Prayer Meeting Hill

Ray, Keith and I recently made the trek up Serro Chiquehuite for a season of prayer just before sunrise. Only a five minute drive from our home it has become known to us as “Prayer Meeting Hill”. I thought you might enjoy the story that inspired the name:

Lyman Jewett had seen little fruit at his mission post in remotest India despite seventeen years of laborious effort, yet when the American Baptist Mission Board wanted to close it down, Jewett pleaded with them for a little more time. The Board agreed, but the outpost was dubbed “Forlorn Hope.”

Early on New Year’s Day, 1854, Jewett and his native helpers climbed to the top of the hill behind Forlorn Hope to begin the year in prayer. They arrived before daybreak, at four in the morning, and read these words from Isaiah 52: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”

Having so read, they joined in prayer, pleading with God to send just the man who could beak through the barrenness of their field. They finished praying just as the sun rose above the horizon. The mountain came to be called Prayer Meeting Hill.

Ten years later, farmer John Clough was working atop a reaper in his wheat field in Iowa when he received news that his application had been accepted by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. They were going to send him to a place called Forlorn Hope.

Arriving in India, John went right to work, preaching, praying, leading, and working tirelessly to feed the hungry and organize famine relief during the great drought of 1876-1878. The Indians came to love him because of his works of mercy, and increasing numbers responded to his message. A powerful revival swept the area, and on one day alone Clough and his workers baptized 2,222 converts. The conversions continued, and in 39 days, they baptized 8,691 new Christians. Twenty-four national ministers were ordained to oversee the young, exploding church; and during the course of the revival over 20,000 came to the Lord.

Forlorn Hope had proved no match for Prayer Meeting Hill.

(From This Verse: Robert Morgan – Thomas Nelson 1998)