This is a true story that happened at IPS, Legon, in the late seventies. On the eve of an important examination, the lights went off at IPS campus as students were doing their usual last minute studying and revision and the desperate students felt they needed a diversion for their rage at the darkness. As they pondered what to do, one student suggested that they break into the female dormitory and rape the girls. The Christian students heard of this diabolical plan and knowing the students were definitely going to carry it out, they quickly mobilized themselves into one lecture hall and began to pray that God will avert the tragedy that was about to happen to "the sisters." One student who was not regarded as a very serious Christian walked into the meeting late and asked what the prayer meeting was about. When he was told that they were praying for God to stop the boys from attacking the girl's dormitory, he said to them, "This is not the time to pray." And then he dashed out of the prayer meeting straight to the girl's dormitory. He got there just in time; the boys were almost at the door leading to the dormitory. He barricaded the door with his body and said, "You will have to kill me first before any of you can enter this door." The boys tried to intimidate him into giving way but he would not move. And he began to mention the names of those he could make out in the dark and as he did so, the boys began to back off. They were afraid that if they went ahead, this boy would give them all up. So, this one "chrife" student, who refused to hide behind prayer, single-handedly saved the girls of IPS from being raped by their male counterparts. This story came to mind when I received a mail from a young lady called Eunice in reaction to my presentation on how to tell a fake man of God. In her mail, Eunice made the point that people don't go to these fake men of God because they do not know they are fake but because they feel overwhelmed by their problems and will go anywhere and to anyone who promises relief without caring how that person delivers the relief. She also made the point that we feel overwhelmed because we are raised to be dependent¬ minded and to have a victim mentality and so we always want to hide behind spiritual issues and powers. Now, let me make it clear that I am a chrife man, not a very good one but one nonetheless. I believe fully in prayer. But I often get bothered that many people simply hide behind prayer, visit prayer camps and refuse to do even the little they can do for themselves. It reminds me of an encounter I had with my staff when I was head of marketing and sales for a Christian bookshop in the eighties. We had hit a slump in our sales. Instead of analyzing the causes of the fall in sales and taking remedial steps, some of the staff came to me and requested passionately that I close down the bookshop for a week so that we can go on a retreat and pray for God to turn the sales around for us. I was, of course, bothered by the fall in sales and I was on the day they came to me fasting and praying for divine intervention but I was at the same time working hard to find the reasons for the fall and to find what I can do to turn the situation around. As it turned out, the reasons for the fall were simple; some of them we could do something about and others we could not do anything about. First, the fall in the value of the cedi had made our books, which were all imported from the US, more expensive. Second, the workers in the bookshop were not providing the kind of customer service needed. And third, we had run out of some of the fast moving titles. Once we brought in the right titles and raised the quality of our service to our customers, sales revived and even exceeded previous years' figures. And we had turned the situation around because I had refused to hide behind prayer but had intensified both my prayers and my work to get the results we needed. I have always aimed at praying as if everything depended on prayer and worked as if everything depended on work. And this is my approach to life because I have discovered that, at least in my case, God does not do for me what I can and should do for myself. For instance, when I was writing the exams of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, when I did not prepare adequately before presenting myself for a paper, I failed it no matter how much I prayed and fasted for a pass. When I produced "Mr President Your Move" at Christ the King, I worked with a wonderful cast and we worked very hard to get the play and the performance right but the publicity was poor and even though we prayed fervently for great attendance, we never got it because God did not do what we could have done ourselves. I do not think that I am the only one God refuses to do awam for. We need to be strong and determined to work hard and pray hard and then the results will come. If we hide behind prayer alone, we set ourselves up for disappointment, disillusionment, and worse of all; we make ourselves potential victims of fake men of God. So, in addition to praying for an improvement in your marriage, do some soul searching and ask yourself what you are not doing right and ask God to help you become the spouse you need to be. If you are not getting that promotion, by all means continue to pray but evaluate your attitude and your performance and see if you were your boss, whether you promote a worker like you? If you are childless, by all means continue to pray but seek medical help in addition to increasing the frequency of sexual intercourse with your spouse. And if still a child does not come, look into the possibility of adoption and stop feeding fake men of God by jumping from one prayer camp to another. If you are jobless, by all means continue to pray but look for opportunities to serve even if it is for no pay. And if you serve well, you will not serve without pay for long. And instead of spending all day in prayer meetings, make time to go round dropping applications and CVs. Sooner or later, you will be called for an interview. And if you are called for an interview, make sure you are ready. If you are a woman and the men are not coming, by all means continue to pray but stop spending all your time at church and begin to take another look at the way you groom yourself and at your attitude and behaviour. It is possible that what is driving the suitors away has nothing to do with things spiritual. It is amazing what miracles can occur when you upgrade your dressing and appearance and improve your attitude. But if you are doing all that and the men are not coming, don't despair; just remember that God's plan “A” for our times is for us to remain single. You may be one of the blessed ones he has decided to set aside for his glory. I believe that if we all took responsibility for our lives even as we leaned on God, we will find that our prayers are answered more frequently and more powerfully and then we will not become victims of fake men of God.