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power of prayer

  • WONDER AND ENCHANTMENT

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    Dear blog friends,

    Here is now a story I have called "Wonder and Enchantment".

    You will see! It is similar to what I have been telling you on my blog for the past few months.

    Here is David's story, which has been reported by various media around the world.

    David Jeffery lives in Mallacoota, in the south east of Australia, a small seaside town very frequented by nature lovers. He lives from tourism and runs the "Wave Oasis B&B". David, who was an atheist in his youth, turned to God 25 years ago.

     

    The Wave Oasis.jpg

     

    On January 1st 2020, the 1000 inhabitants of Mallacoota and the 3000 tourists who lived there woke up in the morning in a hellish situation, under a blood-red sky. Surrounded by the flames of a gigantic fire, they ran to the beach, put on life jackets and prepared to jump into the water when the siren would sound. Others fled by boat to the open sea. The winds from the west were very strong, glowing embers were falling on the town.

    Jeffery and his neighbours were preparing to defend their homes against "an ember attack". It wasn’t until Jeffery received advice from a neighbour in the police force and a friend who was a former fire chief that fire balls were a real possibility, that he decided to leave – retreating to the wharf along with guests staying at the B&B and his pets – two dogs, a cat, a roster and two rescue ducks.

     

    red sky Mallacoota.jpg

     

    Not far from the shore, a 60-feet high firewall rised up, moving towards the beach, threatening to destroy everything in front of it. 60-feet high, which is the equivalent of a six-storey building. The flames were moving at 90 kilometres an hour.

    David remembers:

    "We could hear the roar. It sounded like a thousand freight trains coming at us. Then a huge gust, like someone had opened the door of a furnace, pushed us … It went black as black. The smoke was so thick it was hard to breathe."

     

    red sky Mallacoota 2.jpg

     

    "And all of a sudden the sky turned blood red. We could hear the gas tanks exploding, houses were burning in front of our eyes. We were losing everything. We were all expecting to die within seconds."

     

    red sky Mallacoota 3.jpg

     

    "Then I heard God say to me, "Pray!". I started off with a pathetic little prayer," he said.

    "Then within me, this voice rose up and said :

    - Who are you praying to?

    And I thought :

    - Yes! You’re the God of the Bible. Nothing’s impossible with you! You’ve got angels Lord, put them at the corners of the property."

    David then began to pray, he raised his voice, he prayed aloud. The people around him heared him and joined in his prayer. Everyone prayed, for his house, for other people's houses, and they prayed for those who had stayed in their houses.

    Overwhelmed by despair, David cried out in front of all the people gathered on the wharf:

    "- Lord, we need wind from the east."

    He said, "As soon as I said that, it started blowing from the east a little bit.

    David tells with great emotion:

    "Then I got louder and the wind got stronger. Then I got louder again and it got stronger again."

    He said that he was praying with greater boldness and was not one bit bothered about what others around him felt.

    "I felt it change. I noticed that the bolder I got, the stronger the wind got. So I yelled:

    - In Jesus’ name, thank you Lord for rescuing these souls. Push it back Lord, rescue us!"

     

    Fire.JPG

     

    "It was desperation personified. I did not care who heard me. I knew then that God was doing what I was asking. Because if he didn’t answer then, we were dead."

    And David explains:

     

    David Jeffery.jpg

     

    "The wind was blowing from the west and no easterly wind was forecast. But God, who created the wind, made it obey. What God did was push the fire back from the east, which was impossible but he did it. He did that for five minutes, which broke the fire front enough to stop it from getting to where we were. This was impossible, David said, but somehow God turned off the flames, like flicking off a switch."

    In front of their astonished eyes, David and his neighbours realised that where they lived, the fuel reserves had not burnt, they were still there, the houses were still there, the grass was there.

    The neighbours – who were not Christians – were eyewitnesses and told:

    "- God saved us."

    One of them first of all paid homage to all those who, in extraordinary devotion, outside, in the fire, intrepid, heroic, defended the town and the people; he also paid homage to all those men, women, children, who prayed to be saved, huddled together. He reports:

    "- We thought we were going to be annihilated because that fireball was coming straight at us. But the whole of our street got spared and the bush around us got spared. Hot embers went into the dry, long grass, big bits of bark and trees, but where we were praying for, right there, it was all spared... There were no burn marks. There was honestly not a blade of grass singed. We’ve seen miracles. We’ve seen the supernatural – flames getting pushed back. We’ve seen the embers hit the grass and not burn, without even a singe mark. Nothing could push back the flames except the Creator of the world."

