Comstock Chronicles: A Long List of Answered Prayers

Family Camp 2022

I don't think I've recorded anywhere the remarkable happenings over the last year, so it is time I did. About a year ago I felt my gals accountability group needed a break. We'd been meeting for over two years, relying on one another for our sanity. Each week we'd share what God had been teaching us and pray. But now we were each moving different directions and meeting together was going to be more and more difficult, so I called for a break.

The vacancy left behind prompted me to begin praying, "Lord, if I don't meet with these dear ladies and share with them what I'm learning about you, who can I share with? Please give me someone to share with."

I asked my church's Women's Bible Study (WOW) leaders if I might lecture for them, but they said all the slots were filled. They suggested I ask my aunt, Luanne Shackelford, if I might take some of her lectures. Aunt Luanne was only too willing to hand over two of her lectures. She was in the Philippines closing out her and Ed's missionary work there, and she wasn't even sure they would be back in time for her to deliver those lectures. 

I continued to pray for more chances to share. WOW began, and I shared my request with my Bible Study ladies one Wednesday. They prayed with power, and that evening as I was picking up my kids from Wednesday night small group, Devin, the Middle School Pastor, caught my eye and zeroed in on me. "I'm not sure why I thought of you, Abby," he said, "But I just saw you across the courtyard and though I'd ask. Do you by any chance care to be a Middle School small group leader?"

I was speechless. Really, Lord? Middle School? I taught Jr. High Math over ten years ago, but I thought I was done with that. Am I to go back now? 

No matter my hesitancy, I couldn't deny the facts. My WOW ladies had prayed for me that morning; God had delivered that evening. I couldn't say no. After a month of awkward interactions with tweens, I began to warm up to this quirky and fun-loving group of people. I had a small group of mostly non-Granada girls who grew on me over time. Devon gave me the chance to speak a few times in big group and I loved preparing for those talks. Some of my girls challenged me with questions that revealed their elementary understanding of Christianity, and I have had the privilege of filling in some gaps.

One small group, I was telling them how God answers prayer. I asked them to each pick something to pray for that would prove to them that God cared about them and was listening. They all chose to get an A on an upcoming test. I tried not to show my trepidation at their requests, and I was secretly hoping they all studied their hearts out as fervently as I prayed my heart out. "Lord, please show these girls you care. Please, may they all get A's."

Test day came, and I texted them to find out how they did. They all got A's! Phew. In the next small group I asked them if they thought they would've gotten A's if we hadn't prayed. One of them said absolutely not. The others weren't so sure. And from there we talked about how God often gives us good gifts even when we don't ask.

Time went by and I continued my prayer. I learned Luanne Shackelford was stuck in the Philippines and wouldn't be back to deliver any of her scheduled lectures. Would I like to take all five of them? I agreed to take on one more, but that was all. Even with just three, I wasn't sure how three weeks of lectures would affect my health. In the past I've gotten stomach aches when public speaking, and the anxious aches can last a few days. 

I brought the matter to my WOW Bible Study group and again they prayed powerful prayers over me. One lady prayed that the fear of men would be gone from me. I think she was praying the words from Jeremiah 1:8. In the middle of the prayer, the fear inside me vanished. I suddenly saw that I didn't have to believe in my own courage and abilities, but just believe that God could do this through me. 

So I agreed to lecture five weeks in a row just so long as the WOW Bible Study council would pray that I and my family wouldn't get sick for those five weeks. If I had a sick child, I couldn't attend WOW. I then sat down to write these lectures. Aside from the one lesson on wives submitting to their husbands, the lessons practically wrote themselves. I would sit at my computer during my youngest's nap time, pray that the Lord would give me ideas, and the words would just pour out. I felt more like a secretary than a lecture writer. 

While writing the lectures, I was reading the conversational writings between the Indian Christian Sadhu Sundar Singh and the Lord that he wrote down after a long communion with the Lord. I was surprised to find that he'd recorded some of the same phrases that I'd written into my lecture. The week before I delivered the first lecture, our church watched the episode of the Chosen where Jesus confers with Matthew in the writing of the Sermon on the Mount. It spoke volumes to me as I felt like I was doing something similar with the Lord.

I know it won't surprise you to hear that my family remained healthy for those five weeks. I don't know if you know how remarkable this is. I have three kids and this was their first year back after COVID. Since school started in August, some child had been out sick every other week, mostly my youngest, Benny, who hadn't built up his immunities. But for those five weeks in January, no one was sick. 

I continued praying the prayer, "Lord, who can I talk to about you?" Some days people would call me to chat and the good news of what God has done for me would naturally bleed into the conversation. Some days a neighbor would turn up at my door and ask for advice. One Sunday our Pastor mentioned he didn't want to speak much on Mother's Day, and I asked the Lord if this was my cue. Should I offer to speak for Mother's Day? 

Often times in prayer, I would fight God about sharing. No, I don't want to. Too scary. And God would repeat the same promises from before. "Am I not strong enough? Can I not do this thing through you?" To which I could only reply, "Yes, I believe you can."

So I shared the words that the Lord gave to me on Mother's Day for our church and people are still coming up to me and thanking me for those words, which by the way I feel I didn't write. The Lord dictated and I just typed. (Mother's Day Talk)

One Sunday morning in the midst of total disrespect from my children, the words to a poem just fell into my lap. I grabbed my journal and jotted them down to publish a blog (Old Wounds Smarting). Feeling nudged to not keep it to myself, I sent it to our pastor who had me read it that very morning. 

There are more stories.

While preparing lectures for WOW, a neighbor suggested I write a newsletter for our block, and while I couldn't imagine doing that while I was busy lecturing, the idea came up again when I was free. This was yet another way I could tell others about what God was doing in my life. I wrote up a newsletter and was about to print it, when I felt convicted about how I'd kept God out of it. This was not right. 

So I rewrote the thing and was immediately filled with fear. Was I really going to tell all my neighbors that I was a Christ follower? That I saw all blessings as gifts from God? Fearing their judgements, I brought the matter to God and after writing down all my fears, they immediately lifted. Yes, this was the right thing to do. I drove to Staples and printed the newsletter in color on high quality paper. I was rather shocked to find that 30 copies cost me $40. I prayed with Philip before passing them out to my neighbors.

A day or so later, I went to visit my in-laws. They didn't know I was doing this newsletter, which is probably why I was gobsmacked when they offered me a color printer that they didn't want anymore. My eyes just about popped out of my head. GOD! You keep doing this to me! It's incredible!

In April a friend asked me to write a poem for someone whose father passed away. I prayed for the words and inspiration, and the Lord delivered a lovely piece (Grieving the Loss of a Father), which I was able to share with others, including at Forest Home Family Camp share time. A number of campers had shared how they'd had a father pass away, and so I tried pulling up my blog but to no avail. This particular spot at camp doesn't get service. Phil tried on his phone, but he got no service either. I figured that was that, but more people shared about having a father pass away, so I prayed, "Lord, I didn't want to share this piece before. But I do now. If you will get my blog up, I will read it. In the name of Jesus Christ, let it go up." And it did.

I could continue listing the ways God has shown up this past year. I've taken walks all tangled up inside with questions, and by the end of the walk, the Lord will have given me the answers that I needed. There were some weeks where I decided I wasn't going to pray to share God with because I was frankly too afraid of who God might send my way. He has been so faithful at answering this prayer, and most of the time I wasn't sharing the gospel. I was simply sharing how God had been answering my prayers, like I'm sharing with you now. I suppose that is the gospel.