Prayercentral.net has reported that since they started organizing prayers for Afghanistan in late August, there has been a sharp decline in both troop and civilian casualties. Their prayer campaign, called the Afghan Prayer Patrol, encourages anyone who is willing to leave a prayer at their website or pray the prayers in agreement with other prayers left at their website. The website, which is a fellow WordPress site, has charts showing that at the moment the Afghan Prayer Patrol started, casualties which were trending upward sharply from April to August 2009 began trending sharply downward. Click here to see the charts for yourself.
The Afghan Prayer Patrol was started by Wayne Dillard, who stated to ChristianNewsWire.com, “Maybe it’s a coincidence, or maybe there really is a God who answers the prayers of His people — I’m putting my faith in God.”
I believe God answers the fervent prayers of his people. I must, however, state that during the same period that there was a sharp decline in casualties, this was also the period where troops had intensified their attacks against the Taliban in the run-up to the Afghanistan elections and that could be a factor in the decline. Nevertheless, I strongly believe prayer can only make matters better and I choose to believe that in this case, the prayers of the righteous have made a huge difference. So I will stand with them in prayer and my hope, more than anything, is that the gospel will thrive there.
–posted by Harry A. Gaylord–
