the power of prayer

besides completing the basics of a water filter project in 2 1/2 weeks, not getting killed on the roads in nigeria, and arriving safely back home, i witnessed quite an answer to prayer that i have neve seen so readily and quickly before!
while i was still in mkar in mid-january, waiting to go to adoka, i spent some time going on rounds with the doctors in mkar hospital. the first patient we saw on ward six (male medical ward) was an unconcious man who had apparently suffered a stroke. with a history of hyptertension and consistent blood pressures of about 210/110, the three canadian doctors and i thought he must have suffered from a devastating intracerebral hemmorhage. on exam, he did not repsond to speaking or pain stimulus, had zero movement or pain reponse to to any limbs. the nurse and the wife said he had been like this for over a week. one of the doctors had the nurse tell the wife that we would treat him aggresively for a couple of more days, but that his prognosis was poor and he would likely die very quickly. another doctor suggested we pray for him and the family, so we offered an open-ended prayer up to God, then moved on to the next patients.
about 20 minutes later the wife came and tugged on my arm. "he's talking, please come and see" she said. i highly doubted this. i figured he was probably moaning and she misinterpreted it as speaking. but to appease her and settle my curiosity, i went with her to the patient's beside.
"good morning, how are you?" I asked in his native language of Tiv.
"nothings going on" he replied in Tiv.
my mouth agape, i asked if he had any pain and he quickly replied "no".
i went over and informed the other doctors that we need to pray for ALL the patients!!
i left for adoka the next day but learned that within a week he was talking and walking around the ward and was slated to go home within a week or two.
never doubt the power of prayer!