SEQUEL
A t presidential breakfast Bob Pierce, center, prayed for President Magsaysay, right. Filipino minister Jose Yap is on the left. Afterwards Pierce learned of an astonish ing incident in Magsaysay*s life before becoming president.
PRAYER FOR A PRESIDENT
T he K in g ' s B usiness ' cover story for March featured Presi dent Ramon Magsaysay of the Philippines. In March also the world was shocked to learn of the tragic death of Presi dent Magsaysay in an airplane crash. O f particular interest to Christians, who joined the rest of the world in mourning the loss o f a great and distinguished statesman, will be the fact that just before his death President Magsaysay received clear testimony of the saving power of Christ from Dr. Bob Pierce and the members of his Manila Crusade Team. During the three-week campaign in Manila, which at tracted an aggregate attendance of over 140,000, World Vision President Pierce and his team were invited to breakfast at Malacanang Palace, the "White House’’ of the Philippines. "It was planned that we should be there 40 minutes,” Pierce recalls, "but instead, President Magsaysay himself kept us there for an hour and 50 minutes.” The Visionaires quartet sang and Organist Les Barnett played, Missionary-Evangelist Pierce relates. "President Mag saysay was so interested and friendly that we sensed some how that it was important to him to have this little time with us as we talked about Christ and sang the gospel. We knew it was important without knowing why, so we stayed as long as he asked us to; and at the end I turned to him and said, 'Mr. President, could we pray together?’ ” The President indicated his enthusiastic willingness, and so Dr. Pierce prayed for him that God would give him wisdom as He once gave it to Solomon. "Then I prayed,” Pierce remembers, "that in the business of mling his country wisely, he might have in his own heart and life the personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour.”
As the evangelist left, the President thanked him for his prayer and presented him with a pearl inlaid cane. Later, in speaking of the incident to a friend, President Magsaysay mentioned that Pierce’s prayer had reminded him of an American missionary-teacher who many years before, when the President was a young man, had taught him the Bible and faithfully prayed for him. Later, while command ing mountain guerrillas who fought the Japanese during World War II, Magsaysay had used this same missionary as a contact in Manila. Detained on one occasion so that he arrived late for a meeting with her, Magsaysay found her home surrounded by Japanese and learned later that she and two other women with her had been executed. "Three missionaries’ heads were taken instead of mine,” President Magsaysay recalled, and then he added, "You know, nobody has ever prayed for me since those days when that missionary prayed like these young people and Dr. Pierce prayed this morning.” "I am glad,” Pierce says, "that there was a little mission ary sent to the Philippines who cared enough to be very, very faithful about witnessing to a young mechanic. No one ever dreamed that he would someday become the presi dent but she taught him the Bible and prayed for him; and now, by his own lips, there came this testimony that she prayed for him in a way he never forgot.” To Missionary-Evangelist Pierce the conclusion was clear- cut: "Pray for your missionaries. There are difficult spots all over the world where the humble people you send forth from your church may be doing far more for Christ than ever you dream of, in places far more important than we will ever know.” END.
The King's Business/July 1957
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