(Including vehicles, machinery, weather events such as droughts, floods, fires etc).

Deanne Guild, when in Rhodesia 1974

Haggis, myself, Rosie Bond, Joan and Helen Stride were travelling home from the 1974 UAFC Easter convention in Pretoria.

Haggis was anxious to get home after someone rear-ended us in his father’s Peugeot and delayed our journey home by a few hours.

With evening shadows falling on us around the Ngundu Halt area before the Chiredzi/Triangle turnoff, Haggis changed our right front tyre that had blown, only to discover our spare was almost flat.

Hence, we found ourselves anxiously limping along at around ± 15 kmh, in an area there had been terrorist attacks, and the army later ran protected convoys.

Seeing Haggis’s anxiety, but being on a spiritual high myself after the convention, I knelt over the front seat to huddle in earnest prayer with the girls in the back.

While still praying, Haggis, who had continued driving at a limp, burst with excitement and called our attention to the right side of the car lifting.

Haggis, excited but a little unsure of what had just happened, stopped the car and kicked the now hard tyre in unbelief!

We continued our journey in high spirits, Praising God!

We continued to Fort Victoria, where on arriving at a service station, we surprisingly found the tyre as flat as when Haggis changed it near Ngundu Halt.

For me, the flat tyre at the service station was confirmation that a miracle had taken place, and we hadn’t imagined the tyre was flat at Ngundu Halt, Haggis confirmed this as well when he stopped to kick it.

Deanne’s testimony shows that:

1. God can do extraordinary miracles, unexpected and inexplicable, to protect His children.
2. God simply does not answer to our logic. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” we are told in Isaiah 55:8,9 and experience shows that to be true.
3. God assures us that He does things with a greater end in view than what we think in those same Isaiah verses. “As the havens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
4. God uses scripture to assure us that He is in control, even when the things He does appear to us to be illogical.
5. God calls us to have faith in Him and His hugely superior capabilities, regardless of our circumstances or understanding. He can mysteriously pump up a flat tyre to enable His kids to travel safely through terrorist country, and then let it down again when safely is reached!

Harvest Youth Group, Marlborough, Salisbury, Rhodesia

Harvest used an old dilapidated VW kombi that did many thousands of kilometres over the years without engine trouble. It was a wonderful servant for the group and particularly helpful on outings and camps.

Petrol became in short supply in Rhodesia at times during sanctions in the 1970s. One incident is worth mentioning. Ivan Rudolph and Harvesters, had been out of the city in the kombi and had expected to obtain some petrol for our return, but there was none available in the farming area we had visited. Ivan should have made allowances for this situation but had been irresponsible. He remembers:

“We had to return in the dusk through a dangerous area because of the Rhodesian Bush War during which vehicles were ambushed, and I knew we did not have sufficient petrol.

“OK, we are going to have to pray our way home,” Ivan warned the youth, and they alternated times of prayer with anxiously looking out of the windows. Ivan switched off the engine and coasted downhill as much as he could to save fuel but knew they were many miles short.

After a while the petrol needle did not move but appeared glued to the bottom line. “Oh God, please don’t let us run out before we get back,” the Harvesters prayed fervently.

The kombi appeared to run on empty for quite a number of kilometres further than they knew it should, but to their great relief got them home just before conking out.

A friend of Harvest, Dr Kevin Martin, has a similar account during which he escaped from driving through a dangerous “ambush alley” after dark. He knew he did not have sufficient petrol and asked Jesus somehow to make up the difference. His car kept going despite the lack of fuel until he reached safety. He knew his car and its limits very thoroughly, especially because of scarce petrol. It kept going way beyond the fuel he had in it! In his situation, he wonders whether a strong tail wind that began blowing helped to answer his prayers?

These testimonies show that:

1. God can stretch resources to provide for Christians in response to intense prayer, even when they have been irresponsible.
2. God may employ a variety of methods to stretch resources, which we may or may not comprehend.
3. God operates out of another dimension and is not limited to our timing, or 3-dimensional logic, or expectations of cause and effect.

Ivan Rudolph, Mt Sylvia, Queensland, Australia

I held a Scripture Union camp below Mt Sylvia on Reg Crust’s property. Reg had built an excellent facility for Christian groups and the camp was both fun and informative.

The region, however, was suffering a terrible drought. Reg told me privately that if they did not get rain soon his crops would fail and the property would have financial problems.

Before leaving the campsite, we gathered to pray for rain for Reg’s property, although knowing that the weather reports said none was on the horizon.

On our return journey to Toowoomba, one student realised he had left important keys behind and implored me to return to collect them, which we did.

As we approached Mt Sylvia again, we were amazed to see dark clouds and rain falling down, right on Reg Crust’s property, and likely on nearby ones too!

An interesting upshot was an article in the local newspaper describing the unexpected storm, perhaps to encourage the farmers experiencing drought because the rain was too localised to hold out much hope for the nearby districts.

This “rain” testimony illustrates that:

1. God can answer corporate prayers for help.
2. God is totally in control of the natural world that He created.
3. God’s answers to corporate prayer for rain can cover a limited area and not be a widespread breaking of a drought.