    David explains:

    "That’s literally Bible stuff – Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego."

    David refers here to this Bible passage in the book of Daniel, who was the great dream interpreter of the king of Mesopotamia, Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar commanded that three Jews, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, be thrown into a fiery furnace because they refused to worship the statue he had made. But the king saw four men unharmed in the furnace, and one looked like an angel. He brought the three men up and there all the people present "saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them." (1)

    David, shaken, says :

    "- On the one hand I am heartbroken when I think of those who have lost everything and on the other hand I thank God who has given us grace and saved us. We are in awe of what God did."

    After this experience, David opened his home, which served as a refuge for all emergency services personnel, firefighters, doctors, policemen, who needed to eat and to sleep.

    "- This building, he said, provides an opportunity now for love to flow – that’s what I see it as."

     

    David Jeffery 2.jpg

     

    So here is again on my blog a wonderful story, one more enchantment, one more testimony that tells how, when a prayer turns to God, the external nature can change.

    Let's take stock of the amazing relationship between nature and man, considering only events of our time, as I have presented them on my blog :

    - the deep meditation of the rainmaker made the rain fall and saved from famine;

    - General Patton's ardent prayer made the sun shine and let him win the war;

    - the dream taught Carole how to make her cherry tree bloom and heal nature;

    - like Patton in 1944, in 1989, the prayer of an Italian priest from midnight to 3 o'clock in the morning made the rain stop;

    - Alex's fervent prayer chased away his tears and made the sun shine within;

    - and in the beginning of last year, the prayer that David shouted publicly together with the prayer of the desperate in the fire, the prayer made the wind blow and the flames stop, the prayer saved thousands of people in Mallacoota, as various newspapers have claimed on the front page all over the world, even if in France we have hardly heard about it.

    And it was David who gave the final word, with this encouragement which could also be an alarm:

    "It’s time for people to rise up and pray. It’s time to get serious about God and get back into reading his word."

    Christiane

     

    Translated by Marianne

    Marianne's Facebook Page : À vos songes !

    a.vos.songes@gmail.com

     

    References

    (1) The Bible (King James Version), Book of Daniel, chapter 3, verse 27.

    (2) Epic in Mallacoota:

    I have adapted stories from different Australian newspapers, to make a synthesis, in particular from the French newspaper "Info chrétiennes", whose confirmations I have looked for in different Australian newspapers:

    Eternity News

    Faithpot

    Info chrétienne

     

    Illustrations

    The Wave Oasis: The Wave Oasis Facebook Page

    David Jeffery: Eternity News

    Mallacoota in flames: The Epoch Times

    On the beach it's all black: Head Topics Australia

    On the wharf: www.abc.net.au

    Fire: Nau.ch

     

    Part of this article was first published on the French blog on 12 January 2020:

    Horreur, merveille et enchantement

  • THE TALE OF THE LITTLE BOY WHO MET GOD

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    Dear blog friends,

    Today, I would like to offer you the most refreshing and encouraging story. Who doesn't like these wonderful tales where children, with their eyes lit up, receive magical gifts? I would like to enchant you with one of these stories for a few moments.

    This is my tale, this is the story of a little boy, Alex.

     

    Little boy.jpg

     

    Alex is like all little boys, he is cheerful, he plays, he runs, he climbs, he loves cartoons.

     

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    He also loves nature as it presents itself to him, simply. For example, he planted a tomato seed and is ecstatic to see a daring little green stalk sprout.

    He does things that no one has ever taught him: spontaneously he loves trees, which he holds in his arms, he kisses flowers, he also loves animals, the four-legged ones that he likes to caress and those that fly just as much.

    Last summer he made a friend of a little bumblebee that came to the balcony, intoxicated by the scent of flowers.

     

    Bumblebee ChampYves.jpg

     

    The little bumblebee came every day to land in the heart of the flower. Alex came gently close and caressed it with a light finger. Boubou the Bumblebee didn't fly away, he kept on gathering pollen. And then autumn came and Boubou the Bumblebee left one day and didn't come back.

