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Prayer Avails Much

Don Bond, Retired ABWE Missionary to the Amazonas

It was a six o’clock in the morning when Roma Wayne in Port Crane, New York, suddenly woke up and felt an urgent need to pray. “The Bonds! There’s something wrong!  Protect them, Lord!” 

At that very moment in 1960, I was traveling up the Amazon River in Peru with my wife Viv and our children on our small outboard river boat. We left the city of Iquitos the previous evening and traveled all night to begin our six-day trip up the river to our home in the small river village of Tierra Blanca. Viv and our four children were asleep in their bunks and several young people returning from youth camp were sleeping on the roof and in the boat we towed alongside. My youngest daughter, who had been born during our visit to the city, was just one month old.

The swift, fifteen–miles-per-hour current ran near the bank for a short distance. Since it wasn’t worth crossing a mile and a half to the other side of the river to stay away from the bank, I worked my way close to it. But because my boat, with its thirty-five horsepower outboard motor (the largest at that time), only ran fifteen miles per hour through the water, I had to soon get out of the channel. 

Suddenly, a tree fell in the water as the bank caved in a short distance ahead of us. I glanced at the bank beside us and thought how fortunate that the giant tree there hadn’t fallen, when I saw that it was in fact falling directly on us.  Since I was running full speed and had no brakes, I simply had to watch it fall. God so directed the tree that it fell on a fifty-five gallon drum of gas, which was on the roof of the boat that we were towing alongside us. The tree drove the steel drum through the roof, but the tree bounced off the back of the moving boat instead of plunging all of us into the ninety-foot depths of the river.

The ties were broken and the boats tipped apart, dumping into the water our personal effects and the passengers sleeping on the roof.  The family sleeping inside the boat, including our new baby girl, were thrown on the floor from their bunks and screamed in terror. My helper was drawing gas from the drum at the time and was driven deep into the water. Fortunately, both he and the passengers could swim and made it the short distance to the bank.

As the boats floated down the river, I got them tied securely back together and worked my way back up looking for the people in the dense jungle. It took three passes to see them in a small opening they were able to find. None of them, nor anyone in the boat, were hurt, although all were well shaken up. God had surely watched over us.

We returned to Iquitos to repair the boats and replace lost supplies. Three days later, we were ready to start back up the river. My wife Viv, who is afraid of the water and doesn’t like boats, wasn’t ready to try the trip again. Having a one-month old baby added to her fears. After three days of struggle, Viv got the victory over her fears and got back on the boat to continue our church-planting river ministry for many years.

Some months after this incident, we were in our home church in the United States, and Roma, who prayed regularly for us, invited us to her home to discuss some blessings. She shared how she had been burdened for three days to especially pray for us. She prayed in the night and during her household tasks. After three days the burden was lifted, and she knew that God had taken care of whatever the situation was. Weeks later, our letter came telling of the tree falling on us. She asked us why it was for three days that she was burdened, and we wondered also.

As we talked, we realized that the three days were from the time of the accident to Viv’s victory over her fears and ability to get back on the boat. The faithfulness of our prayer warrior made possible God’s release of His power and enabling of our ministry. “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16).

Read more about Don and Viv Bond.