Hanging at the Well
A Testimony to God's Grace
Chapter 27: Angelic Encounters
These chapters began as a sharing of the miracles that I believe God has brought into my life and the events that have led to where I am today. I would be remiss if I did not include a chapter on our encounters with God’s heavenly host. You need to know that I believe one hundred percent in the reality of these servants. Here is why.
The first known encounter came just after we had resigned from Kingman Christian Church (chapter fifteen). We had resigned before we had any idea of a future ministry and/or income. About two weeks after our last day at the church there was a knock at our door. I opened it to see a big black man who introduced himself as a pastor from Nigeria. He said he was passing through town and needed help for the evening. My thought was that we barely had the money to get our family through December (i.e. Christmas). I apologized to the man and gave him the address of the Assembly of God pastor, a close friend who lived around the corner (about five houses from us).
As I closed the door to the Nigerian pastor Hebrews 13:2 came to my mind. “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” I immediately threw open the door to call the man back but he was gone. It had not been ten seconds and he was no where in sight. I walked up and down our street; there was not a soul to be seen. The next day I asked the AG pastor if the man had come to his house and he had not. I am thoroughly convinced I flunked a test.
My second known encounter came while ministering in Glendale. We had many people stop by the church asking for help. So it was not unusual when a young man came in one winter day asking for a coat. He was just passing through, but how did he get to our church which was nine miles from the freeway? I had turned down many requests or sent them to the community assistance people (which our church supported). However, something about this young man touched me. I stopped what I was doing and took him to Goodwill and bought him a coat. Then he asked if I would take him to the freeway. As he got out of the car at the Circle K near the freeway Hebrews 13:2 came into my mind. I looked into my review mirror and there was no sign of him. He had not had time to get into the store, and I looked in every direction. He was gone, disappeared into mid-air. I sat there and thought, “Thank you, Lord. I passed this time.”
Encounter number three took place in June 1993 in Kherson, Ukraine. We were on our second missionary short-trip. When we arrived as the new pastor of AFCC this trip was already in planning and as I mentioned in the last chapter, the elders insisted we go. When we arrived in Kherson we were assigned to stay with a young lady who had just been baptized the week before. Oksana lived with her mother and grandmother in a third-floor apartment that was only entered through the alley. Her apartment building was only about five blocks from where the church was meeting.
On our first Sunday there we walked to the location where the new church was meeting. However, when we got there we realized we had forgotten some materials that had been sent for the Kherson church. I volunteered to go back to get it. Dressed like a typical tourist – fanny pack around my waist and camera hanging from my neck, I headed for the apartment.
Not far from the church I noticed a man was following me. We were the only two on the sidewalk. I slowed down and he slowed down; I sped up and so did he. I knew I was in trouble, especially when I turned off the main street into the alley. I prayed, “God, I need an angel!” I no sooner got the words out of my mouth when the man stopped dead in his tracks. It was like he had run into something. He had a frightened look on his face and hugged himself with his arms, then ran across the street and back the other direction.
I have often wondered what that man saw that morning on that Kherson sidewalk. Whatever it was he was obviously frightened. I got to the apartment, gathered Peggy’s materials and returned to the church without seeing another person.
During our first mission trip to Kenya, Larry Niemeyer rescued me at least three times as I looked to the left before crossing the street, there were no cars coming so I stepped off the curb. However, in former British colonies the traffic comes from the right and Larry had to watch that I did not step in front of a speeding car.
In February 2005 we were in Thailand working with Ahtapa Sinlee at the Asian Gospel Outreach Training Center which houses a hostel for sixty-five young people who have come out of the mountains to attend school. Every day they load into the back of a pickup and head nine miles down the mountain to school. One afternoon I rode with Ahtapa to pick them up and he dropped me off at the internet café while he ran some errands. After he had gathered the children from their three different schools, he stopped to pick me up.
