St. Matthews Church of Tulsa, Okla., sent a mail piece to our house this week outlining how God is doing great things through prayer.

The envelope was filled with religious messages, both front and back. As it was opened, the first thought came to mind was, “How much do they want, and what’s the catch?”

Another thought, how many of these missives arrived in Bainbridge mailboxes this past week, and how many responded to it with a gift from the wallet, since it wasn’t addressed to any particular person, only “resident.”

The letter also contained a magic prayer rug to which instructions were to kneel on the rug and pray, or place it over a particular hurting place on your body, and pray for the pain to go away.

Now, one knows that inside a regular No. 10 envelope, it would be difficult to stuff a rug, but this rug was special. It was made of paper, neatly folded within the confines of the envelope. The letter stated that “God’s holy blessing power is in the enclosed anointed prayer rug of faith we are loaning you to use.”

See, the idea is to use the rug’s power on yourself, put the rug back in the return postage envelope along with a donation, so St. Matthews Church can send this powerful magic rug (made of paper) to someone else who might need it.

“Dear … Someone Connected with This Address,” the letter began. Along with the return of the prayer rug, you get to choose from 16 prayer selections that the folks at St. Matthews Church will see to it that your wishes are fulfilled.

Among the things you can check off on the list include: A new car; a money blessing; a home to call my own: a better job; stop a bad habit; a closer walk with Jesus; my health or family members health; less confusion in my home.

The last check-off item stated: (here it comes folks) Enclosed is my seed gift to God’s work of $__________.

If you are not convinced this magic prayer rug will bring you riches, also included in this mailing is a two-sided sheet of testimonials. One is from Sister Y, who stated the results of her prayer rug request, and down to her last $50, resulted in receiving $46,886.20 that got her out of debt. Sister Y said she asked God to send her more money, which she would use to help others.

Then there’s L.B. She said they sent in the prayer rug, and God sent them $10,700, enough money to buy a new car.

Mrs. T.F. writes, “Our Lord has blessed us with a big six-room house.”

A.B. in Tennessee received $10,390.32, A.P. from the same state received $24,750, and A.H.W. of New Jersey received $3,000.

The thought occurred—Hey, does this thing really work?

Does the bank of God really send us money?

As a heart patient, I figured, what the heck, let’s give it a try. Let’s ask for the heart of teenager, free of plaque buildup and other stuff. Placing the prayer rug over my chest, and reviewing the prayer selection check list, my selections included: better health; better health for everyone in my family; a new car; and a money blessing. Aw, what the heck, let’s check the sheet for all the 16 blessing and see what transpires.

At the check-off slot where it said to send in a seed gift, I wrote in “$1,” refolded the prayer rug into the return postage envelope, but since I didn’t have a dollar bill, threw in a dollar in loose change.

Stay tuned. We’ll let you know if the power of the rug comes to our house. If Sister Y can receive more than $46,000, why do we need the Georgia lottery?

Jim Smith is a former editor of The Post-Searchlight, now retired with nothing better to do but read all the incoming mail that in year’s past was dumped unopened into the trash. Old age has its rewards.