Power of Prayer

Larry Edward Christenson is my father.  He was raised in Heyburn, Idaho not too far from the Snake River.  He and is siblings and friends liked to play by the river.  They would go swimming and fishing.  There was a railroad bridge that spanned the river with cement pillars reaching down into the water.  They liked to plat on these pillars and even on the tracks themselves.  Once when Larry was young, he decided to walk across the tracks from one side to the other.  He had done this before but had not become real proficient at it.  He started off slowly and carefully so as to not fall in the water below.  When he was about half way across, he heard a train coming.  He was terrified and started to speed it up.  In those days, there was no space to step aside – he had to get across that bridge!  As he picked up the pace, he started to pray.  Of course, he did not have time for a standard prayer, he just prayed as he walked and then ran.  In simple words, he asked that the Lord would help him to run and to get across before the train arrived.  He knew that the Lord was blessing him as he was able to speed up and to finally run.  He got across and jumped to the side just as the train arrived and sped past.  This taught him the power of prayer and he has been eternally grateful that he was watched over that day