Prayer Request Against Coronavirus

I had heard of the power of an online prayer request but did not believe much in its strength till one day, I decided to send one and seek God’s divine grace.

We were all happy as well as exhausted. My family and I had just spent the last week having a relaxing and blissful holiday abroad. Although I scanned the newspapers every morning and did my fair share of catching up on the latest happenings worldwide, I did not pay much attention to the growing pandemic of Coronavirus. After all, we were on our much-awaited holiday and wanted to make the most of our break. Moreover, the newspapers did not say much about whether Coronavirus had reached the city where we lived or the one where we were holidaying. So there really wasn’t much to rattle my nerves or get worried about my family. I decided to enjoy my holidays to the hilt and let the news reports take a back seat for the time being.

The day of our return flight dawned near. On our way to the airport, while we were waiting at a traffic signal, the cab driver turned on the radio. The newsreader was relaying how the deadly Coronavirus was quickly spreading and endangering the lives of everyone. The news hardly mattered to me because we were heading home and there were no reports of any cases being positive in our city. We reached the airport and, after the formalities were over, we all headed to the lounge for a cup of coffee. It was here that I heard some passengers discuss how fast Coronavirus was being detected all over the world and the preventive measures and advisories being broadcast all over the media. I logged in to my email and found that it had been flooded with messages issued in the public interest by our government and how to take precautionary measures to stay safe. My Facebook page was inundated with posts of new cases being detected and how people were getting paranoid about the situation by the day. Still, I brushed aside these reviews and proceeded to board my flight. 

The flight attended handed each one of us a small bottle of hand sanitizer and asked everyone to use it diligently. This seemed a bit strange as I had never seen anything like this before. Still, my family and I decided to follow the instructions as there was no harm in doing it. Personal hygiene was always on top of my mind, particularly when it came to my 3-year-old kid.

Our flight landed on time. We were all exhausted after the long flight and wanted to reach home as quickly as possible. As we started collecting our luggage, we noticed that there was a commotion at the other end of the airport. This section of the departure lounge was full of passengers who had disembarked from international flights. We collected our luggage and were about to head out when we were stopped by security guards. One of the guards checked our passports and asked us to follow him. We went with him and found ourselves joining the queue of people who had come from abroad. The guard explained to us that we would be quarantined like the other passengers and tests would be conducted for Coronavirus. We could only leave the airport if the test results were negative. We were whisked away to a segregated segment of the airport and kept in isolation. After a few hours, swabs were collected from our nose and throat and sent to a laboratory for analysis. We were told that it would take 24-72 hours for the results to come back.

I had already hit the panic button and started praying for my family. My husband told me to be strong but I was more concerned for my child than anyone else. I remembered that a cousin had sent an online prayer request and was able to tide over a crisis at a crucial period in her life. I shared my thoughts with my husband who readily agreed o send an online prayer request to a church in the Holy Land and seek His blessings. When we received an email with the photographs and video of our prayer request against coronavirus, we felt a surge of relief. Although we waited anxiously for the results, our turbulent mind was calm.

The test results came back after three days. All three of us had tested negative and the authorities told us that we were free to go home. We hugged each other and tears of joy flowed down my cheeks. The Lord had answered our prayers and blessed us with His divine touch. In my heart, I knew the power of an online prayer request and how it can show us the path in the most trying times.