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The Power of Unknown Prayers
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By Ace Collins
Nancy Coen is a wife, a mother of three, and a grandmother, yet she has the energy of a college student and the enthusiasm of a threeyear- old child. First appearances would lead most to believe she is a successful businessperson. She once was, but this dynamo is now the founder and leader of Servant Ministries, an organization whose main thrust is taking the gospel into areas where believers are persecuted and even killed. Traveling 380,000 miles a year, the diminutive woman with the big smile and booming voice constantly puts her life on the line in the most dangerous places on the globe. She really lives the Great Commission each day of her life.
Nancy's story is a testament to the power of prayer. It is a dramatic narrative of stubborn resistance and faithful obedience. This story shines a bright spotlight on the dedication of those who simply will not give up on people.
"As a young child I saw a lot of things that bothered me about the Christian faith," Nancy recalled. "I was raised in a very legalistic church. As soon as I got away from home, I turned away from the church and vehemently turned against all things that I considered
Christian. I would have sooner spit in the eye of a Christian than talk
to them. At that time I even actively campaigned against Christian
programs and missions."
As a young wife, mother, and businesswoman, Nancy wanted no part
of God. Living in Indiana, she was a member of the local social set, a
country-club regular, a loud boisterous woman who loved a party and
embraced a "live for the moment" lifestyle. Though friendly and
likable, she was a voice against any type of religion worming its way
into her life. She didn't want to hear a prayer before a high school
football game or have a local Christian youth group meet in the school.
She taught her children there was no higher power and that
Christianity was a fable.
"One day my daughter ran across the rural road where we lived to
retrieve a ball that had landed in the yard of some folks who had just
moved into our neighborhood. These were anything but my kind of
people. They were poor and uneducated. They had no social skills. I
didn't even like having them on the same street where I lived.
"When my daughter got into the yard, she was invited into their home.
At that point I marched across the road to go get her. When the
husband opened their front door, this Jesus music started coming out.
And I thought, These people are not only ignorant and povertystricken
but on top of everything else they are Christians!
"I was so upset that I would not let my daughter go back to their
house again."
But the man who greeted Nancy at the door had not been put off by
his neighbor's lack of respect for his family or his faith. In fact, he felt
a call from God to pray for Nancy. Beginning that day, and continuing
for seven years, he and his family prayed that Nancy would give her
life to Jesus. They even involved their church in this practice, telling
friends that this atheist would someday be used by the Lord to affect
the lives of people all over the world. Anyone who knew Nancy would
have scoffed at the idea of this ever happening.
"The interesting thing about this situation," Nancy remembers, "is that
I never spoke to that man again. Three months later we left Indiana
and moved to Texas. Yet I later found out through friends that he and
his wife took seriously that call from God, and every day for seven
years they prayed for me to be saved."
Seven years later Nancy had not changed. She was still a hard-hearted
militant nonbeliever who felt the only light in the world came from
either the sun, the moon, or a bulb. Yet with a family and church still
praying for her, the successful businesswoman was about to find
herself in a situation that nearly scared her to death.
"One day I woke up and I began to hear voices. The first one said,
?Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' Then a second voice would cry
out, ?You know Jesus is dead and in the grave and never coming back.'
Then a third voice popped up saying, ?I loved you so much I gave my
Son for you.' "
The voices continued to war in her head all night long. At the time she
believed she was going crazy.
"My mother had mental problems. She heard voices. She would cry for
days on end. I now thought I was going through the same thing. I was
going to be crazy like my mother. I had three small children and three
successful businesses. I didn't have time for this. Finally, after several
nights of this, I actually shouted down the hallway, ?I don't believe in
God, I won't pray, and You can't make me!' Even at that moment I
realized how funny it sounded for me, an atheist, to be telling God to
get away from me."
The voices tormented Nancy for an entire week. During this time she
became a basket case, exhausted, frazzled, and completely out of
control. On her eighth night of not being able to sleep, she finally gave
up, deciding to get on her knees. Not knowing how to pray, she simply
repeated the prayers she had learned in childhood. They did nothing to
ease her mental anguish.
"My prayers were not getting beyond the walls," Nancy recalled. "I
finally confessed, ?I don't know how to pray. If You want me to pray,
You are going to have to tell me how to pray.' Even though it was
night and very dark, I saw a bright light right in front of me. I knew
the Lord was there, and I was so scared I repented for everything I
had ever done wrong in my whole life."
The next morning Nancy was a different person. The first thing she did
was race to a local bookstore and buy a study Bible. For three days
she constantly read the only Bible that she had ever allowed in her
home. Overcome with passion to share her joy with others, she drove
into the worst sections of South Texas towns and sought out
prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, and homeless people. She didn't
just witness to them, she brought them back to her home, cleaned
them up, fed them, and allowed them to sleep there. Needless to say,
it took her family awhile to understand and adjust to the new Nancy.
At church and on her own, she tried to reach out to everyone she saw.
Yet in time Nancy understood that this dynamic transformation must
have taken place for a specific reason. Through prayer and study she
came to realize she had been called to take her strength and
conviction into regions of the world where Christians were persecuted.
Selling her businesses, she founded Servant Ministries and began to
travel to every corner of the world, not just telling her story to the lost
but finding ways to meet the needs of the poorest and most
mistreated Christians on the globe.
Over the course of the next decade, in the Middle East, Asia, Africa,
and South America, Nancy was confronted by radicals from every one
of the world's major religions, and a few she had never heard of. She
was locked in jails and had her life threatened more times than she
could count. Buoyed by the knowledge that many of those who had
persecuted her had later accepted the Lord, she fought on.
It is a journey full of dangerous peril, but as this former atheist puts it,
"God is sending me to places I have never been, but He is also always
there to meet me when I arrive." The journey from atheist to believer
began with a short trip across a country road and has evolved into
traveling around the world time and time again. And wherever she
goes, Christ is at the heart of Nancy's vision.
Excerpt from I Saw Him in Your Eyes by Ace Collins
Copyright © 2006 by Andrew Collins, published by Zondervan, used by permission.
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