Article April 11, 2005 Issue

Challenged by personal attacks, emotional strain, and serious illness, this writer found peace and complete cure through disciplined prayer.

The strongest medicine

By Katie Mangelsdorf

My dream had come true. I was teaching first through fourth grade in a two-teacher school in a remote Alaskan Indian village. This was a very happy time for me. But it also proved to be a very difficult period in my life. A period during which I really learned more about prayer. And I felt the presence of God's love and care touching my heart as I never had before. Here's what happened.

Midway through my first year in the village, I began to feel that the other teacher's wife hated and resented me. The situation escalated into the second year. One night, I woke to sounds of loud banging outside my house. I could not see who was there. The banging stopped, only to start up again two hours later. I got out of bed and opened the door to look again, and met the other teacher's wife standing outside with a two-by-four! I asked her to stop what she was doing, and she left. But she returned to continue banging around my house at regular intervals all night long.

I prayed throughout that long, cold, winter night to feel the presence of God's love surrounding me and my home. Eventually I found peace in praying the Lord's Prayer. The incident was never repeated. But there was ongoing tension in our school. I felt continually under attack. I found out that both the teacher and his wife had taken steps to discredit me and keep me from getting promoted.

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The most powerful remedy