed. I peeked (which I tell my kids not to do) and saw the bright eyes of an infant staring at me, the strange white pilot. And they prayed!

Then it finally dawned on me how blessed I was. Here I was in the middle of the Papuan rainforest, surrounded by people who love the Lord. So go ahead and pray, I thought, I have all day.

We prayed, and prayed, and prayed … and were blessed.

Tim Harold

Tim is a missionary pilot with YAJASI, our partner in Papua, Indonesia. He and his wife, Tammy, have served there since 1998.