Seemingly Inconsequential Prayer

Circumstances in my recent years have kept me from faithfully blogging, but I'm back now and hopefully 

will be more consistently writing.  Though I've been away from rambling here, I've done much of it on 

Facebook, so every now and then I'll reprint here some of these.  Here's one dated sometime in December 

2023.

             Three nights ago, we went to the Rwandan City of Joy mission school fundraising auction. When Don and I checked the auction items, No.5, a collection of Rwandan woven baskets caught my attention. I wanted to win these.

            We took our seats at a table, took out our paddles from the plastic bags. Don went to put our balls #092 and 094 in the raffle thing-a-ma-gig from which the winning balls would be drawn. The drill was to put a dollar into a basket on our table every time one bids. There must have been 250—300 people in the crowd. I told Don that my ¼ of a pea brain tells me the probability of winning anything was practically nil. Nonetheless, when the bidding started, everyone at our table put his dollars into the baskets enthusiastically. We were all doing it for the kids at the City of Joy school in Rwanda. Our dollars will give them education, school uniforms, meals, medical coverage, better buildings, etc. We were helping Rwandans whose average daily labor wage was a little less than $2.00. It really didn't matter much whether we won anything or not.

My Baskets from Rwanda

            The bidding continued with the crowd getting more enthusiastic every minute. Paddles were held up as soon as the items were presented and big, loud applause thundered whenever a winner was announced. Baskets 1, 2, 3, and 4 were won. Then #5 was up. I stood, put my dollar into the bidding basket, and hoped against hope that my number 094 would be drawn. About a hundred and some paddles went up, including mine. Then I heard it. “094. And the winner is 094!” I clapped and yelled, “Got it!” Everyone at my table applauded. We couldn’t believe someone at our table won. A young lady brought me my beautiful baskets. I whispered, “Lord, what did you just do?” It was as if He whispered back to my old ear, “See, Raquel, sometimes I even grant you, your little wishes to make you happy. Don’t you think I can grant your big requests (prayers), too?”