Bird and Bug

We were getting ready for our District conference in Donetsk. This time the conference was going to be held in a room that looked much like an old chemistry lab. You know, the tiered seating and high ceiling. We arrived early because I liked to get used to the environment and make sure things were going well. It’s not that I get nervous about details – yes it is, I get nervous about details. We entered the hall and things looked just fine. After a few minutes I realized that there was a bird flying around in the hall. I knew the bird would be a distraction but I couldn’t figure out what to do. The ceilings were really high and the bird was flying near the top. I decided to pray that the Lord would take care of the bird, quickly adding that the bird need not die. I then got involved in a discussion and forgot about the bird until I saw it being carried out of the hall. After the conference I asked what had happened and someone mentioned the bird landed on a window seal and a member had caught it in his hands and taken it out and released it. It flew away. This moment really hit me because I could see an almost immediate cause and effect relationship between asking for and receiving answer to a prayer. I tried all types of ways to rationalize what had happened and could only come to one conclusion. My prayer had been answered. Shortly after this incident took place we were up in Kharkov to a zone conference. We held the conference in the National Hotel. We rented a conference room on the ground floor of the hotel. The room had some black leather chairs which were very comfortable and some regular chairs which left lots to be desired. We had the windows open because it was very hot and humid. I had just related the bird incident to the missionaries and we were getting ready to start the testimony meeting when a huge bug flew into the room. I could tell by the expression on the faces of the missionaries that a challenge was being made: Ok, McQueen, you said you could, with the Lord’s help, pray away a bird. Now, let’s see what can be done with this bug! I was extremely nervous because I did not want my actions to cause some missionary to lose his or her testimony. I started to pray that the Lord would take care of the bug, and I remember thinking these specific terms – Lord please park this bug some place where it will not interfere with our testimony meeting. I watched it fly North along the East wall and turn West onto the North wall. It was coming close to me and I almost reached out to squash it, but held back. The bug changed direction and flew back towards the East wall and then it went South along the East wall towards a vent and “parked” near the vent for the entire testimony meeting. It did not move during the meeting. Again, a very specific prayer was answered in a very specific way.