Dr. B. R. Edman, long a missionary in the mountains of Ecuador, contracted typhus fever during 1925, while laboring in his chosen field. The attack became so serious that, while he was being carried through the jungles to a hospital in Guayaquil, it became evident that he would not live.

Dr. Baker, of the Clinic in the Ecuadorian city, on examining the missionary, said: "He has typhus, and has been too long without treatment in the high altitude. At best only six out of a hundred live through typhus."

It soon appeared that Dr. Edman would not live. When his wife arrived at the hospital and received the news, she began immediately preparing for her husband's funeral. Her clothes were not as she felt quite suited for a funeral, for they had been long in the high mountains; so a friend helped her dye the only available dress she had for the occasion, which was her wedding dress.

On that particular day a missionary by the name of Reed stopped at the Clinic to see whether or not Dr. Edman was alive, and was informed that the patient was still alive, but with only the faintest spark of life remaining.

Soon thereafter the good missionary opened his eyes and regained consciousness; and Dr. Parker, in charge of the case, said, "If he can hold out for forty-eight hours more, there is hope." Now in a strange manner God laid a burden of prayer upon Christian friends far and wide, particularly upon the Indian converts at Agato, where Dr. Edman had first labored in the gospel. Also at the summer camp at Camp Hebron, near Attleboro, Massachusetts, Rev. Joseph Evans, then in charge of the convention, interrupted the regular session to call the people to prayer. Immediately a sense of urgency fell upon the friends present, and all gave themselves to prayer and petition for the life of this man, which they felt strangely was in jeopardy. Soon prayer changed to praise, for they sensed that God had heard and answered.

So great was this sense of a received answer to their prayers that those present at the convention knew that God had healed their sick friend thirty-five hundred miles away. Indeed, God did answer at the very time when these praying Christians felt assured that the Almighty had heard their prayers.

For later it was discovered that the New England prayer and the Ecuadorian healing took place at the identical time.

 

From: ANSWERED PRAYER IN MISSIONARY SERVICE By Basil William Miller, Beacon Hill Press, Kansas City, Missouri. First Printing, April 1951 Second Printing, July 1951 Printed in United States of America

 

 

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