We Pray Wednesday: A Teenager's Prayer

Written by Jolene Sloan

A specific time in my life that I remember praying earnestly for something and seeing God provide was when I was just a teenager.  God used this instance to show me that, even as a 16-year-old, I could reach the throne of grace through the simple act of prayer and fasting.

My youth director, Bro. Robert A. Ross, had taken a missions trip to the country of Ukraine with a group of teenagers from my youth department the previous summer.  As I listened to his stories and the stories of those who went on the trip, I had a strong yearning to be on that plane the next time he went!  I talked to him about my desire to go, and he recommended that I write letters to pastors asking for their help to sponsor me.  You see, I was a bus kid who lived with her grandmother, and my grandmother's income was not even enough to provide our basic needs most of the time.  She got a lot of outside financial help from compassionate people, and the Lord worked many miracles to keep food on the table of this dear lady who was rearing several of her grandchildren.  We just did not have extra money for something as “unnecessary” as an overseas trip.

I was a hard-worker and did as much as I could on my own to chip away at the price of the airplane ticket.  However, as the weeks passed and the departure date grew closer, I came to realize that everything I had done just would not be enough to get me on that mission’s trip.  I had never tried fasting for something before, and I knew that this was as good as a time as any to try it out.  With my grandmother’s permission, I began fasting and used meal times to go to my bedroom to pour out my heart to the Lord about my desire to go to Ukraine that upcoming summer of 1995.

God worked a miracle and provided me with just the amount of money that I needed to buy that airplane ticket.  The money came in the form of an unexpected check for my grandmother that she unselfishly gave me.  But, more than that check, God provided me with an opportunity to see Him answer the prayers of a 16-year-old who wanted to serve Him with all of her heart.  Looking back, I am thankful that I was driven to my knees to see God provide, because that was just the tool I needed a few years later when God actually sent me to Ukraine as a missionary’s wife!  I needed to learn the power of prayer and fasting, and I needed to know that God truly does care about our needs and desires.  

{This is a picture of me holding my daughter, surrounding by some Ukrainian friends I met on my first trip to Ukraine. 

This is 14 years after that trip in 1995!}

How thankful I am that God answers the prayers of adults, teenagers, and children too!

1 John 5:14-15 "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:  And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."