I Only Want One

Darlene Deibler Rose was a missionary in Indonesia, who was captured and imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II. During her imprisonment, she wasted away to almost nothing. While imprisoned, she began to crave a banana. She had this longing for a banana, while in prison. She prayed to God, for just one banana. After she prayed, she began to second guess herself and God, and couldn’t think of any way possible, she could ever get one banana. It would never happen. Then she took back the prayer, realizing, there was no possible way to get one banana. But God answers prayers. One day an officer, knocked on her prison door, when she opened it, the officer came into her cell and dumped ninety-two bananas at her feet. When the officer left, she fell to her knees and thanked God and apologized for doubting him.

My daughter returned from England a little over two weeks ago. She’s been trying to adjust to the time difference. She’s not sleeping well, but it’s getting better. She came back exhausted and sad to leave all of her friends she made in England. She had a glorious time. It was such a great time there, staff reminded the kids that this wasn’t reality. It’s like summer camp.

This wasn’t what I was expecting, when we dropped her off at the train station in London, to drive up to Capenwray. We had spent a week in London, exploring the tourist sites of London, and the closer we came to it, the more anxious she grew. She wondered if she would meet any new friends. She’d only spent time away from us, with her grandparents. She’d been homeschooled all of her life. She was becoming more and more anxious as we neared the time for her to go up there.

We arrived at the train station and found a group of kids that were sitting around waiting for the bus. I looked at my daughter and saw the fear in her eyes. I thought to myself, “She’s going to have to sink or swim. There’s no way we can fly back her to come get her.” I looked at my husband and said we should go sit over in some chairs away from the kids and leave our daughter there, to get to know the other kids.

I watched my daughter. She looked like a deer in the headlights. Her mouth was a straight line. She stood stiffly near the other kids, but didn’t say a word to anyone.

God answers prayers. He really does. I had been praying for my daughter for almost a year now, about going to England and attending Bible school there. I had prayed she would adjust and at least make one good friend there. Well God does exceedingly more than we ask for.

She came back with tons of friends. She has tons of pictures of herself with her friends, and she has this twinkle in her eyes, that warms my heart. She has stories to tell about her time there. She’s all a twitter about her trip. Was this the same girl we left at the train station, who looked like she was going to bolt for the door at any minute?

She had such a good time there, she didn’t want to leave. She cried when she had to say goodbye to her friends. She’s talked about going back, it was such a great time. She did well on her studies and papers she had to write. She thrived there.

There’s a reason God tells us to pray without ceasing. He tells us to pray about everything. I had prayed she would have at least one good friend. She came back with so many I can’t keep track of them all. I prayed that she would survive. She thrived. Darlene, the missionary prayed for one banana, she got ninety two. God always does exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine.