After some conversation, John asked her, “What’s the name of your skin condition?”

“Neurofibromatosis. NF for short,” Angela said.  She then went on to explain how it affected her daily life.

“Would you like us to pray for you?” John asked.

Without hesitation, Angela said, “Yes,” and John led her over to take a seat at his Healing Corner stall set up in the market, a booth designed for healing prayer.

A Call for Prayer in East Asia

John became a Navigator in 1972, but it wasn’t until 1975 that he felt a calling for world missions. “The Lord gave me a promise: Isaiah 49:6,” John says. “‘I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth.’ I began to take steps to figure out where that would take place, and how that would happen.”

After visiting East Asia in 1980, John felt a calling to serve the people there, and so he moved as a full-time resident two years later. Now, over 40 years have passed, and John continues to do faithful ministry in the region. 

John’s work has taken a number of roles over the years, from leading Bible study groups and mentoring church leaders to counseling others through deep emotional and relational healing. However, over the past several years, John has been introducing a new form of care to his ministry — healing prayer. 

John himself has experienced the power of the Lord’s healing, once when an injured rotator cuff in his shoulder was miraculously healed, and another time this year when a woman who was a new believer prayed over an inflamed tendon in his right bicep. “With my arm, after we prayed together, the pain was gone by the end of the day,” John says. “And it’s been gone since. It’s the example that Jesus is always ready to do something. Anytime, anywhere, with anyone.”

After the first time John experienced healing in 2015, he and several others began to offer healing prayer services before their church meetings. “We’ve tried to develop the expectation that all things are possible because Jesus is the same yesterday and today,” John explains. “He has no limits. If we invite His presence to be with us, then anything can happen.” In 2023 alone, he has seen people experience some degree of healing over 250 times. 

Prayers for Emotional and Mental Healing

The Healing Corner ministry began as an extension of the work John was already doing in churches. The market was sponsored by John’s wife who leads an outreach to prostitutes. Each stall was operated by Christian organizations that sought to sell inexpensive products to the residents of a low income area, and they provided a food stand that gave out free ice cream and desserts. 

John decided to set up the Healing Corner stall as part of the market, offering services of prayerful healing to those who were interested. During the market, John would ask people if they would like healing for various ailments and then would offer to pray for them. “It was also an opportunity to say, ‘This is what Jesus did for you,’” John says. “‘And He’d like to have a relationship with you.’ For some folks, it might take two or three of those experiences for them to get serious about wanting to know Jesus.”

When Angela sat down at the booth, John asked her about her background and condition. She had been adopted and endured abuse while growing up, but fortunately, she had become a believer and was in a fellowship group to support her healing journey. John and his wife prayed over Angela’s skin condition and internal healing, and at first, Angela didn’t experience any change.

“We chatted a bit longer, and then I said I wanted to bless her faith,” John says. “So we prayed again, speaking about her identity in Christ and her future in Him. When we finished, she opened her eyes and her face beamed with joy! God had touched her spirit and revived her hope for the future.”

Jesus’ Prayers for Healing

Angela was one of 15 people that and his wife prayed over for the two-day Healing Corner ministry. Nine of the people they prayed over experienced some degree of relief or improvement for their condition. 

One woman realized her joint pain was gone and she was eager to learn more about Jesus, taking a Gospel of John booklet home with her. Another woman, who had needed a cane to walk due to knee pain, found her pain totally gone after several prayers. She walked out of the market without using her cane, and later, she testified to others how Jesus had healed her.

“Every place Jesus went, He revealed God’s kingdom through a combination of verbal proclamation of God’s truth and visible demonstration of God’s power,” John explains. “Activities like the Healing Corner simply create an opportunity for Jesus to demonstrate His power in public places, giving an opening to proclaim the truth of who He is and what He loves to do for people.”

Praise God for the ways that Jesus revealed himself to these people through healing and prayer! You can join John in his ministry in East Asia by praying that he continues his focus on the Lord and that Jesus continues to work through his faith and prayer. 

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.” Matthew 9:35 (NIV).

*Names changed

Discipleship Tip:  

Sometimes a person’s physical, emotional, or mental healing leads them to spiritual healing and a desire for a relationship with Jesus. Is there someone in your life who needs healing? Begin praying for their healing and watch for God’s movement in their life.

