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Answers2Prayer
How it all got started...
All praise and honor for the
starting of this ministry goes to God. This
ministry was created by His divine guidance, by His
divine plan. You see, I never intended to
become a prayer warrior. God obviously had
other plans!
It all started in September
1995. I am a grade 7 teacher. One of the
things that frustrated me about being a teacher was
that my students could never find enough information
in the public library. God led me to buy a
computer and to set up "The
Homework Doctor", a website designed to
help students with their homework. Because of
this experience, I learned a lot about web site
creation and HTML. I now see that was God's
way of introducing me to the power of the Internet!
I soon began receiving
newsletters containing inspirational stories that
illustrated God's truth. I felt it was a shame
that those stories were not available all in one
spot, so that others would enjoy them too, and God
gradually began impressing upon my mind to publish
these illustrations into a site called "The Sermon
Illustrator" (http://www.sermonillustrator.org).
Little by little, through
the workings of the Holy Spirit, I became convinced
to start a newsletter, dedicated to prayer.
Initially I received heavy resistance from Christian
webmasters. They all told me I was wasting my
time. I even had a pastor/friend tell me he
saw no need whatsoever for a prayer ministry on the
Internet. I wasn't even convinced I really
wanted to do this, as I never would have seen myself
becoming a prayer warrior. None of the less,
God's Holy Spirit kept working on me until a
traumatic event in my life brought me face to face
with real suffering. My father-in-law passed
away in December 1998, leaving my mother-in-law
alone and in despair (she lost her mom just a few
months prior to this tragedy!). After this, I
felt compelled by divine guidance I had to start the
Answers2Prayer newsletter, for I knew that there
were many more desperate people out there!
People who might just need a catalyst to bring them
to the One who could make a difference in their
suffering.
The Answers2Prayer
newsletter started out with 20 subscribers and was
published once a week. The subscriber list
didn't grow much over the first 6 months, and I
praise God for this, for this was the time God used
to teach me what to do and how to do it. Then,
quite suddenly and without any advertisement, prayer
requests started to pour in. I soon felt God's
Spirit compelling me to publish our newsletter every
day. I resisted, but that same week at church,
two members (they had no knowledge of my dilemma)
approached me and suggested that I consider
publishing the newsletter every day of the week.
Bingo! I didn't need a Mac truck to run me
over that time to realize God was REALLY serious
about making Answers2prayer into a daily newsletter!
By June 2000, the work was
getting too heavy for me. The ministry was
spreading so fast and I couldn't keep up, but God,
in His marvelous ways, began trying to convince me
that I needed to branch out and have volunteers help
me. I was VERY resistant at first. I
couldn't see how this would work. I couldn't
(and didn't want to!) let go. It took
weeks for God's Spirit to finally bring me to the
point that I Could just give it all back to Him and
leave it in His hands. I am ashamed to say
that I was my own worst enemy!
As of now, September 2,
2001, Answers2Prayer is has 17 volunteers and more
than 2100 subscribers. There are now hundreds
of Bible Studies being conducted over the Net
through our ministry. People are being prayed
for and encouraged, necessities are being provided
for the needy, and we are in the process working on
a way to be able to deliver Bibles to those who
don't have any. All of our dedicated
volunteers come from different church affiliations,
but we all feel called by Jesus. He is the one
uniting us so that we can reach out to those who
need help! Our goal is not to push anyone into
any church denomination, but to encourage each other
to get to know our Lord and Saviour as a personal
friend.
I don't know where the
Spirit will lead us next, but one thing is for sure:
God is our guide. He knows where He wants us
to go, and He provides us with all our needs so that
we can go forward in His work!
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