I've heard this before and wondered if it was true or not. I could not find out anything about it on the Snopes site nor on the Urban Legends site but someone advised me that it was verified on the following site: http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors...aterbottle.htm
THE HOT WATER BOTTLE - A True Story By Helen Roseveare, Missionary to Africa
One night, in Central Africa, I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all that we could do, she died leaving us with a tiny, premature baby and a crying, two-year-old daughter.
We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive. We had no incubator. We had no electricity to run an incubator, and no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts.
A student-midwife went for the box we had for such babies and for the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly, in distress, to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst. Rubber perishes easily in tropical climates. "...and it is our last hot water bottle!" she exclaimed. As in the West, it is no good crying over spilled milk; so, in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over a burst water bottle. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways. All right," I said, "Put the baby as near the fire as you safely can; sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm."
The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with many of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle. The baby could so easily die if it got chilled. I also told them about the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died. During the prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt consciousness of our African children. "Please, God," she prayed, "send us a water bottle. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, the baby'll be dead; so, please send it this afternoon." While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added by way of corollary, " ...And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she'll know You really love her?" As often with children's prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say, "Amen?" I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything: The Bible says so, but there are limits, aren't there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever received a parcel from home. Anyway, if anyone did send a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!
Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses' training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time that I reached home, the car had gone, but there, on the veranda, was a large twenty-two pound parcel! I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone; so, I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly colored, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then, there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children began to look a little bored. Next, came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas - - that would make a nice batch of buns for the weekend. As I put my hand in again, I felt the...could it really be? I grasped it, and pulled it out. Yes, "A brand-new rubber, hot water bottle!" I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could. Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, "If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!" Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone: She had never doubted! Looking up at me, she asked, "Can I go over with you, Mummy, and give this dolly to that little girl, so she'll know that Jesus really loves her?"
That parcel had been on the way for five whole months, packed up by my former Sunday School class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. One of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child -- five months earlier in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it "That afternoon!" "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." Isaiah 65:24
Helen Roseveare a doctor missionary from England to Zaire, Africa, told this as it had happened to her in Africa. She shared it in her testimony on a Wednesday night at Thomas Road Baptist Church.
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If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8 KJV
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2 KJV
It's labeled "True", based on corroboration from the missionary herself. They don't mention any other witnesses.
Now, I have no specific reason to doubt this story. It is plausible, and the missionary is almost certainly a wonderful lady, unselfishly serving and loving people in need. But there is a difficulty with this story and others like it, if they are true: If we seem to think that miracles like this prove that God loves the people involved, how can we not conclude that God doesn't love any of the billions of other people that don't get a much needed miracle?
Children die of starvation and disease, every day. But some (according to some stories) are rescued from starvation or disease by God's loving intervention. Say "we don't know why" and "God's ways are not our ways" all you like. But I doubt it will help anyone feel loved by God, as they die in agony.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
It's labeled "True", based on corroboration from the missionary herself. They don't mention any other witnesses.
Now, I have no specific reason to doubt this story. It is plausible, and the missionary is almost certainly a wonderful lady, unselfishly serving and loving people in need. But there is a difficulty with this story and others like it, if they are true: If we seem to think that miracles like this prove that God loves the people involved, how can we not conclude that God doesn't love any of the billions of other people that don't get a much needed miracle?
Children die of starvation and disease, every day. But some (according to some stories) are rescued from starvation or disease by God's loving intervention. Say "we don't know why" and "God's ways are not our ways" all you like. But I doubt it will help anyone feel loved by God, as they die in agony.
Timotheus,
You are asking the same type of questions that I myself and many others do not have the answer for.
Some time read the 11th chapter of Hebrews all the way through. It's some times called God's Hall of Fame. It lists example after example of what people over the years were able to do, and were able to receive, and were able to accomplish, and were able to endure through faith. Then toward the end a bunch of unnamed people are sorta thrown in after the words "but others" or "and others." These nameless folks did not receive miraculous provision, did not receive miraculous deliverance, and did not receive spectacular answers to prayer. Why not? I don't know. But they all had faith and they are all unnamed heroes of faith.
I can't give you an answer for that. Is it fair? Doesn't seem so to me. All I can do is trust that God knows what He is doing and that He has more sense than we give Him credit for.
Now, how's that for an answer from a man who has been saved, and baptized in the Spirit, and has been preaching
and reading his Bible for over half a century?
It may not be a very good answer but it is an honest one.
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"God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."
--David Livingstone
"To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—
abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;…."
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of the Open Road
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