In Matthew 20:28, Jesus promises to be with us "to the end of the age". In John 14:13, He promises that whatever we ask in His name, He will do it so that the Father may be glorified in Him.
Yet there are times when we as Christians feel as though God is not hearing our prayers. It's as if He's abandoned us and left us alone in our sufferings.
But has He?
In a recent interview with James Robison on Life Today, Ravi Zacharias gives this rather insightful answer to what he calls "the irony of prayer" - those dark times in our lives when our prayers seem to go unanswered:

You can watch the entire program here.

    "March 11th, 2011...The city was utterly destroyed. You have already heard of the accident of
    Fukushima first nuclear power plant. All the residents were forced to evacuate, and my church 
    members had to get on a bus without any belongings and sent to schools and gyms separately. 
    It's been hard to find out how they are doing. "

So writes Pastor Akira Sato, pastor of Fukushima First Baptist Church, near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.
You can read his diary entries here.
(The original ones are here. Be sure to click on the 'English' tab if you need to.)

Tim Challies has compiled some really memorable excerpts from Pastor Sato's online diary here.
Below is one of them:

    "March 18, 2011...The most miraculous thing to me is that I never get asked questions like ‘Why did 
    God allow this?’ or ‘I can’t believe in God. There is no God.’ From the 160 members I have been in 
    touch with, all I hear are words like, ‘God is great. I want to trust Him as I walk with Him from now on.’ 
    I marvel at the strength of their faith in the Lord."

Photos of the devestated area surrounding the church are uploaded here.