Because of that—and because he was just plain tired—he
was tempted not to answer the phone when its ringing woke him up at
3:30 in the morning. He was sleeping in the combination office/apartment
attached to Christ Memorial Church where he pastors, and wanted to simply
go back to dreamland. Still, the call had come in on his private, unlisted
line, so he wearily reached for the receiver.
Hello? he said.
A woman’s voice, heavy with a Spanish accent, responded, Is this
the Memorial Church?
Yes.
The voice on the phone was firm, I am to pray for the shepherd.
Andrae was wide awake now. As pastor of Christ Memorial, he was often
called the shepherd of his church.
Without hesitation, the woman began to pray, Father, in the name of
Jesus, I pray for the infirmity of this shepherd and I curse it. I curse
it at the root and it is gone in the name of Jesus.
And then she hung up.
Pastor Crouch lay awake a few moments, wondering how she’d gotten
his phone number, how she knew he had an infirmity, and why she’d
called to pray in the wee hours of the morning. Then he finally returned
to sleep.
Two days later Andrae reported to the doctor’s office for a checkup.
The doctor wanted to assess how quickly the cancer was growing and begin
making recommendations for treatment.
After searching for the tumors for about 10 minutes, the doctor finally
put one hand on his hip and said, Maybe you can find them, Pastor Crouch,
because I don’t feel anything.
Surprised, Andrae pointed and said, Well, they’re here, remember?
The big one’s right...right... And suddenly his eyes filled with
tears.
The tumors—all three of them—were gone.
A Prayer for the Shepherd is excerpted
from True Stories of Answered Prayer by Mike Nappa. Copyright
1999 Nappaland Communications Inc. Published by Tyndale House
Publishers. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
To comment on what you’ve read or to contact
the author, please send email to: Nappaland@aol.com.
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