Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.—Psalm 50:15
As new Alliance international workers, my wife, Andi, and I—with our two college-age children—were driving home from our vacation on a mountain road in Washington state. We were due to depart for the Taiwan field in a week.
It happened so fast. Skidding on black ice in the falling snow, I lost control of our car, which careened across the road into the opposite lane—providentially, there were no oncoming cars. Our vehicle hit a guardrail and rolled twice downhill. Before I could put my thoughts together, I heard Andi shout, “Jesus, save us!” Our car was instantly blocked by a tree and stopped rolling; if it hadn’t, we would have wound up in the icy river below.
An Ever-Present Help
Thankfully, none of us were hurt, and all our luggage was intact—even a carton of eggs we had in a cooler survived without a single crack. Andi cried out to the Lord again, “Jesus, send people to rescue us!” At that moment, our daughter, Abigail, said, “Mama, someone’s coming.” Our rescuers had seen what happened and bravely traversed the treacherous mountain road to pull us out of the car through the rear windows, which were shattered by our luggage.
Just as Andi was about to call someone from our church to pray for us, her cell phone rang—it was a close friend and minister, who passed on our message asking the congregation to cover us in prayer until we were safely home.
While we were totally helpless, not even knowing where we were, God knew everything that had happened and provided the help we needed. How He loves us!
We have since arrived safely in Taiwan, convinced more than ever that we are protected by unseen but powerful God. He also used this experience to prompt us with a fresh urgency to share the gospel with others so they will cry out to Him for salvation during their times of crisis. We are looking forward to fulfilling the unfinished mission God has appointed to us.
Pray for us during our first year of learning the Taiwan culture and the Alliance mission strategy from our coworkers and the Taiwan Alliance Church Union (the C&MA in that country). Pray also for us to discern God’s leading for our long-term ministry.
by Jason and Andi, Alliance international workers in Taiwan