The Hidden Intercessors of Egypt: They Prayed Until Victory!
There’s a proverbial saying: prayer is not really taught, it’s caught.
We learn to pray publicly through experience, hearing others pray, and being in the presence of those who possess a mature prayer life.
One of my great mentors in prayer, Lance Lambert (1931–2015) of blessed memory, frequently shared personal accounts from his early 1950s time in Egypt during or shortly after his Royal Air Force service.
He stayed in the missionary home of two elderly “prayer warrior” intercessors whom he called the “two old ladies” or “two sisters.” [I once heard another pastor say, everywhere he went in the world, he always found two things: Coca Cola and a little old lady preaching the Gospel!]
How great! I love God’s ways! These “little old ladies” greatly impacted and helped to mold the prayer life of a man whom I considered to be a giant in intercession. Lance was also a great orator as a conference speaker and later resided in Jerusalem where he often spoke at our prayer conferences.
Lance had a very dry British sense of humor when describing the methods of these little old ladies who mentored him in prayer.
They received calls for prayer all over the Mideast and then cried, “Battle stations!” and energetically went into combat—believing prayer—using the armor of God until they sensed victory was assured.
Lance described them as a powerful example of hidden, costly, corporate intercession that could shift history.
Auntie Alex (sometimes Auntie Alexandra) was an Estonian-born missionary who had lived in Egypt for 40–50 years by time Lance became acquainted with her.
She arrived in the early 1900s–1910s and was connected to missionary work (possibly linked to groups such as the Egypt General Mission).
Aunty Ella was her prayer partner, and together they formed a dynamic duo focused entirely on intercession.
They lived and ministered from a little missionary home in Port Said, Egypt (a key port city in the Nile Delta region).
Lance recalled his deep appetite for Bible study developing there, in intensive sessions with the little old ladies after breakfast.
He called them “walking Bibles” for their exhaustive, Spirit-illuminated knowledge of Scripture. He participated in Bible studies with them, which he described as “tremendous.”
Lance observed that despite being “retired,” the ladies were far busier than most younger people.
They received urgent phone calls for prayer from across the region—Baghdad, Algiers, Casablanca, Benghazi, Tripoli, Beirut, and throughout Egypt—and would immediately enter extended, intense sessions.
Lance likened their back-and-forth prayer to a nonstop “tennis match,” persisting until they sensed a breakthrough:
One would ask, “Are we there?” and the other would reply, “Not yet…” before continuing in prayer.
He also compared their prayer actions to soldiers at a “gun emplacement,” actively engaging in spiritual warfare to “shoot down” opposition.
Their commitment was sacrificial—one sister suffered severe asthma attacks, and the other would pray her through the night so they could continue their calling the next day.
Auntie Alex’s prophecy: When a young, somewhat arrogant Lance asked how many persons she had personally led to the Lord in all those decades, she held up five fingers (roughly one soul every ten years).
She then prophesied, “There will come a day when thousands upon thousands of Muslims will come to the Lord.”
Lance lived to see this fulfilled due to the extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Muslim world, and he often shared it as proof of the hidden power of intercession along with visible evangelism.
Their style of persistent, authoritative, Spirit-directed corporate prayer strongly echoed principles from another hero of mine—Rees Howells (Welsh intercessor and founder of the Bible College of Wales), whom Lance often referenced in his teachings—emphasizing total surrender, travail, spiritual warfare and faith that praises before seeing results.
While there is no direct evidence that Auntie Alex or Aunty Ella ever trained with Howells, nevertheless their ministry embodied the same costly, history-shaping intercession.
Lance often used their example to encourage believers that unseen prayer is one of the highest callings and can birth revival.
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