An African "Boodle!"

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (II Kings 18-20)

“In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord; ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’

Then he (Hezekiah) turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying,

“Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” II Kings 20: 1-3

The voice at the other end of the line was unintelligible. The man that I had reached knew what he was saying but I didn’t have a clue. He was speaking Zambian and I was communicating in English. He shouted something that sounded like “Boodle! Boodle!” When I asked for my daughter again, he raised his voice louder and shouted – “Boodle!!!!”

Have you ever tried to call someone in Africa? On their cell phone? It is a challenge that is almost unexplainable.

When Katie and Norman left for Zambia a week ago, they left us house numbers and cell phone numbers. Of course there are cell phones in Africa. Anyone knows that. (Actually I didn’t. When I thought of Africa, I thought of David Livingston talking about the smoke of a thousand fires.) The cell phones work – sometimes. The challenge is getting the bazillion numbers that you have to dial to go thousands of miles and reach the right person. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

The next day I tried again. To my surprise I heard my daughter’s voice on the other end of the line. “Mom,” she said sounding incredulous. “It is a miracle that you got me! We’re in a Jeep traveling on a dirt road in the bush!”

“Yesterday,” I said, “I got an African man who kept saying “Boodle” louder and louder!”

“Yes,” she answered from the jungle, “they speak very emphatically here. In the US we would think they are having an argument, but they’re not.”

Then the line clicked off. But I had spoken to my daughter in Zambia on her cell phone in Africa! A miracle of communication in today’s world.

King Hezekiah was dying. The prophet, Isaiah, had come to tell him that he should set his house in order because he was about to die. But the king wasn’t ready to die and so he turned his face toward the wall and prayed. He said, “’Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” (II Kings 20:1-3)

That’s all he did. He turned his face toward the wall and prayed and cried. He didn’t dial any numbers or wait for a ring or get the wrong person shouting “Boodle.” He turned over in his bed and cried out to the Lord and immediately got an answer.

“Then it happened before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

“Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people. ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you.” II Kings 20:4-5)

Katie said it was a miracle that I reached her in the bush. It was. But the greatest miracle of all is prayer. I can wake up in the night and turn my face to the wall and pray for my daughter and family in Africa and know that God is saying to me, “I have heard your prayer!”

Wow! No boodles about that.