from Ron Rose
April 14, 2008

Preparation

He wasn’t a preacher or church-guy. He was a nobody who knew how to pray into the presence of God. He used the 4th floor room of the old Dutch Reformed Church and invited merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers and businessmen to join him each Wednesday for a prayer time at noon.

It all began on the 21st of September 1857 with 6 strangers. On the following Wednesday, 20 showed up. By the 3rd week, there were 40. Soon they changed to daily prayer times and expanded to three floors of the old church.
God was showing up… invading the impossible everyday. By springtime, prayer meetings were being held in buildings throughout the city. The newspapers reported that over 6,000 were attending daily prayer meetings in New York, and the “prayer meeting” craze had spread to Pittsburgh, Washington DC, and Philadelphia.

By May a prominent newspaper reported that New England had been profoundly changed by these prayer meetings. And, within the next two years, noonday prayer meetings were being held in 15,000 cities across America.

These meetings were not based on powerful sermons, special celebrity appearances, or popular musical groups; God was the power of these meetings. It was God’s presence and the stories of his fingerprints in real lives that made it all happen.

A short while ago I asked for you to join the search for God’s fingerprints. Many of you responded… Gary’s wife introduced me to his story.

Inspiration

Gary Beikirch joined the Green Berets in 1965 in an attempt to punish the girl who had just dumped him. But before long, he chose to be a medic instead.

By the summer of 1967, he was in Kontum Province, Vietnam, as part of the 4th Special Forces Group. Then on April 1, 1970, a huge force of North Vietnamese attacked their camp.

“Inside our camp were 12 Americans and 2,300 Montagnard villagers, mostly women and children,” Gary recalls. “I can still here their screams.”

Gary continues, “I saw a wounded Montagnard, we called them ‘Yards,’ lying on the ground. As I tried to bandage his wounds, I could hear the artillery coming. As I threw my body over the wounded man to shield him from the explosions, I felt the blast and the shrapnel. It threw me about 25 feet into a wall of sandbags. I tried to get up but my legs wouldn’t move. I looked back to see what had happened to the ‘Yard’ I was helping… the explosion had torn him apart. I remember thinking, how was that possible? I was on top of him? Why was I still alive?”

Gary wasn’t done yet. He got two “Yards” to carry him as he treated wounded, dragged bodies, directed fire, and fought for their lives.

“Those two ‘Yards’ carried me for hours. They never left my side and one died saving me,” Gary said.

During his recovery and after his release from the Army, Gary spent two years searching for answers to his why questions. “Why was he still alive?” Why would those “Yards” risk their lives for him?

At the end of the search, a friend gave Gary a New Testament and asked him to read it. “There God invaded my world and I met the Jesus who had been with me through it all,” Gary said.

On October 15, 1973, Gary Beikirch was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He wears the Medal of Honor for God and for his two “Yard” friends.

Gary’s life invaded the impossible. He has the fingerprints of God planted deep in his heart. His story is still being told far beyond his New York home.

Motivation

Everyone has a story… a story worth telling. Think of a crisis time, a struggle, heartache, a failure or embarrassment. God loves to invade your life just when the plot thickens. He works wonders, invades your world and then listens for your response.

So, what wonders have your experienced? What fingerprints have been planted in your heart?

Tell someone this week. Confess! Testify! Say the words! Don’t just think about it… do it!