Prayer Support and Spiritual Battles

As Christians, we recognize that there are always spiritual forces at work - negative as well as positive, evil as well as good. As North Americans, we often try to pretend that this isn’t the case. Sometimes we imagine the classic cartoon image of a little angel on our shoulder without thinking about the little devil with a pitchfork on the opposite side. Allen and Trish acknowledge that there is a spiritual battle and they are asking for prayer support.

They shared that, in Honduras, there are times when the battle is much more in your face - and this is one of those times. Allen pointed to the following verse, which sums it up nicely:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.~ Ephesians 6:12

Trish said, “We have the tendency to talk, on the blog, about everything going on in the physical realm - but we need to remind people that we need prayers. We’re being blind-sided by a lot of things now. It’s like a sneak attack. There’s a lot of things that by themselves are not incredible, but they add up.” She continued by adding, “It’s not uncommon to notice it when you’re making really good inroads--when you’re making real progress in the spiritual realm.”

While there have been little spiritual fires everywhere, the most obvious battle of the week occurred when Norlan, the youngest of the Sowers4Pastors crew members, had an accident on Monday night while processing coffee beans. He lost the top two parts of the index and middle fingers on his left hand. Fortunately, he is right-handed, but this is a young man who makes a living with his hands.

Allen wasted no time in trying out how hard it is to manage the gears of a motorcycle, using only a thumb, ring finger, and pinkie. Allen declared it is “totally do-able,” which will be a huge advantage to Norlan.

Trish describes Norlan as the type of person who always makes those around him smile. Even though he was told to take as much time as he needed to recover, the day following the accident Norlan showed up and helped the rest of the crew by passing tools. Seeing him joking around and smiling was a boost to everyone’s spirits.

“We do feel that we are attacking the enemy and we’re feeling the counter attack,” Trish said.

Allen stressed that they are specifically requesting a re-emphasis for prayer. Please remember to pray for not only the Sowers family, but also for their entire staff.

 - posted by Christi