LAKE MOSES WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1985. 1:OO AM
I rolled and tossed in bed, feeling uneasy about our son John and his family who are missionaries in South Africa. PRAY! the command I sensed was urgent.
Now I am wide awake sending passionate pleas to heaven. Please Lord, help John and Sandy and their girls, protect them if they are in danger.
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, FRIDAY MAY 24, 1985 10:00AM, THE SAME TIME THE PRAYERS ARE GOING UP IN WASHINGTON.
John and Sandy and their two daughters are in their car on a day off, driving through the bush looking for elephants. Look elephants, Sara saw them first. John climbs onto the window and looks over the car’s roof to get a better view. But even using a telephoto lens he is too far away to get good pictures. I’m going to walk down toward the river he says, well the girls and I are going to stay in the car Sandy says as she locks the doors.
Stepping on to the trail John watches for snakes as he heads for the river, John shoots photos of a huge old Bull with his tusks nearly touching the ground as he stands guard. John hears a low rumbling that sounds like thunder. He looks up and down the river but sees nothing unusual, but feeling uneasy he puts the cap on the cameras lens and turns back toward the car.
As he heads for the car he sees a terrifying sight at least 200 hundred huge, dry, thirsty, elephants! The rumbling that he had heard was their running for miles across the dry bush. Racing through Johns mind are the pictures that he has seen of uprooted trees and overturned cars in the path of angry elephants. He remembers a seasoned missionary telling him to never stand between thirsty elephants and their source of water, he remembers being told that they become violent if their access is threatened, but right in the middle of the path to their water are John and the car with his family in it. Dust swirls as the elephants stop for a minute on the crest of a hill, the herd and John are about an equal distance from the car, he hears his family screaming as they realize the danger. John runs as fast as he can through the grass no longer worried about the snakes, he is half way to the car when the elephants charge, as he reaches the door the first of
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