QUESTION From <NateWilson@XC.org> Perhaps you've seen a copy of the story of the missionary to Africa who was spared from attack by a number of angelic guards--the one where he tells his supporting church back in the States about it and finds that the number of guards exactly matched the number of people in the congregation who had been praying for him at the time. I've seen copies of this story floating around in different versions for several years now, but have never found the source. Can anyone verify this story?

ANSWER From: TERRY KARE <TERRYKARE@aol.com>`

The following account of answered prayer is from "Touch the World with Prayer" by Wesley Duewel, 1986, Francis Asbury Press.

During the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in 1960, missionaries Matt and Lora Higgens were returning one night to Nairobi through the heart of Mau Mau territory, where Kenyans and missionaries alike had been killed and dismembered. Seventeen miles outside of Nairobi their Land Rover stopped. Higgens tried to repair the car in the dark, but could not restart it. They spent the night in the car, but claimed Psalm 4:8: "I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." In the morning they were able to repair the car.

A few weeks later the Higgenses returned to America on furlough. They reported that the night before they left Nairobi, a local pastor had visited them. He told how a member of the Mau Mau had confessed that he and three others had crept up to the car to kill the Higgenses, but when they saw sixteen men surrounding the car, the Mau Mau had left in fear. "Sixteen Men?" Higgens responded. " I don't know what you mean!"

While they were on furlough a friend, Clay Brent, asked the Higgenses if they had been in any danger recently. Higgens asked, "Why?" Then Clay said that on March 23, God had placed a heavy prayer burden on his heart. He called the men of the church, and sixteen of them met together and prayed until the burden lifted. Did God send sixteen angels to represent those men and enforce their prayers?

Heaven will reveal many wonderful accounts of how God has used special prayer burdens to advance His cause and protect His people.

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