Kathleen Wetzel received confirmation of the effectiveness of prayer when her son, Lieutenant Robert Wetzel, told her what happened to him in an Iraqi prison after he had been treated for his injuries.

After several days without water, he thought he was near death and prayed, “God, please give me some water.” Within minutes a guard opened his cell and gave Bob the last drops of water from his pail. Then, after getting more water, he filled Bob’s cup a second time.

Some days later, as he shivered on the icy concrete floor while the night time desert temperature dropped to near zero, he prayed, “God, I’m so cold. I’m feeling pretty helpless. Can You give me a sign?” Minutes later the cell door opened and someone threw in a blanket.

Finally, one night the prison was nearly levelled in an air raid. The terrified guards fled, leaving Bob and six other POWs locked in their cells. One more bomb would have reduced the prison to rubble. It never came and not a single POW was injured.

In comparing notes Mrs. Wetzel was able to estimate that all of these events occurred after she stopped praying for herself and directed all her prayers toward Bob.

Author unknown. If anyone has a proprietary interest in this story please authenticate and I will be happy to credit, or remove, as the circumstances dictate.

Thanks to WITandWISDOM(tm) – October 29, 1999 subscribe-wit-wisdom@xc.org