..............Martha Strunk

"You must pray for me!"

One day, about midmorning, there was an urgent clapping at our front gate. Lavinia was there -- along with Martinho, a convert of about ten days. I first met Martinho when Lavinia, one of the founding members of our fledgling church, took him to the worship service.
The services were held in our house, so every Sunday night we would rearrange the furniture, set up chairs and open the folding pump organ. On that particular night, when Lavinia arrived with Martinho and another friend of his, we could hardly breathe! Those two men were not only dirty, but they reeked with the smell of alcohol! They behaved themselves quite well, and at the end of the service when Leon gave an opportunity to accept Christ, Martinho suddenly stood --”I want to be a Christian!” After praying with him, answering his questions and warning him that it probably would not be easy to change his way of life, we saw a new glow in his eyes. He declared: “Pastor, I’m not drinking another drop!”

This forty-year-old man had learned to drink cachaca at his father’s knee by the age of five. Now, here he was in my living room--shaking like a leaf! “I want to talk to the pastor. I’ve got to talk to him! He’s got to pray for me!"
"He isn’t here right now.”
“Then you must pray for me! I don’t want to drink, but I want to. I can’t stand it!”
“But the pastor won’t be back before noon.”
“Then you must pray for me!”

So we prayed. I gave him a supply of hard candies and a supply of vitamins, instructing him, “When you have the urge to drink, pop candy into your mouth and get busy doing something. Ask God to help you. We’ll be praying for you, too.” Martinho never again took a drink. His life was made new. I’ll never forget the day Martinho and his common law wife exchanged marriage vows. They made their profession of faith, joined the church, received holy communion, and were married --all in the same service!

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