Jack
McGuckin of Wycliffe Bible translator’s Jungle Aviation Service was on one of
his first missionary flights in Peru. The mission director had a rule to build
good relationships with the authorities: “Always cooperate with the government
people whenever possible. We are in their country by permission, to preach the
Gospel. So be courteous!” This sometimes meant that they would do things to
please the leaders that they might not be comfortable with, as long as the action wasn’t
a morally compromising request.
Jack
faced one of those moments. A sergeant had captured an ocelot and wanted Jack
to deliver it to an army officer at another base. He had placed the South
American panther in a huge wicker basket. The sergeant exclaimed, “The tiger
cannot possibly escape from the basket.” So Jack begrudgingly loaded the ocelot
into the plane, along with supplies for other mission stations, some chickens
and turtles.
After
Jack was steadily flying three thousand feet above the Peruvian jungles, chaos
erupted in the back of his plane. The ocelot had broken free from the
“impossible to escape from” basket. The chickens distracted the ocelot for a
little while, but then the ocelot decided to focus on Jack.
Desperately,
Jack looked for a place to land while praying for help. He noticed a small
settlement and landed the floatplane on the water next to it. The men from the
settlement immediately helped him gain control and recapture the ocelot. Then, they thanked him for landing there. One of the villagers had just had a heart
attack and would die without quick medical attention in a hospital.
Something the villages did not have the capability to pull off. And Jack’s plane provided just
that capability.
Jack
thought, “So the Lord had a purpose in allowing the tiger cat to break loose.
God used a snarling ocelot and a scared pilot to get His plane to the right
place and save a man’s life.”
Without
the chaos in the plane, without the abrupt interruption to his plans, without the
fear to his life – or should I say – because of the chaos in the plane, because
of the abrupt interruption to his plans, because of the fear to his life, God
used Jack McGuckin to save a man’s life. When bad things happen, God things are
coming. (Story adapted from Missionary Stories with the Millers by Mildred A. Martin)
Paul
taught us that God will use all things for the good of those who love him. “And
we know that for those who love God all things
work together for good, for those who are called
according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 ESV).
This
isn’t just on the missionary field in Peru. This isn’t just some truth from
Scripture that is thousands of years old.
Recently,
I was blessed to hear Charles Recker speak to the Antwerp Rotary Club. Last
June, Charles, while checking on his farmland on his ATV, accidentally pulled
in front of Buick heading down the road at full speed. A full-sized car at full
speed hammering into an ATV is not a pretty site. Charles was flipped up into
the air, crashed into the windshield and landed on the side of the road.
Since
I already told you that I recently was blessed to hear Charles speak, you know
that he is doing well. Praise God for his healing. He had a full recovery after
spending much time in the hospital, receiving treatments, and going through
therapy. But the thing that stuck out to me in the telling of his story is the
story of the driver of the Buick that hit him.
Because
of the accident, the cuts she received on her face from the windshield
breaking, and the following treatment, the doctors discovered a cancerous tumor
that was previously undetected. They were able to treat the cancer and she was
fine besides a few cuts that needed healing. She was probably saved that day
from a tumor that would have remained undetected until it was too big.
Interruptions.
Accidents. Could they be God things? When bad things happen, God things are
coming.