    Alex remembered his friend well, when he worked quietly at school.

    At home, his grandmother told him about the Bible, she told him about the action of God in the lives of men.

     

    Bible.jpg

     

    And, recently, in the course of her stories, she confided a very personal experience to him, telling him how she herself had experienced the presence of God.

    - You know, she told him, when I was eleven or twelve years old, we were on holiday in the mountains and I was very unhappy, because my mother preferred my sister, and I was always wrong. I could see there was nothing to do.

    One day, after being scolded again, I took refuge in my room. With my eyes full of tears I stood in front of the window and saw the mountains in front of me. Then a verse from the Bible that my father had told me came to mind:

    "I lift up my eyes to the mountains - where does my help come from?
    My help comes from the LORD." (1)

    ... I looked up at the mountains, and there... all of a sudden... I felt consoled, filled with immense peace. I understood that God had come to my rescue."

    - Me too, said the little boy, I'd like to meet God.

    His mother, who was there with the family, explained to him in turn:

    - If you want God to speak to you, you must ask him and he will come.

    Shortly afterwards, Alex, at school, was at break time, he was talking to his friends about his friend Boubou the Bumblebee. He told them how he came up to him and delicately brushed his soft back. (2)

     

    Caressing the bumblebee Vladyslav Siaber.JPG

     

    - Ah! Oh! Did you hear that? laughed one kid.

    - But what are you telling us, it's not possible!, said another.

    - Boo, boo! Whoo-hoo! How can you dare to tell such lies?, said a third one.

    - Huh, continued the last one, only you can say such nonsense!

    Alex was all baffled, he didn't understand why his friends didn't want to believe him, he told them the truth. Their mockery hurt him, he suddenly felt very unhappy and started crying. And his friends laughed more and more because he cried.

    Alex felt the sadness, the anger overwhelming him.

    But in his tears he said nothing. He put his hands together ...

     

    christiane riedel,marianne schertenleib,tale,story,power of prayer,god answers prayer,sadness,bumblebee,psalm 121,bible,a little boy who met god,how to meet god,caress a bumblebee,action of god in the lives of men

     

    ... and intensely, with all his heart he cried out in silence:

    - Lord my God ! Take away my sadness ! ...

    And then... Wonder ... wonder: at that very instant, yes, at that very instant, the sorrow disappeared and Alex, all surprised, felt himself overflowing with an immense flame of love, an inner joy, a fulfilment that he had never known, a peace, a wholeness that he would not forget.

     

    Just arriving home he exclaimed:

    - Mom, I have a beautiful story to tell you... You know, I called God and he came.

     

    My story is a Christmas tale, a story, an enchanted story, isn't it, that we tell to children who are still naive.

    Well, you know what?

    My story, it's true!

    And you know what?

    Tales like that, I could tell you many!

     

    Child and dog praying.jpg

     

    In my next article, we will see how prayer can change the wind's direction in the most dramatic moment...

     

    Christiane

     

    Translated by Marianne

    a.vos.songes@gmail.com

    https://www.facebook.com/A.vos.songes

     

    References

    (1) NIV Bible , Psalm 121, verse 1.

    (2) It is not only Alex who has a bumblebee friend. You can read that a Scottish woman had the same adventure on: https://www.boredpanda.com/woman-befriends-wingless-bumblebee-fiona-presly/

    And also in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjDYbfloGQ8

     

    Illustrations

    I would like to thank the artists whose works allowed me to illustrate my blog:

    Young boy: http://2mainsgauches.canalblog.com/

    Dinosaur: https://albator.com.fr/AlWebSite/anime-2161.php

    Bumblebee: ChampYves http://champignon.champyves.free.fr/

    Read the Bible: https://www.lalumieredenoel.com/

    Caressing the bumblebee: Vladyslav Siaber
    https://de.dreamstime.com/syaber_info

    Child praying: https://chalons.catholique.fr/

    Child and dog praying together: https://lelombrik.net/

     

    This article was published on the French blog on 21 December 2019:

    http://christiane-riedel.blogspirit.com/archive/2019/12/21/conte-de-noel.html