I had gone to the interior parts of the island of Mindoro for ministry. I had a great time with the people of a very isolated village. When it came time to leave I was told that someone would come for me at 3:30 AM. I was waiting as an ox cart with a tired old ox pulled up to the thatch covered hut I had been sleeping in.
Off we went at a walking pace for three hours. Coming to a small and very quiet fishing village. I climbed out of the cart and onto a bangka. A bangka? That is our hand made fishing canoes. We sit very low in the water and slowly moved up the coast of the island never very far from land. Dolphins joined us from time to time for a four hour very pleasant ride. As I watched the dolphins play I leaned over maybe to far and my watch disappeared into the sea.
We soon came to a dirt runway where I was to take my third form of transportation back to Manila. However, the manager said the plane had not been there for three days and he didn't know when it was coming. There were five or six of us that decided to travel an hour or so to another village where we might get a boat across the straits to the island of Luzon.
Off we went on my fourth form of transport. This was a jeepney that had long seen its last days but was defying time and moving on. We rode through the dusty roads to the village. Sorry, we were told. No boat today. However, not far from here was another village and we might get a boat to take us to Luzon.
By the time we reached the last of the villages it was getting late. However, there was a boatman who agreed to take us for a price. Our group had grown to about 15. We paid and began to board another form of transport. The 15 of us and a couple of boatmen was way to many for this bangka. The more people who got in the lower in the water we sank.
It was dark by now. There was no running lights on our bangka and the engine didn't sound to good. It was an old diesel engine that threaten to quit every few minute. No problem, I was told.
Off we went to cross from the island of Mindoro to Luzon. For you who know, running in between islands of the Pacific are what are called rivers in the sea. It is very swift moving waters that would carry any object out into the open Pacific never to be seen again.
A storm had developed and why not? Everything was going in that direction. As we moved out from the safety of the shores of Mindoro the waves begin to pick up and soon every wave would sweep totally over our bangka. It was as dark as a dark night could get in the midst of a storm. Not a light on the sea and not a star in the sky.
The engine begin to cough and threaten to give up. We knew that if it did the current of the river in the sea would carry us out into the Pacific. I later heard several stories of this happening and people were not heard of again. This was great.
A man and I sit huddled in the front part of the bangka. Fighting the waves to no avail. I am not sure what he was doing but I was praying. I mean really praying. I came to a decision in the middle of this darkness that it was all over. I wondered what Sue would tell the girls. I wondered about a lot of things. Strange had your thought are different at times like this.
As I prayed I looked off into the darkness of the storm and saw a pen head of a light. I wasn't sure if it was real but focused in on it. I told the Lord. If He care anything about me at all please take me to that light wherever it may be. As eternity came and went the light slowly became larger. After some two hours we broke free of the river currents and entered the calmer waters of the shore of Luzon. The light was the most precious light I had ever seen. I wanted that light.
We soon floated into the village of this light and I somehow got off the bangka and staggered to a dilapidated but wonderful old bus. The driver was a maniac and drove with strange abandonment. Never mind. I was getting close to Manila. He dropped me at an intersection murmuring something about he was not going any further. I managed to get a taxi. It was about three in the morning. He took me to my little home that had become the most precious sight of safety I had ever known.
My beautiful wife opened the gate in that early dark dawn morning and I stood and held her for a long, long time. Twenty three hours ago I had gotten on the ox cart. Travel can be so interesting in this part of the world. Thank God for little lights.
Off we went at a walking pace for three hours. Coming to a small and very quiet fishing village. I climbed out of the cart and onto a bangka. A bangka? That is our hand made fishing canoes. We sit very low in the water and slowly moved up the coast of the island never very far from land. Dolphins joined us from time to time for a four hour very pleasant ride. As I watched the dolphins play I leaned over maybe to far and my watch disappeared into the sea.
We soon came to a dirt runway where I was to take my third form of transportation back to Manila. However, the manager said the plane had not been there for three days and he didn't know when it was coming. There were five or six of us that decided to travel an hour or so to another village where we might get a boat across the straits to the island of Luzon.
Off we went on my fourth form of transport. This was a jeepney that had long seen its last days but was defying time and moving on. We rode through the dusty roads to the village. Sorry, we were told. No boat today. However, not far from here was another village and we might get a boat to take us to Luzon.
By the time we reached the last of the villages it was getting late. However, there was a boatman who agreed to take us for a price. Our group had grown to about 15. We paid and began to board another form of transport. The 15 of us and a couple of boatmen was way to many for this bangka. The more people who got in the lower in the water we sank.
It was dark by now. There was no running lights on our bangka and the engine didn't sound to good. It was an old diesel engine that threaten to quit every few minute. No problem, I was told.
Off we went to cross from the island of Mindoro to Luzon. For you who know, running in between islands of the Pacific are what are called rivers in the sea. It is very swift moving waters that would carry any object out into the open Pacific never to be seen again.
A storm had developed and why not? Everything was going in that direction. As we moved out from the safety of the shores of Mindoro the waves begin to pick up and soon every wave would sweep totally over our bangka. It was as dark as a dark night could get in the midst of a storm. Not a light on the sea and not a star in the sky.
The engine begin to cough and threaten to give up. We knew that if it did the current of the river in the sea would carry us out into the Pacific. I later heard several stories of this happening and people were not heard of again. This was great.
A man and I sit huddled in the front part of the bangka. Fighting the waves to no avail. I am not sure what he was doing but I was praying. I mean really praying. I came to a decision in the middle of this darkness that it was all over. I wondered what Sue would tell the girls. I wondered about a lot of things. Strange had your thought are different at times like this.
As I prayed I looked off into the darkness of the storm and saw a pen head of a light. I wasn't sure if it was real but focused in on it. I told the Lord. If He care anything about me at all please take me to that light wherever it may be. As eternity came and went the light slowly became larger. After some two hours we broke free of the river currents and entered the calmer waters of the shore of Luzon. The light was the most precious light I had ever seen. I wanted that light.
We soon floated into the village of this light and I somehow got off the bangka and staggered to a dilapidated but wonderful old bus. The driver was a maniac and drove with strange abandonment. Never mind. I was getting close to Manila. He dropped me at an intersection murmuring something about he was not going any further. I managed to get a taxi. It was about three in the morning. He took me to my little home that had become the most precious sight of safety I had ever known.
My beautiful wife opened the gate in that early dark dawn morning and I stood and held her for a long, long time. Twenty three hours ago I had gotten on the ox cart. Travel can be so interesting in this part of the world. Thank God for little lights.
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