18. PRAY WITHOUT CEASING
“Rejoice evermore. Pray
without ceasing.” (1st
Thessalonians 5:16 & 17)
From 5 December 1973 thru 12 February 1975, I was a U.S. Marine
Corps captain and pilot stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni,
Japan, flying the A-4 Skyhawk and the A-6 Intruder jet attack aircraft here and
there in Japan and to air bases in Okinawa, the Philippines, Taiwan and South
Korea. Guys, you talk about exciting adventure, now that flying certainly
was! Read more details of such in my autobiography.
My first flight to South Korea from Iwakuni was on Friday
17 May 1974 to Osan Air Force Base not far from Seoul, South Korea. Two TA-4
Skyhawks flew there in formation, each with a pilot and co-pilot, 4 of us
Marine aviators. Upon landing at Osan, I got a room in the officers’ quarters,
showered, changed clothes and then walked out into
town to do some shopping, as men’s suits and warm sweaters were very cheap in
Korea then.
On
walking back onto the base, a South Korean Air Force Major in uniform stops me
to ask me where the base chapel is. He thinks I’m stationed at this base and
that I would know where everything is on base. Tho I just arrived here today
for the first time, I had noticed the chapel as I walked from my
quarters to the base gate, so I gave him directions to it. He said that there
was a service in the chapel tonight and invited me to come.
I hasten
on to the officers’ mess hall to eat supper first, (plenty hungry)
having been most busy today and not having eaten much. Then I walk to the
chapel to attend that service with about 20 other Americans and a few Korean
Christians. It was a good service, and I was blessed.
Major
Chung got up with me in the chapel after the service ended, soon saying, “Let’s pray together.” So, sitting on a chapel pew together,
I prayed and then he prayed. He talked some more, then “Let’s pray”, he again
calls on me. So we do, and he repeats that a few more times. Oh, he was fervent
in prayer. “Come see my church,” he invites me. So I gladly walk out
the base gate with him to the church that he pastors out in town, tho he is a
full time major in the South Korean Air Force.
He
leads me into the somewhat large sanctuary, does not turn on any lights,
and we pray several times as he asks me to ask Christians in the U.S. to pray
for the Christians in South Korea. In South Korea, they somewhat felt like the
wolf was at the door, with communist North Korea threatening them with
invasion.
Oh,
Major Chung prayed with such earnestness that I felt ashamed of my puny praying.
Soon he took me to his house, a small most simple building next to the church.
There I met his 2 daughters and smaller son. All 3 children were quite small,
and alone at that time, even tho it was night. Major Chung said his wife was
holding a church teacher’s meeting (in a small room in the church nearby, I
think.) I never met her.
His
children were plenty quiet and timid in my presence. I couldn’t speak their
language (Korean) and they couldn’t speak my language. Soon he goes with me
walking back to the gate of the base and turns back home from me there at the
gate, urging me for the last of several
times, to pray for the Christians in Korea. That visit with Major Chung was a rich
experience for me, my first day in Korea. After that, I again flew to South
Korea in my military planes a half dozen times or more, but never got the
chance to see Major Chung again.
“Pray without ceasing.” Our Lord commands us to do
that. Think honestly how far short we fall from doing that. Major Chung’s
prayer life challenged me to be more diligent in praying. It is
most important for us Christian believers to constantly call upon
our Lord to fight our battles for us, to protect us from the devil and his evil
devices, and such. We should intercede much in prayer for our
brothers and sisters in Christ thru out the world who are in much
more danger from the enemy’s attacks intending to harm, imprison,
and even kill them. And we should constantly intercede to God to save lost
souls around us locally.
“And he saw that there
was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore
his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.” (Isaiah 59:16)
“Abba Father in Heaven, please reveal
unto me the vast importance of this word intercessor
being this one time only in Thy Holy Bible. Reveal to me
the importance of a Christian believer unceasingly interceding
to Thee in Prayer. Reveal to me the Mighty Spiritual Power in
intercessory prayer. Reveal to me the great extent to which Thou doest delight
in us interceding unto Thee, and how ready Thou art to answer
those prayers, in accordance to Thy Divine Will.
“Please cause me to understand how greatly Thou
doest marvel and wonder in disappointment when Thine Eyes search
thru out the entire earth, but you find no intercessor. By Thy
Almighty Power, please make me into a mighty intercessor. Please
create within me a burning desire to talk to my Creator God more
than I talk to any human being. Please give me victory over the
natural tendency of human flesh to constantly talk to other people, but
to seldom talk to God. Bring me up to the much higher
Spiritual Plateau of interceding unceasingly unto Almighty God.
“I pray this for all other people on earth also.
Please sustain Missionary Richard to always be fervent in
intercessory prayer. Please give him much fruit for his interceding and
preaching Christ in Japan. Amen.”
Richard Yerby
(Matsuida, Japan) www.Christ-is-all.us