Alex and Mary met Zoey* during their years in Asia. Now Zoey, along with her husband, Chaz*, live in the Seattle area. Alex and Mary have prayed for opportunities to deepen their relationship with this family.

The first opportunity came as Alex and Mary stayed with Chaz and Zoey’s older son while Zoey was giving birth to their second child. Their availability to serve provided a foundation of trust, particularly with Chaz, whom they had just met.

Then Mary started a Bible study with Zoey (who is a follower of Jesus) and another woman. Chaz was a follower of another religion but was supportive of Zoey’s Bible study.

Another opportunity to connect was for a family birthday party. The family had planned a large party with many friends in a park, but the weather forecast was unfavorable, so Alex and Mary opened their home. Afterward, Zoey shared that their friends had felt warmly welcomed. This was significant because some of these immigrants from Asia have felt barriers in their interactions with other Americans.

As Alex, Mary, their team, and ministry partners continued to pray—the relationship and trust grew. One day, Chaz asked Alex if they could read the Bible together. Of course, Alex said yes!

Very soon, Chaz shared that he had taken down the spiritual objects related to his former religion in his home. He has started following Jesus, and even told his family who still live in his home country about this significant step. Now Chaz wants to learn how to pray and know God better—this openness has given Alex the opportunity to disciple him and build a solid faith foundation.

*Names changed.

Discipleship Tip:

Think about someone who has yet to have a relationship with Jesus. Create a reminder on your phone, wear something on your wrist, or put their initials in a place you look every day as a reminder to pray for their salvation.

Steve barely had a chance to breathe before the next blow hit him. During a police training exercise that he was leading, he made a sudden movement and blew out his achilles tendon. You could hear it snap from across the room.

Then a winter front descended on Bend, Oregon, where he lived and his pipes froze, causing significant house damage. To top it off, a tree fell on in his driveway, smashing his Jeep.

And then the knockout blow landed. His brother, Gene*, who had only just retired from a long and exemplary career as a police officer in California, died of a heart attack.

Gene was the oldest of six brothers and had paved the way for four of the brothers to enter law enforcement as a career. Gene’s death was really hard to handle. But it wasn’t the last. Steve kept getting pummeled by a low season of hardships.

Another friend had a heart attack. Another friend died in an on-duty motorcycle accident. Meanwhile, Steve was in severe pain, needing a knee replacement. And a close family member attempted suicide.

“I was in a dark, dark place,” Steve recalls. “My knee was killing me. Everything was crumbling around me.”

In the midst of all his pain, Steve created the Johnny Lawrence Project in honor of his friend who’d died. He didn’t want to see other first responders die because of unseen symptoms. So, he applied for a grant to provide a comprehensive health screening for police officers in his town. It included a heart scan, a sleep study, a diet study, a functional fitness test, and a PTSD suicide screen. He put 57 officers through the screening and won a Department of Justice award.

Even though it looked like life was going well for Steve and he was helping others, inside he was dying. He had a foundation of faith and had been ministered to by Navigators First Responder Ministry, but during this dark period he withdrew, isolating himself and not letting anyone else into his dark thoughts.

“I was dark, bro,” Steve says of that time. “I went underground. Drinking was the only tool I knew how to use. I didn’t reach out to anyone for help.”

Steve went to Phoenix to give a speech on officer wellness while far from well himself. It was there that he heard an audible voice in the night.

“Get on your bike,” he heard. “It’s gonna save your life.”

Whoa! What was that?

The voice came again. Demanding. Insistent. Yet not scary.

“Get on your bike. It’s gonna save your life.”

Previously Steve had been invited to join some other officers from his town to the Police Unity Tour, a 300-mile bike ride ending in Washington, D.C. Steve had brushed off the idea until the voice in the night insisted on it. The day of the dream was his brother Gene’s birthday. So, he decided to get on his bike and ride in honor of Gene.

Training for the ride wasn’t easy. Not only was he rehabbing from his knee replacement, but unusual weather kept him from riding on the streets for a month.

Despite the obstacles, the day of the Police Unity Tour arrived, and Steve was as ready as he was going to be. The riders left him in the dust, and he finished the first leg 20 minutes behind the next-to-last rider.

