I WILL GUARD YOU WITH MY EYE:      John’s Marvelous Safeguarding

Tukiran our hospital driver agreed to drive our car, a Jowett Javelin, God ’ s amazing gift on graduating, to Blitar for routine maintenance.     He would like company and we agreed that John go together with him.      Mother proceeded with her home-schooling; while I consulted in our Hospital.   

Hours later, John stood at the door of my consulting room, white, shocked and trembling.   

I hugged him, ‘ Are you all right, son? Yes, Dad, I am all right but the Jowett is in the river. ’

I felt him to ensure thee were no broken bones.     Yes, he was intact.     He needed fluid, some nourishment and hugging.    We thanked God he was safe.     ‘ John what happened? ’

‘ Dad, on the way home, Tukiran drove ferociously at 130 km /hour (80 mph) .     I shouted to him, Tukiran,   'slow down'.    Daddy would be so cross.     He refused to slow.    They came to the single track over a succession of 10 rivers.     Each bridge had a steel framework, except the one where Tukiran swung on the wheel to avoid a truck driven wildly toward them.    The car turned through the side of the bridge where bamboo lacing had replaced the steel framework.     The car rolled onto a sandy surface , skidding across the wide river and resting on the bank on the other side.'   

John climbed out readily, but Tukiran was dazed, barely conscious and   deeply shocked.   

Only ‘ miracle ’ can describe our Father’s gracious hand on a loved one.       Incredibly, the slide hardly scratched the paint work.    The wheel alignment needed slight adjustment.   

 I hugged John, knowing that the Lord had skillfully safeguarded him.     We thanked our dear and mighty God for His protective care.     We did not know that one day God would recall John to Java as an agriculturist and theologian.

Tukiran was admitted to our hospital deeply shocked, unconscious for several days.     He could not respond normally: until I assured him that I was not angry.    I forgave.     He speedily recovered.   

  When I examined the rivers, I was dazed to find that each flowed from the volcanic Mount Kelut.      All of which were deep, and all contained rocks up to100 tonnes.     All except the one where our car had skidded.      I never learned how the steel framework-had been replaced by bamboo, sufficient to allow a car to slide through in a split second.    Only God could arrange that at 130 kms per hour   (30 metres per second).   One river out of ten had a sandy surface.    

 Our population exceeded 600,000 and the word scattered like wildfire that the God of heaven had protected our son.    Contrasting, a local pilot in an air force Kitty hawk crashed into a palm tree.    

God used that event to give us increasing acceptance among the locals.   

You can well imagine the animated family discussion that night as we shared with each of our dear ones, that they were precious in God’s sight,   for God had called us ( Mother/father ) not our children to 3 unforgettable years In Java.     And he was shielding them.   

John reminded me of a decisive factor in this saga.    He had remarkably just written of the same incident in a CMS article on praying for missionaries.     Mother subsequently wrote to New Life, on her manual typewriter, the account of John’s reprieve.     This prompted a letter from a man of prayer in Tasmania, whose rheumatoid Arthritis restricted his every movement.     On that morning he had a deep inexplicable, urge to pray for our family.     He poured out his heart in intercession for us in Java, sensing urgency, yet knowing nothing of our circumstances.      

Never dispute when God’s Spirit lays some one, a group or a nation, on your heart.      

Pray intently.    Safety or life may hang in the balance.   

Had not God said, ‘ Before you call I will answer, and while you are yet speaking I will hear! ’

 These adventures moulded our personal faith and of our dear children in an unchangeable Lord.