Like A Dog

With A Bone

We can easily get lost in the flurry of life, and when we have a crisis and we really need something to pop, we do everything but pray. It’s then we need to remember, “Just pray!”

The devil comes to kill. steal and destroy. We need to keep in mind that we are in a constant battle and when you feel like you are pushed into a corner you need to pray. Not just a short little “Help me Jesus!” prayer, and then you move on with your day.

But . . . a prayer time that is like a dog with a bone that will not let go – you are going to pray and pray until you get your answer, prayer that requires time – lots of your time.

So, I thought, to encourage you, I would tell you about some of my prayer times that yielded dramatic answers. There are many, too many to talk about here, but I’ll tell you about some of them.

When I was still in the video/multimedia business I was always asking God to make it easy for me to make money, because then I could spend more time in His service, which was my passion. I made a habit of praying for several hours in the morning, and sometimes well into the day.

Being self-employed, I had to do everything. I had to first sell the project and then produce it. The selling part I didn’t relish. Making cold calls to people I didn’t know, was hard. I found when I spent a lot of time in prayer and then made my calls, I had far better results than if I didn’t pray and just made calls.

For a time, I represented a video production company. On one occasion I prayed several hours in the morning and in the afternoon I made a call to a writer from an ad agency whose name had come across my path. When I called for her, she got on the phone and was very nice. I told her about the services the company had to offer. It just so happened that she had a client for which she did a video every month. Then they needed several hundred video copies of each production.

She came to look at our editing services and liked what she saw. Soon, she brought her client and edited a video. I mentioned then that we had duplication services and she asked for a quote, which was considerably lower than what they had been paying to another company.

Long story short . . . every month she and her client would come in to edit a video and order several hundred copies to distribute throughout their company. After the first couple times, it became unnecessary for me to even come in and sit with them. “You don’t have to be here, ” they said to me with a smile. They were entirely comfortable in the hands of the editing engineer. So, for the period of about three years, until I left the business and went into ministry full time, I collected my commission every month, and didn’t even have to show up. It came to about $900 a month . . . for doing nothing!

Prayer works!

So when a music client learned that I had gone into ministry he said, “Well where’s your stuff? Send me your promotional package.” I did, and he sent the ministry $1000, which he did for three years. Then I hit a tough spot and I was out of money. This client hadn’t sent the customary $1000 yet that year, although it was past the time when he usually sent it.

By this time, we were good friends. He had asked me to call him to go to lunch whenever I was in that city.

“Hmmm . . . I really need $1000 right now,” I was thinking . Very seldom did I ask anyone for money in those days. I usually just informed supporters what I was doing and trusted they would continue to support. But at this time, I felt I had to ask.

I had a room in the house that was the “prayer room.” It was bare, except for a rocking chair, a bookcase, and a love seat. I find that when I need to pray, the more simple my surroundings, the less I am distracted. I went to the prayer room and prayed for eight hours. Then I got on the phone and called my friend. My appeal went something like this: “I don’t know if you were planning to give this year, but if you are, now would be a good time.”

“Oh,” he said. “Send me an envelope.” We have always had giving envelopes with our address on them, so the contributor needs just to put the check in the envelope, put a stamp on, and send it.

I sent an envelope and in a few days there was $1000 in the mailbox.

The next year I again was in need of $1000. This time I went to visit my friend and played him the short video of the event we had just produced in Jordan, Minnesota. He liked it so much that he watched it three times. I left him an envelope and went home . . . but no check came.

What was the difference? The second time I didn’t pray. I just did the activity part, and it didn’t work. I never got the money.

In 2003, our ministry produced a Reach For More event in Jordan, Minnesota. I had worked for several months on the event which was scheduled for late April. I had booked five assemblies in the schools of the area and the big event would take place on Saturday night at the middle school. Then the unexpected happened. Snow! Lots of it. Late in the week we had blizzard conditions, and all the school assemblies were canceled.

The forecast for Saturday, the day of the big event, was eight inches of snow. We were stressed to say the least. If we got eight inches of snow, nobody would come.

I sent out an email to our 20 intercessors. “You have to pray the snow away, or we are dead in the water!” Saturday arrived with full sunshine and clear skies all day. No snow! The event was very successful. Thirty young people gave their lives to Christ. Then, guess what? On Monday, it snowed like crazy. God kept the snow away for one day, and then the storm continued.

Prayer works!

One more story of God’s answer to prayer. In 2015, I had experienced a financial meltdown that was very serious. It’s a long story how it happened and I’m not going to go into it here. For seven and a half months I was homeless and then I managed to rent the bottom of a duplex in Shakopee, Minnesota where I lived for two years. During that time, I continued full bore with the ministry. My existence was day to day, and I never knew what tomorrow would hold. I had no credit cards, so I lived on whatever money arrived in the mailbox. There were days I didn’t have enough money in my pocket to buy a cup of coffee. Sometimes I picked up odd jobs or landed an advertising stint.

On Saturday night I took inventory and suddenly realized I had no money and my gas tank was empty. The library was two blocks from my duplex so I went there, found a quiet corner with an easy chair and prayed. All day Monday I prayed and all day Tuesday. On Tuesday night, God said, “Put gas in your tank tonight and go to the mailbox tomorrow.” I happened to know that when I wrote a check for gas at a particular station, it would take two days to hit the bank.

So on Wednesday I went to the mailbox which was nearly 30 miles away. When I arrived, I was very apprehensive and nervous. I turned the key, opened the door a crack, and peeked inside. There were two envelopes. I opened the first one and it was $20. I did a little jig there in front of the box and celebrated. I had money again!

Then I opened the second one, and nearly fell over. It was a check for $1000!

Prayer works. Don’t forget to pray. When you are tempted to run around like a chicken with your head cut off, trying to get yourself out of your crisis, just pray.

Pray until your soul is filled with God’s peace, and the assurance that His answer is on the way.

Just pray! It’s the only way to go!

In His Service

George and Lorraine Halama

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Photo taken by Lorraine