“Dude, you’ve got to pick up your pace,” a rider said has he passed Steve. “It would have probably helped you if you lost some weight first.”

That was so demoralizing, it launched Steve into a round of negative self-talk.

The second day started out well. But the ride was 111 miles, including 2,500 feet of elevation gain. And Steve was close to last again.

“My legs were almost completely blown,” he said. And there were still two more segments to go.

He made it to the lunch break, but despair set it, knowing the next 25-mile leg included a 1,500-foot elevation climb. His mind crowded with negative talk and self-doubt. “I’ll tell them my knee hurts and I need a break,” he said to himself.

So, he started looking for the sag wagon, for those who need a break. The internal battle was brutal, calling himself a quitter and searching for the fortitude to press on. Steve texted his wife and kids, asking for prayer, and they inundated him with encouragement, love, and prayers.

When the whistle blew for the start of the dreaded leg, he could barely move. That’s when he heard a voice from behind him. “Where did you get that old school Torrance patch?”

Steve had a patch from Gene’s old uniform shirt on his biking jersey. 

“It belonged to my brother,” Steve replied. “He was a Torrance cop for 29 years.”

“What was your brother’s name?”

“Gene Victor.”

“Dude, I was your brother’s partner for five years,” the other rider said.

The coincidence brought tears to Steve’s eyes immediately. As they continued to talk, he discovered that the Torrance department had never been in this race before. Not only that, the rider he met was retiring and wouldn’t be doing the race again. Their meeting seemed providential.

“Your brother was a gentle giant,” the officer shared with Steve how much Gene was loved by his fellow officers, how much he was missed.

The break ended and the two made their way to their bikes. And before too long, they hit a hill that went straight up. And Steve could feel his legs fail beneath him and his bike began to slow down.

“There’s no way I’ve got this,” he thought. His legs felt like they were on fire.

But just before he was going to veer to the side of the road, step off his bike, and flag down the sag wagon, he felt a hand grip his bike seat.

“I’ve got you brother,” he heard a voice say. “What you are doing in honor your brother is amazing and there is no way I’m going to let you fail.”

It was his brother’s partner who got him to the top of the hill.

Steve bombed down the other side of the hill, hoping to build up enough momentum for the next hill. But he slowed down.

Another hand grabbed his bike seat—another Torrance officer who knew Gene. Together they conquered the second hill.

On the third hill, another hand grabbed Steve’s bike seat. “I worked with Gene in traffic,” the rider said. “We’re not going to let you fail, brother. You’re going to do this.”

The fourth hill was an easier climb and Steve made the top on his own.

The fifth hill was a monster. But, again, a hand grabbed his bike seat and eased the strain on his legs. This guy was different. “I never knew your brother,” he said. “But we’re not going to let you fail.”

With the help of the Torrance officers, Steve finished the day among the top riders.

The final day wasn’t easy, but it was the home stretch and Steve was able to keep pushing himself until he made it.

“I have never felt as close to God and my brother as during that ride” he said of the experience. “In the moment of despair, in my darkest time, I reached out to God. And He sent these officers to help me. I was physically and mentally broken. I was full self-doubt, exhausted, and ready to quit. But I reached out. I said, ‘I just need a little something.’ And I got it in those four guys. It reaffirmed my faith in God and others.”

When Steve thought he couldn’t make it over the next hill, the Lord provided help right when he needed it.

Praise God for the many ways that first responders support each other through difficult seasons. Pray that many more will live out the gospel and grow generations of disciplemakers among first responders.

_{*Names changed.}

Whether you’re new to prayer, or God seems silent, or you’re grieving a loss, or you need direction, or you’re feeling grateful and don’t know how to express it—you don’t have to let these obstacles keep you from God. There is a way for you to pray through!

Join in this conversation with Jarrett Stevens, author of NavPress book Praying Through: Overcoming the Obstacles That Keep Us from God. Jarrett Stevens is the co-founding pastor, along with his wife Jeanne, of Soul City Church in Chicago.

Q: How did the process of writing a book on prayer change some of your own prayer practices?

