writing letters in Vietnam | Stephen Nielsen

It took me about 20 years to finally finish writing Prayer A to Z (from 1992 to 2012). I won’t bore you with any of the details here. It would be too long even to try to summarize it. But if you will go to my blog, https://studyingprayer.com/, you will see not only a summary, but sections of the book itself. Most of the book is on the blog site—in short excerpts with just a few extra comments. I’ve gotten some very nice blog comments, and I have a suspicion that many have ordered the book, either the hard copy or the pdf free eBook version. Thanks to all who did.

Now in this post I will list all of the 52 chapters so you can get a good overview of the book. Then I will give you ten suggested uses of the book other than just reading it through.

All 52 Chapters of PRAYER A TO Z

Answers to Prayer
Aroma of Prayer
Authority of Prayer
Burden in Prayer
Confidence in Prayer
Definition of Prayer
Desire of Prayer
Earnestness in Prayer
Evangelism and Prayer
Failure in Prayer
Faith and Prayer
Fasting and Prayer
Forgiveness and Prayer
God’s Idea Prayer
Holiness and Prayer
Holy Spirit and Prayer
How to Pray, Part 1
How to Pray, Part 2
Importunity in Prayer
Intercession, Part 1
Intercession, Part 2
Intercession, Part 3
Jesus Name
Kneeling in Prayer
Length of Prayer
Ministry of Prayer
Necessity of Prayer
Obedience of Prayer
Possibilities of Prayer
Power of Prayer
Praise and Prayer
Praise and Prayer
Prayerlessness
Quietness of Prayer, Part 1
Quietness of Prayer, Part 2
Quietness of Prayer, Part 3
Quietness of Prayer, Part 4
Revival and Prayer
Specific Prayer
Survey of Prayer, Part 1
Survey of Prayer, Part 2
Survey of Prayer, Part 3
Survey of Prayer, Part 4
Survey of Prayer, part 5
Travail in Prayer
United Prayer
Vigilance in Prayer
Vigilance in Prayer
Word and Prayer
Xanadu
Yielding in Prayer
Zenith of Prayer

Ten Uses for Prayer A to Z

1. I suggest not reading it through as a regular book. The book is more like a textbook on the broad subject of prayer. But if you insist on reading it through, take your time and set some reading goals. You may even find it helpful to take some notes as you read in terms of application so you don’t get lost in the weeks.

2. Sunday School teachers or Bible School Teachers to use it as a text book for a class on prayer.

3. Use it as a comprehensive personal or group study on prayer. Its 52 chapters would make an excellent weekly year-long study. But some would prefer to lengthen it to a two-year study. Two pages of reading a day would take you through the book in two years.

4. Use it as a source book. It’s a great book to have handy setting on your shelf for any questions that may come up. The alphabetical table of contents will be helpful.

5. Use the pdf version as a good concordance. I have found that the pdf version is very helpful to look up key words or scripture references anywhere in the text. It is especially helpful if you are studying a particular prayer subject and want to see all the places in the book it has been mentioned. I offer the pdf version free.

6. Use for daily devotional reading. Besides your daily bible reading, Prayer A to Z may stimulate some good devotional thoughts.

7. Use as a character study. I would begin by using the pdf version to look up all the occurances of a particular character, like Moses or Daniel. You could also go to chapters 40 through 44 and check out the prayers of those characters.

8. Use it to study all the prayers of the bible from chapters 40 through 44.

9. Use it to start a prayer ministry. A good start would be to read chapter 26 in this book.

10. Use to improve your prayer life. Start by reading chapter 1 on Answers to prayer, then read any other chapter you see that you think would be helpful.

This is me writing a letter. “Dear mom, I’m getting ready to go out on patrol. Please pray.”

Contrary to what some people probably think about the Vietnam war, we weren’t always in battles, fighting for our lives. There was actually a lot of down time in-between patrols. And as I remember, our platoon commander was fairly easy-going and didn’t give us a lot of extra duties; just the necessary things like outhouse duty, consisting of burning and dumping the sewage barrels.

During most of my down time, I wrote letters. Most of the guys didn’t do that so much, but I would write at least one letter a day. My pen pals were mainly my mom, a man from my church, and about three or four different girls. Now don’t get me wrong; I’m not some kind of a lady’s man. I was just trying to stay somewhat sane, and I guess I liked people (girls) telling me that they were thinking of me and praying for me. At first Joy, the one I was so crazy about in high school, would write me quite often. But after about 3 or 4 months, she didn’t write quite so often. I actually felt relieved, because I didn’t feel that our relationship was right—of the Lord. Then this other very young girl (about 14 years old) started writing me and even sending me packages of cookies, etc. As I wrote previously, she got my address in Stars and Stripes, a military newspaper. Anyway, she wrote me very consistently all through Vietnam and sent goodies. What a ministry she had to me. I remember witnessing to her and she actually became a Christian, but I’m not sure how that happened or what influence I had on her. After I got back from Vietnam and was discharged, I went to visit her and met her mother. I was praying that maybe we could make a connection (a date), but it never happened. I wish I could remember her name. The other couple of girls that I wrote, it wasn’t as often, but I was glad to get their letters and their appreciation of my service.

Sometimes I would join in a game of cards. We always played the same game. I think it was called “back alley.” It was fun and helped to get our mind off of whatever was bothering us. Some of us were just bored. Some of us, like me, would almost rather be patrolling—doing what we came there to do.

Our meals came every day with the mail and supplies—from a helicopter. Generally, it was 2 C-rations a day. One meal consisted of a can of meat and potatoes or something similar, a can of some kind of fruit, a small can of crackers with a chocolate patty, and a small carton of cigarettes (about four in each carton). Every meal had cigarettes in it, so if you weren’t a smoker when you came to Vietnam, there was a good chance that you were a smoker when you left. I smoked for a short time, but not enough to give me the habit. Besides, I didn’t want to have one more thing to make my mom upset about.

Oh, each box of C-rations also included a heat tablet, some matches, a plastic fork and spoon, and a package of instant coffee. Some guys chose to eat their food cold, but I was more civilized and always heated mine up and made coffee too. I think Vietnam is where I got the coffee habit. Now the way I would heat my food up is to make holes in my empty cracker can, turn it over, and put the heat tablet under it. It made a great stove. The heat tablet we had for each meal would burn just long enough to heat up your food and make coffee. I really got to like C-rations. Mmm good! Can you tell that it doesn’t take much to keep me contented? Thanks to God, I seem to learn very easily how to be content in every circumstance.