A God Who Saves

by Charlene May Edan (30th Batch)

Strong winds and a long series of rainy days aren’t usual here in Korea. The weather has been gloomy for quite a while now and these days remind me of my experience in the Philippines when I was assigned as a missionary in Tanza, Cavite for a month while waiting for my visa in coming here.

I woke up earlier than usual one Saturday morning in October 31, 2009. It was a stormy day, since “Santi,” a typhoon, was dominating the northern part of the Philippines. It was the fourth typhoon that had hit and had been devastating the country in just a month’s time.

I felt scared as I listened to the sound of the strong, howling wind and looked at the trees waving back and forth and at the heavy downpour of rain brought by the typhoon. It was an awful sight. Actually, that was my first time to experience a typhoon since typhoons aren’t that common in Mindanao.

I felt sorry for the people who could be affected by that typhoon. I was glad that I was inside a two-story church building, safe and sound. I said my prayers of thanks to God that morning and closed the windows because the rain was coming in.

I was surprised to see my Korean partner, Baek Sung Gyung (Anna), sleeping so soundly on her bed just next to my bedding on the floor. I wanted to go back to sleep since it was really early. I tried hard but I just couldn’t, so I went outside to do my morning routine. It took me a while to return. But when I came back, I realized that the wind was blowing even stronger than before. It was blowing so hard that it threw open some of the windows in our bedroom, so I closed and locked them. Because it was still early, I decided again to go back to sleep.

But while I was heading to my bed, I noticed something that looked like a piece of Styrofoam, about 1/4 of the size of the mattress, covering the whole head portion of it. I was wondering what that was and where that thing came from. I started to look around and didn’t see anything unusual. But when I looked up, I found out then what had happened: The wind had blown in so hard that the metal frame holding one of the ceiling tiles in place gave in. Because of that, a piece of the tile fell straight down onto my bed. When I tried to lift it up, it was quite heavy, perhaps around 3-5 kilograms.

I was thrilled to imagine what could have happened to me had not God woken me up that early or if I didn’t listen to or obey His voice. I didn’t want to imagine the result.

“God has still a plan for my life,” I told myself.

I praise God for His great goodness towards me, for being so loving, merciful and gracious. I thank Him for preserving my life continually, not only once but for many times already.

Because of that experience, my heart was opened to a new meaning of Psalm 91, specifically verses 9-11:

9 If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.

God is faithful in keeping His promises. Let’s continually trust in Him Who knows what is to come and is the only One Who can protect and save us. Let’s listen and obey His voice daily as we live our lives.