Ahtapa had parked the truck on the wrong side of the street and decided he needed to check his email. So, I stood at the back of the truck talking to the kids in their broken English and my charades. We were laughing about something when Ahtapa came out and with my eyes on the kids and still laughing I stepped around to the truck’s passenger side. Suddenly something hit me in the chest and pushed me back. I remember thinking, “What in the world?” But, no sooner was I back behind the pickup when a speeding van zoomed by. I stood at the back of the truck trying to make sense out of what just happened. I had felt what to me was undeniably two hands shove me out of traffic. I finally got in the truck and just set there. I must have had wide eyes or something because of the way Ahtapa looked at me. I said, “I am trying to process what just happened to me.” I told him what I felt and saw. His only comment was, “Someone in America is praying for you this very minute.”
So, you ask me, “Do I believe in angels?” Is there any other explanation for what I experienced? Yes, I do believe in angel. There is one other incredible story, but that will take an entire chapter.
Chapter 28: Our White Angel
Even some of our closest friends don’t believe this story, but we swear to its truth. I have submitted it to both “Guidepost Magazine” and the TV program “It’s A Miracle.” However, both declined it.
Our “Angel,” as we chose to refer to him, showed up in our Glendale, Arizona carport on Thanksgiving weekend, 1982. He was a pure white German Shepherd that apparently had been abandoned in our neighborhood. When we opened the door, he walked right in. We put up signs advertising that we had found a dog, but no one claimed him. Our son, David, named him “Sheik.” Little did we know that before he died of cancer in June 1993, he would save us twice – that we are aware of. Many people believe the first story. It is the second where we get the reaction, “Well, if that’s what you want to believe.” Had we not seen it ourselves, we might also be skeptics.
The veterinarian told us Sheik was approximately a year old, malnourished and had hip-displacia (which is common in German Shepherds). He said that the hip problem was probably the reason he was abandoned. The doctor also said, “I believe this dog is part Arctic wolf.” We loved to go camping and Sheik loved it more than any of us. He was pure poetry to watch in the woods. He would run and jump like a spirit set free. However, when it was time for us to hike, he had to lead the way. He seemed to always have a sense of where we were going. Therefore we did not use a leash as he never wondered or chased a squirrel.
In August 1984 we backpacked into Dinky Lakes in California’s High Sierras mountains. Peggy had made Sheik his own backpack (if he had hip-displacia, he never showed it). He carried his own food and dish. On our second day, my oldest son and I decided to fish at one of the upper lakes. We studied the map and decided to cut across country. While we sat and fished, Sheik explored and slept. We lost track of time and realized it was getting dark. I told Dean that we needed to take the trail back to camp because it would be too dark to find our short cut. We went up to the trail (on which we had never hiked). I believed that our camp was to the left and started that direction. Sheik quickly ran in front and tuned and faced me. I said, “Let’s go boy. Take us to camp.” As I started walking Sheik refused to go. He ran back the other direction but I insisted I was right and started walking. Sheik, our gentle angel, stood in front of me, bared his teeth and growled. I said, “Maybe he knows something we don’t.” We decided to follow him and he led us straight to camp. It was dark when we arrived. Had we gone my direction we would have been walking the opposite direction from camp.
Two years later our family went camping to our favorite Arizona spot -- Woods Canyon Lake. We owned a van with captain seats in front and for as long as we owned that van Sheik’s place was between to the two front seats. We had spent a week at the Spillway Campground and broke camp about noon to head down the mountain. In those days, the road between Phoenix and Payson, AZ was a winding road that hugged the side of the mountain on one side and was a cliff on the other. As I drove out of Payson, I noticed that everyone was already asleep. I started getting drowsy but fooled myself into believing I was alert enough to drive. I nodded off. The next thing I knew the van radio was blaring full blast. I snapped awake and looked at my wife. She too was now awake. I said, “Why did you do that?” She said, “I didn’t. I thought you did.” I looked at Sheik who was sitting up staring at us and a strange sensation came over me. I reached over and turned off the radio (it had to be twisted rather than pushed). As soon as I did, Sheik reached up with his teeth and turned the knob back to “on.” Neither Peggy nor I could speak. I turned the volume down and drove alert.
During the next seven years of his life, Sheik never again touched the radio. Had he not touched that radio that one time all six of us would have perished that day. We truly believe God sent our family an angel that lived with us for eleven years. Who knows how many times he saved us from perils unknown to us.
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