THE LORD IS IN CONTROL

I have written about Michael Dawson, the missionary who works in the Amazonian jungle of Venezuela. Since the government forced Mission Aviation out of the country (by threat of confiscation of the aircraft) the lives of the villagers, and the missionaries, has become much more difficult. Although promised by the government, there is seldom air support for medical emergencies and several have died of malaria or snake bites.

Getting supplies like food and fuel to the village is also difficult. Brother Michael just sent an email describing his recent trip with supplies upriver to the village. He was concerned because frequently the military at the checkpoints just take whatever they want.

Let him tell the story:

It was after 2 PM when we finally got to the port and while backing up to put the boat in the water, a guard started toward me, oh, great, here we go, I thought, ("oh ye of little faith") when he got closer, I recognized him as one of the guys that had been stationed at Cosh (RT - the village) last year. We chatted for a bit, then he said, 'Where are you going?' I told him I was headed home. "Could you do me a personal favor?" He asked me next. "My lieutenant is here and has to get back to his post in Puraname before tomorrow. He sent me down here to find him a ride. Could you give him a ride?"

I quickly ran through the list of stuff I was taking to figure out what I could leave as with the amount of fuel we have to carry to do a trip like that is substantial and weight is a big problem. "Yes, I told him, I can take him."

Smartest thing I ever did. At every guard outpost, he went up and got the papers stamped himself. I never even had to get out of the boat! as we were dropping him off about half way home I was worried about the two guard posts that were still up river and we still had to get through when the lieutenant asked me if I could take one of his solders on up to Las
Esmeralda. That is the last check point! So not only did God give us a good trip, He gave us a military escort the entire way!

There are some bad rapids on the river, and there are places where there are wild whirl pools. We were approaching one such place and all of a sudden, I became aware of a speedboat coming at us hard from the Colombian side of the river. With out warning the boat approaching us suddenly veered away as hard as they could. About then, I remembered the lieutenant and his guard in the boat. (Yes, my lieutenant somehow became a lieutenant and a guard of his, plus all the food for his command!) We had to leave 25 gallons of gasoline (RT - at the last checkpoint) just to get the boat up on plane, but again well worth the loss as I am pretty sure that the reason they veered away so hard is they saw the military escort and decided we were not worth the trouble. I am convinced this whole trip was a huge answer to prayer!

RT - You can see the Lord takes care of His own. May His name be praised forever.