I am sure we have all been excited and moved to watch the amazing rescue mission from the mine in Chile. Having watched it unfold on the TV, to me, two things stand out above the rest. The first is that men were admitting to having prayed a lot while trapped down that mine. “I have never prayed before,” said one miner, “but down there I learnt how to pray!”

 

Oftentimes we don't consider praying for things until we are desperate or at our wits end. Even then, many people still don't consider it as an option. Reports coming out from those trapped down the mine, as well as many who spent much time camped at the site surrounding it, indicate that many people were praying a lot of the time. The efficiency of, and success of the rescue, has persuaded me that God was answering those prayers

 

But that should not surprise us, as Jesus Himself encourages us to pray, because God is a loving Father who wants to answer our prayers. He is a God who is not only interested in what we might call 'major' concerns, like the events in Chile, but also in our everyday concerns. My church is at present visiting the homes around where we meet. We are introducing ourselves and offering to pray for anyone who may have anything that might be of concern to them. This may be a physical problem, a personal issue or a situation they are in which may be worrying them. Speaking to a number of individuals later, we have been told that those things we have been praying about for them, in many cases have improved or been resolved altogether! Prayer does work, so why not call out to God for your needs, and then let us know how it goes!

 

The second thing is this. On celebrating the first few miners having been rescued, someone said,”The rescue is not over until the last one is out!” As a Christian this challenged me. In probably the most quoted verse in the Bible, Jesus said “God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” The Bible tells us the way to everlasting life ( Heaven ), can only be found through faith in Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross. God sent His Son into the world as a rescue mission, to bring people to Him and so find a place in Heaven when they die. The rescuers in Chile worked tirelessly and continuously until 'The last miner was out.' One miner described being trapped in the mine as like being in Hell

 

Jesus told us to “Go and preach the Gospel.” As Christians this is what we should be doing, telling as many people as we can about Jesus, so they too can be rescued, not from a mine they called Hell, but from the real thing. We must keep doing so, 'until the last one is out.'