“One of the practices I now embrace is silent meditation. Previously I had engaged in silent meditation in special situations, but not as a regular practice. I learned to embrace silence rather than fighting it, and I am able to find God in the silence. I now spend 5-10 minutes every morning in silence. It has become a powerful discipline—to be quiet and still and trust that God is present. During this ongoing pandemic season, it has become even more important for me to make time for silence.”

Q: You link prayer components to everyday actions (for example, cheering for your team = worship). Why is it important to simplify prayer?

“My rally cry for this book is to uncomplicate prayer. For people who are new to prayer, it is intimidating to think about speaking directly to the God of the universe. Those who have prayed for years may be stuck in how they think they should pray. I want people to be refreshed by the simplicity of prayer. Many people struggle with the idea that they aren’t praying enough or in the right way. By making prayer more accessible, people can go deeper in their connection to God.”

“I took experiences that people already do naturally—such as cheering, saying thanks, or worrying—and connected those to the supernatural practice of prayer. Everything we know as humans, from how to walk and talk and eat, is something that we learned at some time in our past. In the same way, people can learn how to talk with God.”

Q: Your book came out just before the start of the pandemic, but the need for prayer is ongoing. How have you seen God use the message of Praying Through in our current situation? 

“I have been encouraged to hear from people who are using the book in small groups. Having honest conversations about prayer and learning together is important in a faith community. The book addresses praying through grief, worry, and even gratitude for hard times. These topics are relevant today. I am concerned about spiritual drifting due to the prolonged nature of this crisis. Who will we be as Christians on the other side of this season? Going deeper with God individually and together in prayer can help us through this season.”

Learn More About Praying Through at Navpress.com

You can purchase Praying Through: Overcoming the Obstacles That Keep Us from God at NavPress.com.

The Navigators NYC team holds an annual prayer walk covering the whole length of Manhattan. This year the “walk” was virtual. Jim Luebe (Navigators NYC City Director) facilitated the time and Peter Trautmann (Navigators NYC Associate City Director) provided information on important cultural and historical points. Focused prayer time covered ministry highlights from each ministry leader along the way. Currently nineteen Navigators staff and 132 volunteers reach out to all corners of the city.

From noticing the site of the Fulton Street revival (1857), traversing diverse immigrant communities, and pausing at the Harriet Tubman memorial in Harlem, participants learned about and lifted prayers for this global city. God is at work in NYC and ministry there has a world-wide impact!

Preston, part of the Navigators 20s ministry in New York City, shares: “Getting to see a close up view of the neighborhoods in NYC where Navigators are taking the gospel, and hearing the testimonies of how Christ is transforming lives along these ‘stops’ of the prayer walk really made me realize how deep and critical the calling is to reach NYC. I realized the giant need for the gospel in the corners of darkness. I also witnessed so much fruitfulness and the opportunity for deeper and more widespread gospel-driven relationships to be formed and cultivated in NYC.”

Anthony, a recent college graduate who is new to the city, reflects: “The highlight for me was getting to hear from and see the many types of ministries in the city! Last year, I came to realize the power of group prayer. Letting my heart and words be guided by the Holy Spirit has helped me in my own prayers and in this group experience.”

Prayer Walk In Your Own City

You can organize a prayer walk in your own city or neighborhood—either virtually or in person with appropriate safeguards.

• Share the vision with your small group, church, or other ministry organization.
• Enlist the help of others, so you have more people to pray and to spread the effort.
• Research important historical and cultural aspects of your city.
• Gather prayer requests and information from those ministries that serve around your city.

Even as you prepare for the prayer walk, ask the Holy Spirit to give deeper insight into your area. What areas or segments of people are well-served? Where are there gaps and people in need of the Good News of Jesus and the love of the body of Christ? Pray for God to show you others who have a heart for prayer for your city.

But how does a person meditate day and night? One obvious way is to stay awake 24 hours a day. However, there is a less strenuous way to accomplish this.

Have you ever awakened in the night feeling rigid and tense? Have you ever gone to bed with a problem in your mind, and awakened the next morning exhausted-as though you had worked through the night? Have you ever noticed that your last thought of the day is usually your first thought of the next morning? Many people believe that these phenomena indicate that our subconscious minds keep on working while we are asleep.

When a person sleeps, his conscious mind rests while his subconscious mind continues to function in order to keep the body’s organs working. But the conscious and the subconscious are in a closed-circuit relationship, so whatever the conscious was working on prior to his falling asleep will be transmitted to the subconscious.

