Jesus has been protecting me since I gave my life to Him in my early teens. This was in spite of me not fully understanding my commitment and I let the world pull me away from Him.
It was in 1987 when I decided to go with my boyfriend to work on a kibbutz in Israel. I was 19. We’d been living in London and wanted a complete change of life and having the Kibbutz as a base we then had a way to see the country. After we left we continued to travel a bit of the world while we were still young and had no commitments.
We worked and travelled for a good part of that year and before we left, we took a bus down into Egypt for 10 days. The sites were incredible even with the heat and backpacking around with no comfort much it was still amazing. We were nearly a week in when after visiting Luxor I ended up with Dysentery after eating a dodgy meal. It was so severe I ended up stuck in a hotel bed for a few days in Haquada. The room was over 100 degrees with no air conditioning, no fly netting at the broken window so I was prey to mosquitoes, and I counted 110 bites.
After I stopped vomiting repeatedly my boyfriend went to get me some food and saw a fellow traveler who we had met in Cairo. She was a nurse and kindly came to my room to examine me. She told us I seemed very dehydrated but the local hospital was pretty awful so I would be best to go straight back to Cairo to a decent hospital to get checked over. We decided this was the best idea as I was very weak and felt really vulnerable so wanted to be back at the Kibbutz.
The next morning, we grabbed our things and left but as I was walking slowly towards the bus stop, I suddenly passed out collapsing in the street. The hospital was miraculously right behind our hotel, so he carried me there and I spent a day in the filthiest hospital I’ve ever seen on a glucose drip. There was dried vomit on the floor, no window netting so flies over everything, and the toilet looked like a bomb had been detonated in it before someone had flushed. It was truly disgusting and as soon as my strength returned we left gratefully. By this time it was early evening and I walked shakily out of the hospital still feeling weak but definitely a lot better.
We had decided to still try to go back towards Cairo that night, but we didn’t have a clue where to stay. We had done the trip with spontaneity in mind so just stopped at hostels along the way. As we rounded the corner, we saw the last bus of the day waiting at the bus stop. We only had to walk for a few hundred yards, and we tried waving at the bus to wait but as I took a step forwards, I felt my legs freeze up. I stared at them in confusion I just couldn’t budge an inch.
The bus engine started, and my boyfriend was shouting at me to move. He began trying to drag me plus our 2 large back packs, but I was frozen to the pavement and as he pulled, I collapsed on the ground. He kept asking what was wrong as the bus was clearly about to leave but I had no clue and despite trying I just couldn’t move and was on to my knees on the concrete in tears. It was like someone had suddenly taken away all my mobility and no matter how hard I tried to move my body wouldn’t budge.
We watched in frustration as the number 55 pulled away and once it was too far away to catch, I found I could move again. I stood up feeling movement return and both bewildered at what had just happened we walked to a nearby café trying to decide what to do. Sitting with a cold drink a while later another couple came in enquiring where they could book a taxi to another town as they were headed to Cairo so feeling really relieved, we chatted and agreed to jump in with them. They were staying at a hostel in a small town then going on to Cairo the following day then the border, so we thankfully decided to team up.
It was a few hours ride, so after chatting for a few minutes to the friendly driver still feeling wiped out I soon fell asleep. I was woken a couple of hours later to the sound of the taxi driver shouting excitedly and pointing out into the desert. He was shouting
“God has favoured you.”
Staring Into the darkness we could see a huge fire just off the road. As we slowed down, we all gasped in horror realising it was actually a large vehicle. It was a bus. We stared at the scorched number on the front. It was the number 55. It was our bus!
We stared in shocked silence as they had lined the bodies in a row nearby that they’d manage to pull out before the fire got too intense. The taxi driver went over to speak to the men standing with the dead. He told us the bus suddenly lost control veered off the road and crashed. No one had survived!
We sat in silence the rest of the way knowing that if my legs hadn’t collapsed, we’d have been on it. We would almost certainly have died. When I admitted to my parents on my return home the details of the incident, she told me they had both diligently prayed daily for my safety on all my travels.
Isaiah 43:2
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
We were just having a discussion about praying for protection and this really makes the point!
To God be all the glory for His protection.
Truly you two were favored by God
It was shocking to read such a story
Wow, what a testimony of Divine Mercy. He surely has more plans for you two. And I guess it's some service to the people around you.