As a young boy being raised in the city of Miami, Florida, our family
attended a small Assembly of God Church. The pastor and his
wife had an only son who was away at college when they became
pastors of the church. It was in the days when prayer requests were
taken at every service. Everyone who had a request was given an
opportunity to ask for prayer for their particular need.
Pray for this one who is sick, pray for that one in the hospital, pray for the other one that needs a job. Then you always had the sister who would say, “I have an unspoken request.” I am still not sure what things we prayed about under that category of “Unspoken request.”
Well, after everyone got through mentioning their request, and we knew no one else would be speaking out, there was always that pause by the pastor. He knew there was one more request to be made. He knew his wife sitting quietly at the spinet piano would have a request. She would always timidly raise her hand as if to get the required attention and maybe permission to say it again.
And we all knew her request.
“Don’t forget to pray for Dale,” she would say with that care in her voice that even though we had heard it before it was worth hearing it again. “Amen,” the pastor would say and he would begin to pray or someone else would be called upon to take all the requests to the Lord.
Dale was that only son that was away at college. He was a Christian, but he was far away in Minnesota where they had lived previous to taking the church in Miami. He had not come down with them when they moved. Dale would only come to town a couple times a year. He seemed to be doing alright. But once he was gone we were back to the same prayer request. “Don’t forget to pray for Dale.” I think most everyone had Dale on their minds every time they prayed and he was always mentioned in the prayer in each service.
Dale finally graduated from college and came to work with his parents in the church. He was assigned a Sunday School class of young boys. I happened to be in that class each Sunday.
I am glad we prayed for Dale. He taught me a lot about Jesus. And he gave me my first Bible. One Sunday he came into the class room with a stack of Bibles and opened each one before handing them out. He had written a message to each boy and signed it and dated it..
I still have that black King James Version Bible. Its pages are worn. I have notes written in the margins. The masking tape I once used to keep it together has lost its adhesive qualities. But Dale’s prophetic message lives on.
Dated January 21, 1964.
Dear Peter,
I have been praying for you pal that God would keep His hand upon you. Live close to Jesus, Peter; let His Word be your close companion each day and let Jesus be a real friend to you and your guide. Remember you can always count me as friend who is always praying for you.
Love and prayers
Your S.S. teacher
Rev. Dale B. Peterson
Bethany Tabernacle
That person you are praying for may come into someone’s life and impact them for many, many years.
Don’t forget to pray for the Dale in your life. -PJF-
Purpose! Ministries
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