Too often we are wrestling with a problem just before we go to sleep. So rather than allowing the subconscious to work on our problems and worries, we can meditate on the Word of God while we sleep.

A simple application of this theory is to read the passage intended for the next morning’s quiet time just before you go to sleep. Take about three minutes to scan through the passage and ask God to give you a thought that will help you live for Him the next day. Take this thought with you to bed.

Your subconscious mind will work on the thought while you sleep, and you will probably have the same thought in your mind the next morning. The writer of the Proverbs may be alluding to this when he writes, “When you walk about, they will guide you; When you sleep, they will watch over you; And when you awake, they will talk to you” (Proverbs 6:22, NAS).

Make God’s Word your last word every day, and with the help of the subconscious mind you will be able to meditate on the Word “day and night.”

Adapted from Meditation, May 9, 2011. Used with permission by NavPress.

Continuing students also face life decisions each year—about how to invest their time and build a foundation for the trajectory of their career and life after college.

Navigators Collegiate is active on 175 campuses across the country, calling students into a life of following Jesus—making disciples who will make disciples, not just while in college, but throughout their lives.

God has placed a vision for reaching every campus for Christ on the hearts of The Navigators and of other ministries. The foundation of this vision is built on prayer.

Right now across the United States, biblically-based campus ministries are turning to God in prayer and working together to reach every campus. Noah Haas (chief of staff, Navigators Collegiate) shares how God is at work: “I’m excited to report that God is on the move, in us as Navigators and throughout the Body of Christ—through the EveryCampus coalition, working together to instigate revival on every campus in the United States. We are trusting God for new movements of the gospel by focusing on interdependence, prayer, and revival.”

Two main priorities of EveryCampus are prayer-walking and launching new gospel movements.

Bold prayers are being lifted for every one of the 4,958 campuses in the United States. Individuals and teams have committed to prayer walks on each and every college campus. Many of the prayer walks were on-site; however, with some of the restrictions of last spring, people are praying at a distance, using virtual tools to “walk” around a campus. Prayer is not limited by physical distancing!

Recently the goal of at least one prayer-walk for every campus has been completed. The prayers are bearing fruit. There are reports of new gospel movements started on campus, students coming to faith in Christ, healings, and more!

While the initial goal of having at least one person or group do a prayer walk on each campus has been met, the continuing work of prayer focuses on establishing a gospel movement on each campus and seeing God’s Kingdom come to campuses nationwide. This ongoing prayer focus for ministry is key to seeing transformed lives and generations of disciplemakers thrive on college campuses for years to come. 

Praise God for calling many ministries together to pray for college campuses. Pray for God’s Word to bear fruit in the lives of many students in the coming year.

Prayer Walking at the University of South Carolina

By Ben Burchardi, Navigators Collegiate, University of South Carolina, Columbia

As we relaunch Navigators Collegiate at the University of South Carolina, my wife, Caryn, and I are building on a foundation of expectant prayer. We are praying boldly and deeply, trusting in our God who is able to do more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). We eagerly look through the Scriptures to see what is on God’s heart and then pray for the campus and for students we’ll meet.

In the Old Testament, when Moses is succeeded in leadership by Joshua, God’s word to this young leader says, “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses” (Joshua 1:3).

Using this idea as a model for prayer, we literally walk all over USC’s campus and pray that each place we set our feet would be a place where God is known and where students are rescued from sin and death.

God has laid a new idea about prayer on our hearts to accompany this new work at USC. In the past we have regularly asked ministry partners to pray for and with us. Now we have taken this a step further and asked people to track their time praying and regularly check our website for up-to-date prayer requests, answers to prayer, and to provide us with feedback from their own prayer times. Please join us in prayer at navlink.org/USCNavsPrayer.

Our goal is to pray 2,000 hours between now and the end of the 2020-2021 school year! It’s definitely an out-of-reach goal if it’s just Caryn and me trying to attain it. But if we factor in the body of Christ—our staff team, students we’ll meet at USC, all our ministry partners, and others worldwide who get excited about praying with us—it’s in reach!

