RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

It was a historic moment. Thousands had gathered in Beltc’y, Moldova for the first time to hear the gospel in a football stadium. At that time, Moldova was still a part of the former Soviet Union. Christians were persecuted. Life was difficult. Everyone had been brainwashed with atheism. But Christians had prayed for God to open the doors, and this was that day. He did it.
I was very nervous as I stood to proclaim the name of Christ. Questions filled my mind. What would the people think? Would they respond to an open invitation to come to Christ? Several years earlier I had been deported from the former Soviet Union for telling university students about Jesus. Now, I stood at this historic moment to proclaim the great gift of God’s salvation.
At the close of my message that afternoon, I extended the invitation for people to come to Christ. At first I asked people to lift their hands if they wanted to know Christ, and I told them that I would pray for them. No one lifted a hand. I prayed, “Oh God, what do I do now?” The Holy Spirit seemed to whisper in my heart, “Press on. Press on.”
I then called for people to join me at the front of the platform if they wanted to place their faith in Christ and follow Him. No one responded. I prayed again, but God seemed to indicate that He had it all under control. I looked up, and to my surprise, a poor peasant woman came out of the stands all by herself. She was carrying a bouquet of flowers over her head. She marched all by herself in front of an overflow crowd in the stadium to the pulpit. She then handed me the flowers and knelt in front of the pulpit and began to cry out to God.
I looked up as she began to pray. Tens, twenties, fifties, and hundreds of people began to respond to the invitation to come to Christ. It was an incredible sight to behold. Close to 2500 people made commitments of their lives to Christ that afternoon.
I was so moved by the courage of that one poor peasant woman that I wrote the story of what had happened in our newsletter. We actually had pictures of what took place. Not long after our newsletter was sent out, I received a phone call from a lady who had been in a women’s prayer group with my wife. She said, “Sammy, can I come to your office? There’s something that I must show you.”
She came immediately to my office and brought her prayer diary with her. Every day she would record how God had impressed her to pray. She had been praying for two months for our Moldovan crusade. God had laid it on her heart to pray for a poor peasant woman in Moldova “to have the courage to do what ever God was telling her to do.” She had recorded that in her diary consistently as she prayed.
I was overwhelmed. One woman in San Antonio, Texas prayed and God shook a nation. Prayer prepared the heart of one peasant woman, and God was able to work a miracle. I believe that when we get to heaven we’ll discover that the true heroes of heaven aren’t necessarily the great platform personalities. They won’t necessarily be those well known to men, but they will certainly be those well known to God – those who have tarried in the quiet place of prayer.
Jesus said, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:6 NIV). One day we will all discover who God’s secret heroes are. They are those who wrote the history of the kingdom with the secret prayers of their hearts.