The Day of Trouble

Jamie Buckingham's book, Into Glory, tells the story of the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service, known as JAARS, the “flying arm of Wycliffe Bible Translators.” He begins his account with missionary aviator Ralph Borthwick, who was transporting a team of Gospel workers into the mountainous jungles of Peru. When Borthwick took off from the Wycliffe base in Yarinacocha, the weather was fine and the weather reports favorable. But suddenly, almost without warning, he was swallowed up by the worst storm he had ever seen.

Curtains of water cascaded over the plane, leaking in around the canopy and panels of the fuselage. Turbulence shook the little, single-engine amphibian so hard it seems rivets would pop out. There was nothing but static on the headset, and the rain got worse, like someone turning on a fire hose to the windshield. Borthwick felt as if he were in a submarine rather than an airplane as water spewed in from every seam and crack, drenching both him and his instrument panel. Then came hail beating against the windshield like bullets. At the worst moment, the engines failed. Apart from the pounding rain and the howling wind, there was nothing but silence. The droning of the engines had stopped.

As Borthwick struggled to regain control of the aircraft, he suddenly remembered the verse he and his wife had just read the day before at their breakfast table - Psalm 50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”

During all the time of his emergency, Ralph realized he had not yet called on God. Now, with death seemingly only seconds away, he began to pray: “Father, if You still have work for me and my passengers, please bring on the engine.”

At once, he thought of something. He had not yet pulled the little handle that would shut off outside air to the engine, the carburetor heat. He tried to dismiss the thought, for that wasn't something one would normally do in an emergency. But the thought came to him with force, and he reached down and jerked the carburetor handle, at the same time pulling back on the stick.

With a mighty roar the engines screamed to life. Borthwick shouted, “Praise the Lord!” and, at literally the last second, he pulled his plane out of the dive. Ralph Borthwick lived to fly again.

In 1812, Adoniram and Ann Judson sailed from Massachusetts as America's first foreign missionaries. Then ended up in Burma where they suffered many heartaches and privations. On one occasion when Adoniram was imprisoned and sent far away, Ann followed with their children. She found her husband imprisoned in an old building without a roof, chained to other prisoners, and almost dead.

She herself had nowhere to stay, but the jailer allowed her and the children share the tiny hut where he lived with his family. For six months, Ann living in these primitive and almost hopeless conditions. Then she caught smallpox. Just as she was recovering from that, she contracted one of the tropical diseases that were almost always fatal to foreigners. She became so weak she could hardly walk, but with her last ounce of strength she set out for a nearby village to obtain medicine. She returned in a state of extreme weakness and exhaustion.

Shortly thereafter she contracted spotted fever and could not move. During this time her husband was placed in another obscure prison where she couldn't find him, and even the food she sent him was returned. She later wrote:

"If I ever felt the value and efficacy of prayer, I did at this time. I could not rise from my couch. I could only plead with that great and powerful being who has said, “Call unto me in the day of trouble and I will hear, and thou shalt glorify me.” God made me at this time feel so powerfully this promise that I became quite composed; feeling assured that my prayers would be answered."

The power of that verse carried Ann Judson through her darkest hours. If you're in storm or sickness today (even just in a little turbulence) remember Psalm 50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”