A missionary and his wife and another sister had been visiting some natives in a place some miles from their mission station. It was at the close of the day, and now they were returning home. Their little Volkswagon sped along the jungle road. The sun went down and darkness came on.
Suddenly as they rounded a bend, they found themselves confronted by a herd of elephants. Slowing down they beeped their horn, hoping the great beasts would move out of their way. But the elephants had no such intentions. The beeping of the horn only roused them to excitement and anger, and the forest rang with the din of their loud trumpeting as they thrashed about among the trees.
Inside the little car the missionary and the two ladies prayed, asking the Lord to protect them as they waited in fear in the midst of the melee. One big elephant mother and her baby remained on the road in front of the car. Fearful lest her baby should be harmed, the enraged mother approached the vehicle in which the three sat huddled in fear. When she found she could do nothing to this enemy, she brought her great trunk down with a resounding thump on the top of the car. Several times she did this, and then she tore off the door handles and bumper guards; in fact, anything that would come off. Then with her great trunk she pushed the Volkswagon on its side and turned it over several times off onto the side of the road.
But a cry from her baby deflected her from punishing the intruder any more, and a few minutes later she disappeared along with the trumpeting herd into the darkness of the forest. Happily, the missionaries were not hurt, except for a few bruises, and the car could still run. Pushing it back on its wheels again they took off along the jungle road and arrived home safely.
When they got home they told of their hair-raising experience, and the natives marveled at their escape for, said they, “When an elephant sets out to destroy something, it does not stop until destruction is complete.”
That night the missionaries thanked God for sparing them from harm and death.
Someone said to me, once, “I wish I could be as happy as you are.”
“You can be if you want to be,” I replied. She said, “I know, but I can’t trust Him.”
“I trust Him, and I know hundreds of others who trust Him, too. The Lord Jesus is the only One who ever loved me so much as to die for me. How can I not trust Him?”
ML-04/02/1978