Gamma Globulin Supplied

JORDAN RIVER

       Raging Jordan River at Flood Stage

Recently, we studied Chapter 5 of the book of Joshua in Sunday School.  We had a lively discussion on how God gave Joshua detailed instructions.  The Jordan river was at flood stage, but the Israelites were to cross it on dry ground.  And yes, they did cross it on dry ground.  Now, we in the West are not given to belief in miracles.  We are much like the doubting Thomas.  He had to experience what he would believe.  Persons of faith have what it takes to believe beyond their senses or sometimes, logic.  But sometimes even they have problems.  I want to think that I don’t, but to tell you the truth, if I were one of Joshua’s lieutenants and I heard the Lord’s instructions to him, I’m not too sure that I would readily believe it.  Cross the swollen river Jordan on dry ground?
                                                   

DON TURNS ORANGE                        

Young Missionaries to Central Java, Indonesia

In 1978, Don and I were serving in Indonesia as missionaries, living in Surakarta, Central Java.  We had a five-month old baby when Don came down with hepatitis from an infected needle.  Earlier he had caught the flu and went to a local doctor for a shot.  And one morning months later, his skin turned orange and his eyes were yellowish orange.  His urine sample was chocolate brown and our Merck manual (the standard missionary health guide), informed us that the incubation period for the hepatitis virus was 5 months and it had been that long since his shot.

GAMMA GLOBULIN SERUM

 

 

 

 

To protect the rest of the household from being contaminated, we needed gamma globulin serum.    We looked for it everywhere but couldn’t find it.  Our whole missionary community was helping us to no avail.  Then one day Mike, a Nazarene missionary, came to see Don and learned of our plight.  He was a ham radio operator, so he called George, his senior missionary in Jakarta, the capital city, to look for this serum.  On this same day, Ron, a missionary from the Christian Churches, was called to the US Embassy in Jakarta about his tax returns. He spent a couple of days in the city.  Meanwhile, George, found a doctor in the Italian Embassy researching tropical diseases. For some reason, he had the gamma globulin serum. George “happened” to have a scheduled meeting the following day in Jogjakarta, a city adjacent to where we lived.  He decided to hand carry the serum. On the day George found the serum, Ron was on a plane going back home to Salatiga, another city close to us. The plane couldn’t land because of heavy fog. It had to turn around and return to Jakarta.  (We have never heard nor experienced fog in the more than three years  we’ve lived in the island of Java.)  The following day, Ron took another plane.  Sitting next to him was George holding in his hands the thermos bottle with the gamma globulin serum. They didn’t know each other, but soon got to talking.  George mentioned that he had this serum to deliver to a sick missionary in Surakarta.  Ron was the only person we knew in our area who had a telephone, and he was involved intensely in our search for the serum.  And soon there he was, delivering the serum to us right on our doorstep. 

Could this be just a series of coincidences?  Or, did God do a miracle here?   What do you think?