Conclusions

My sister and I were involved in evangelistic work when I had an opportunity to travel around the world with Howard Carter, an outstanding man of God. He was an Englishman, twice my age, but willing for me to go with him. But there was a problem: I had to catch up with him. By the time I had sold my car, obtained my passport, and made arrangements to go, he had gone to another country. Now, he didn't know how to reach me, and I didn't know how to get in contact with him.

When I asked his friends where he was, I got a number of different answers. One said, "Howard is in the Orient. Japan, I think. Or maybe it's China..."

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How God Has Answered My Personal Prayers

Another said, "He's in India."

"I think he's in Indonesia," a third one told me.

All of this was totally baffling. What could I do? I went to the Lord in prayer. I said, "Lord, this man can't be all over the world at one time. Where is he? Please help me to find him."

The Lord spoke to my heart and impressed me with this idea, "Start from the bottom and work up."

I said, "I'll do it." So I purchased a ticket to Australia and New Zealand, looking for a man who was reported to be in Japan or someplace else in the Orient.

Once when I told this story, my listener said, "I wouldn't have done that."

"You would have if you had prayed," I answered him.

So I got on the boat and we sailed. We went to Suva and Tonga, then on to New Zealand. I was praying every day, "Lord, if I am to have a companion to go around the world with, please help me to find him!"

When we landed in Wellington, New Zealand, I prayed,

"Lord, what do I do now?"

The Lord answered, "Go look for a certain church."

When I found the church, the pastor met me at the door. I said, "Sir, my name is Lester Sumrall. I'm from America, and I'm looking for a man named Howard Carter. Have you heard about him?"

The man stared. "Lester Sumrall! Yes, I know Howard Carter. I spoke to him just this morning by telephone."

"You did? Where is he?"

"Howard is in a prayer retreat way back in the mountains.

But yesterday the most wonderful thing happened. The Holy Spirit told Howard that your ship was in the harbor, and that you would be looking for this church today."

Now it was my turn to be amazed.. The pastor continued,

"Howard told me to come right down to the church to meet you,

Secrets of Answered Prayer

and to tell you that he would meet you in Australia in about three or four weeks."

You can see why I believe in prayer.

Howard Carter and I finally hooked up. Howard was a very precise, rigid Englishman, and we had agreed that we would never talk about finances. He never asked me how much money I had, and I never asked him how much money he had. Each of us always bought his own tickets and made his own travel arrangements. We had ministered together for a time when my money ran out. We were in Hong Kong at the time and were making plans to go to Tibet.

He said, "I think I'll go get my ticket and make my travel arrangements."

I said, "You go ahead. I'll take care of mine a little later."

Howard may have wondered about my financial situation at the time, but he didn't say anything. Before he went to the ticket office, however, he said, "I'll tell you what. I'll book both of our tickets and tell them you'll be in to pick yours up later." I agreed.

So he went. I stayed in our room and prayed.

One night a short time later, while I was ministering there in Hong Kong, a Chinese lady came up for prayer. She looked and was dressed differently from the other Chinese ladies, but I didn't think much about it. However, when she walked into the church the next night with three servants, all of them carrying huge boxes of canned fruit from California, I knew there was definitely something different about her!

I said, "What's all this?"

She smiled. "You are going to Tibet to minister. And you're going to need lots of canned fruit when you get there or you'll die. You couldn't eat their food."

"Thank you," I said, "but I don't have a ticket to go to Tibet yet."

She said, "You don't know me. I am the wife of a Chinese army general. I came all the way from China for an operation

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which was going to cost a lot of money. But last night when you prayed for me, the Lord healed me. Now I don't need an operation. And the Lord told me to give you the operation money." And she thrust a package into my hands.

I thanked her, thinking she might have given me one or two hundred dollars at the most. But when I opened the package in my hotel room, I was aghast. The envelope was stuffed with American fifty and hundred dollar bills. I had never seen so much money in my life!

The Lord spoke to me and said, "Now, go get your ticket to Tibet." I did so hastily.

The money that Chinese woman gave me bought me a boat ticket into Indochina, clear down to Hanoi. Then it bought me a ticket on a French railroad into the Hunan Province. There it paid for a horse and a man to care for him. I rode that horse through the hills for three months while we preached and ministered in Tibet. Then that Chinese lady's "operation money"

paid my fare back to Hong Kong, with some left over. My friends, that's what God does for His children when they pray!