We had spent the weekend in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and planned to fly over to the city of Mayaguez. Our good friend, Dr Ivan Angel, was on a medical assignment there and had invited us to spend a week with them. Then I would go over to Haiti in a private plane with him for some medical work, while my wife, Kathleen, and our two daughters stayed with Mrs. Angel.
First we had to get to Mayaguez in the middle of a rainstorm. We had a flat tire on the way to the San Juan airport with nowhere to hide from the heavy rain. It turns out it was hurricane season, August and September. With the rain coming down heavy and all the suitcases in the trunk over the spare tire, I did not see how we could get the spare tire out. I yelled because of all the traffic going by. “Pray for us! We need a miracle.” Kathleen yelled back, “How about the 23rd Psalm!” I said, “Ok, but pray now!” Our prayers were answered. Even though the driver and I risked our lives, we were protected from the many cars flying by. The spare tire went on easily.
We arrived at the domestic terminal for Air San Juan, showed our id, then found there was no record of our reservations. I know they were made, as I did the booking myself. Sure enough, they found them, but now it was past boarding time, and the agent said the flight was full, plus there was no record of payment. We quickly put in a prayer to help us find a copy of the receipt. In the first side pocket we found the receipt. Quickly showing the receipt to the check-in counterperson she agreed it was right, but, again, the flight was now full and she did not think we could get on.
Back to prayer and the 23rd Psalm, “he leads me by the still waters. The waters were not still but, “please Lord, make the water still for us” as it was really coming down now! “Please Lord, don’t let us lie down in the green pastures. Let us get on the airplane!” Amazingly, they let us board.
But what about our luggage? Thankfully, because the flight was delayed, they were able to put the luggage on. After boarding the flight, we found they had overbooked by one seat. The last to get on was an airline employee and he was moved up to the cockpit jump seat so we all could go. The person who was bumped to the jump seat had no official i.d. But the captain realized he was a licensed pilot, so let him say up front.
The captain came on and said we were the last flight to be cleared for takeoff, because of the storm moving in. With a sigh of relief, we had a moment to pray and say thank you Lord for being our Shepherd and letting us get to Mayaguez.
From a quiet prayer of restoring our soul, to complete darkness, as we flew into a dense fog, we had the feeling of dropping down. Yet, we came out of the fog bank and were very relieved to see land. We were ready to thank the Lord when the captain came on to say that there was too much fog and we would not be able to land, but have turned back to San Juan. Well at least we had good plans.
We looked down and could see water. Not still waters but pretty good waves. I was holding my older daughter and Kathleen was holding our younger daughter. Kathleen said, “Are you worried?” I said, “No.” She said, “Then why is your face all wet?” I came back, “Of course I am worried!”
We were praying. As David says, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.” We weren’t walking. We were flying. Flying so low that the water was splashing off of our plane.
The water was splashing off our plane. The captain came on again to tell us that the San Juan International Airport was closed off, except they would let our plane land. “Be calm,” he said, “We have it under control.” We made two passes at the airport before landing on the third pass, due to the heavy wind and rain.
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me (us) all the days of my life (our lives) and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Jim Manning is a travel agent and one of La Sierra’s longtime entrepreneurs; he first came to the La Sierra University Church in 1962.