How did she know to make such a sacrifice? We don’t know what Mary heard, but we do know she listened. When we first met her, she sat at Jesus’ feet while her sister, Martha, complained, “Tell her to help me!” (Luke 10:40 NIV).

Instead of rebuking Mary, Jesus replied, “Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42 RSV).

Then, as Jesus prepared to enter Jerusalem for the final time, He attended a dinner in His honor. Again, Mary was at his feet. This time, she seemed to know better than Jesus’ disciples what to do.

How did she know?

To sit at someone’s feet, according to The Farlex Dictionary of Idioms, is “a position of devotion or worship of someone; to pay homage or reverential attention to someone; to be someone’s pupil or follower.” This definition resembles the Greek word for disciple, mathetes, which means, “a learner or follower.”

When you serve a God who declares, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9 NIV), it is wise to listen. You may be surprised what you hear. But it’s important to take care who you’re listening to!

Had Mary listened to Martha, she would have rushed around serving dinner and missed out on what she heard while sitting at Jesus’ feet. If she had heeded the disciples’ rebuke, the lives of the poor could have been temporarily enriched—but she and Jesus would have been robbed of a beautiful gift! If we listen too often to the world around us, or dive into doing what we think we should be doing, we can get off track.

Baking hot cross buns for neighbors, hosting resurrection Easter egg hunts, or even massive helicopter egg drops can be great ways of sharing Jesus with those around you . . . if that’s what Jesus wants you to do. But sometimes, in my zeal to make the most of this seasonal opportunity, I find myself looking like Martha, distracted by the preparations and missing out on what Jesus wants for me. Other times, I’ve been like the disciples, quick to judge those whose actions seemed wasteful.

A disciple is one who learns from and follows Jesus. Listening is a key skill! What beautiful thing might the Lord want you to do this year to celebrate His resurrection? It may not be what you or others expect. Without listening to Him, how will you know? Are you willing to stop and listen?

Deb Entsminger serves with Navigators Collegiate in Florida.

He asked us a few questions about what we’d learned. There was a long pause.

And then he said:

“I know less about prayer today than I did when I was your age. I have prayed for over 60 years for several of my family members to come to faith and God has not answered those prayers, and I do not know why. Several times I’ve prayed for lesser things and God has provided above and beyond and immediately. All I know now, after all these years, is that prayer is communication, it’s talking to God. I don’t know how it works. I do know that God has asked me to do it, and I’ve always benefited when I’ve obeyed God. I have been changed by prayer, I am known by God and know God through prayer, but I don’t know how that happens.”

You could have heard a pin drop. I had expected mechanics, tips, and assurances. I hadn’t expected to hear longing and humility.

That night deeply impacted the way I model prayer to my kids and to students in our ministry over the years. I return so often to the notion that prayer is just talking to God and that we don’t get “better” at prayer, because every earnest prayer is warmly welcomed by God.

After a time of listening to God, we sensed God leading us to a restaurant called Le Corneille, where I had been many times.

After enjoying lunch, we waved down the waitress and told her what we were doing. We asked her if she knew God and if we could pray for her. She shared very briefly of her Christian upbringing, and kindly said that she did not need prayer for anything. But she told us that she would get the owner.

When the owner came by our table, we shared our purpose: “We are Christians, and we asked God this morning if He wanted us to speak with anyone and pray with them. We are wondering if you know Jesus and if we can pray for you.”

He thought a moment, and then joined us at our table and began to share his story! He grew up in the church and was active serving as a young boy. The past few years he has distanced himself from God because a few members of his family have died from the same degenerative disease. Now, as an agnostic, he is not sure if there is life after death and is making the most of today.

Mathias, Anas, and I listened intently. We were grateful for this vulnerable conversation!

We shared about God’s love and the gospel and asked if we could pray for him right there. He grabbed Mathias’ and Anas’ hands, and I could not believe my eyes. We all joined hands and we prayed and blessed him. Then he generously offered us something from the kitchen, but we’d already had our fill—more than enough!

Since that time with God’s Treasure, the restaurant owner, we have continued to connect. Recently he shared that his brother died and this has caused him to ask many questions. I don’t know what the next step is for him, but I do know that we will continue to pray for him and build a relationship pointing toward hope and Jesus.

Pray for God to show you opportunities to share the eternal treasure of the gospel with those in your path.