On my recent trip to Kenya, something caught my eye... it was the letters P.U.S.H – Pray Until Something Happens - on the back of a matatu (the Kenyan taxi/mini bus). And as we crawled through the Nairobi traffic I began to wonder what that might look like when I returned to my busy, Sydney way of life…

In western Kenya the majority of the population is Christian, there are churches everywhere, and nearly every matatu has some sort of Christian message painted across the back of it.

But in eastern Kenya, the majority of people are Muslim, there are more Mosques than churches, and practically no messages of faith on the matatus.

Before going to Kenya I thought I knew how to pray. I thought my brief requests and praises shot up to God on the go were sufficient. I thought I knew when it was time to give up on praying for something when I saw no results after what I thought was a long time. Turns out I was wrong, really wrong.

If you’ll join me over the next few weeks, I’d love to share with you how I came to this conclusion. That actually, I had a heck of a lot to learn about prayer.

It all started in Kenya when I met a lady called Lucy, who, the more you spoke to, the more things she seemed to be involved in, from working in a local school, running a sewing school for Muslim girls, caring for Muslim women that have become Christians, and visiting Muslim villages and praying for the sick - the kind of sick that is more than your typical flu. One day Lucy came across a Muslim girl whose entire body was covered in sores, caused by a cell disease. Her skin was rotting, which produced an atrocious smell, a smell that meant no-one wanted to be near her, including the doctors.

When Lucy saw her, she knew she wanted to help this girl. The team Lucy was with wanted to get some rubber gloves so they could lay hands on the girl without contaminating themselves. But Lucy quickly asked herself, quite literally, ‘What would Jesus do?’ Then she said to the team, “I will lay my hands on Lucy, and then you can put your hands on me.” So Lucy laid her hands on the girl and began to pray. They eventually got her to a hospital and the doctors began to work on her. After a few days, the girl was making incredible progress, and the smell was starting to fade. The doctors said to Lucy “we are doing everything we can, but it is clear that your prayers are making the difference.”

When everyone else had given up on the girl, and the Muslim community had left her to die, Lucy came and prayed. And she wasn’t going to stop praying until she saw results. It was amazing how quickly the girl began to heal after Lucy had prayed for her, despite the desperate state she was in.

My first lesson in prayer: nothing is too big for our God.

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” - Mark 11:24

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

God has the power to do more than we could even comprehend. How awesome is that?!? This week give Him the opportunity to show you His power. Pray for something you really care about, let go and let God do something big in your life.

Join me next week and I’ll share some more crazy stories with you about prayer and my adventures in Africa.

If you’d like to book a speaker or find out more about the ministry of Open Doors please email us at mhb@od.orgwe’ll happily get straight back to you. Alternatively you can follow us on facebook or support our ministry by making a donation or buying a shirt. We would also love you to share this series of BLOGs with your friends and family as we want to change the spiritual temperature of Australia and see a generation switched on to the things of God.