Category Archives: Miracles

Miracles

The Backpacker’s Miracle.

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The young man got off the plane in Auckland with his back-pack, not knowing which way to turn. He only had five days in New Zealand and all he knew was that he would like to see the Bay of Islands and have a day or so on a farm.

So he turned to the north, and caught a bus to Kerikeri. Whether he made his travels a matter of prayer or not, I don’t know, and some would call this a mere coincidence, but we prefer to call it a miracle, or perhaps even more so, a matter of the Lord honouring those who honour Him.  After all,  how many young back-packers carry a large Bible around with them and take the time out of a tight schedule to go to church in a strange country?

It was the summer holidays at this time and as we usually did, we were spending the time on our yacht (sail boat)  in the Bay of Islands. We always made a point of attending a small church fellowship in Kerikeri while on holiday and this particular Sunday morning we went there as usual. We saw this tall young man sitting at the back of the church carrying a large Bible with him…by the look of his clothes we guessed he was an American, and when we heard him speak all doubt was removed!

Our friends invited him as well as ourselves home for lunch, and we had a lively discussion over the meal. When he told us about the two things he wanted to see while in New Zealand, we looked at each other and then told him that we could probably point him in the direction of both of them at no cost if he liked.

He did like, and so he came back with us to the yacht and stayed a couple of days with us. We were able to take him to all the popular tourist spots, and my, how we did talk! We talked well into the night about Christian things.

Dave Nissan     Dave at the wheel of the yacht.

There were many things he wanted to know that we were able to tell him and we all had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

When he left us, we got in touch with our brother on his dairy farm and sent him there for another day or so. So this was a case of the Lord granting him his desire in a way that could not have been engineered in any other manner! He came as a stranger and left as a  brother. As far as he was concerned his whole visit to New Zealand was one big miracle!

We kept in touch for many years and the spin-off was that we were able to pay a visit to the town in Oregon where he had a tourist business, and he gave us a wonderful and memorable trip on one of the lakes in his area.

 

Miracles

Angel Unawares.

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Charlatan“Quick”, I cried to Howard, “Bring me a pillow!”

I put it under my moaning husband’s head. He was bleeding profusely from a cut in his head and in a lot of pain, although still coherent.

We had been  with Howard and Jill who were on holiday from London, taking them  around the Bay of Islands in Northern New Zealand in our sailing yacht. On the trip back to the mooring  Keith let Howard steer  the yacht while sailing.

Heading up the channel, the wind was coming directly behind us. The sails were set to the  “goose-winging” position with both sails on different sides of the yacht. It was tricky keeping the wind full in the sails while doing this and Howard accidentally let the wind out of one of the sails. It then swung sharply across  the cockpit track taking the halyard with it. This caught Keith on the side of the head throwing him sharply onto the  gunwales .

Jill and I were inside packing things ready to go ashore, and  didn’t see what happened. Hearing Howard call out, I rushed outside thinking that the boom had caught Keith on the head, which is always a danger. But Keith was able to tell me what had happened and then said to  pull the sails down, and motor in to the mooring. I did this while Howard kept steering towards the mooring. My mind was racing ahead. What should we do first?

The radio wasn’t working, so there was no point in wasting time there. Completely forgetting that it was a Friday and a working day, I sent Howard ashore to the end house in the bay with a message to ring Colin who lived up the hill. The time was 4.30 p.m. He would have been home on a Saturday (which I thought it was), but the man in the house knew quite well that it was Friday and that Colin would be at work.  So he sent Howard back to tell me this.

Just as Howard turned to go down the path a car pulled up at the gate, and there was Colin!  What a miracle this was! He was the only one in the area who we knew could help us, and he hurriedly came out to the yacht with Howard to see what the problem was. By this time, Keith wasn’t with it and the pillow was saturated with blood. Colin grasped the situation immediately and called the coastguard from his own yacht , asking that an ambulance be sent  to the bay straight away.

The ambulance finally arrived, with two women manning it. My heart sank. How ever would we get Keith ashore and into it like he was? The tide was now high, and Colin took our yacht in closer to the ramp, with only a short distance to row ashore. Somehow we manhandled Keith’s limp body into the dinghy and then ashore into the ambulance .  I went with Keith while Colin put the yacht away.

I wasn’t sure whether Keith would come through or not. A doctor to met us on the road, and put some plasma into him to keep him going. This helped somewhat, and he started talking a lot of nonsense! At the hospital, nurses met us at the door and gave Keith a blood transfusion, which revived him immediately. He couldn’t see why he shouldn’t be able to go home with the rest of us!!  Howard had followed the ambulance to the hospital in our car, and we drove home marvelling at the way things had worked out.

Later we asked Colin why he had been at the bay when we needed him. He said it had been a slack day at the office and he thought he would go home early and take some money he owed to the man at the end house. He would have left the office at the very time that Keith had been hit! It amazed us how God used  circumstances so that even a non-Christian man  worked His purposes for us. Colin was truly an angel in disguise whether he knew it or not!!

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Town and Around

Going too Fast!

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    It was a lovely sunny morning after a few showers during the night. I was heading off to a ladies’ meeting at our church that weekday  morning and  set off gaily down the hill in our faithful little red Toyota. I enjoyed driving and the feeling of having everything under control.

I had been in the habit of taking the hill fairly fast, and this time was no exception. At the bottom corner, I noticed a vehicle coming towards me and realised I was cutting the corner more than I should have been.  I swerved back onto my side of the road properly and as I did, the car got out of control. It swung violently this way and that before doing a complete turn around  and shot across a wide ditch coming to rest against two large trees. All I was conscious of was a gentle thud as the car landed.

I was a bit dazed for a moment, trying to take in what had happened. The car was facing the wrong way!  I didn’t feel hurt anywhere, and there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the part of the car that I could see. There were no broken windows and the air bags hadn’t gone off.  I gingerly tried the door which opened normally and I got out. I  looked around at the car and there were no marks on it anywhere until I looked at the wheels. Then I could see that  two tyres had been torn off by the impact.  It was incredible!

As I looked around, and saw the deep ditch I had  gone over, I could only be convinced that the angels must have picked the car up and set it down carefully for there to have been so little damage done! The vehicle that had passed me, backed up to see the result. I asked him if he could take me back up the road to our house where I had to confess my sins to my husband.. He took it very well (after all what else was there to do?) and I phoned one of the ladies  to tell her that there would be no meeting for me that day!

We got into our other vehicle and went  down the road where hubby surveyed the position. His idea was that he could drive it out, but I was afraid the car would slide into the ditch (which was quite deep) and do far more damage. He tried, but the  front wheel had completely lost its tyre and had no traction. So he went back home and phoned a friend to see if he was around and  able to come with his 4WD to help.

After trying to tow it out, they came to the conclusion that it wasn’t going to work without some real damage being done to the car. So they went back to the house and got the endless chain (what a wonderful bit of gear that is!). They fastened one end to the fence post and the other to the car. Now  they were slowly able to pull the car out by hand.

Once it was safely out, hubby took the two stripped wheels to the nearest tyre place where they refitted new tyres on them. Our friend  stayed with the car on the side of the road until it was mobile again.

About ninety minutes after me leaving home the first time, the  small  red car came back into the garage little the worse for its adventures! There was just a tiny dent on the front mudguard to show it had had a hard time!

But later when I thought about what could have happened, I had cold shivers up my back.  I realised how fortunate we all were! And how gracious the Lord was to me in circumstances that were caused by my own fault! One thing I learned though, was to take that corner much more slowly after that!