A Snake in a Camp: A Legendary Mission Story!

This story is about a mother, a grandmother, a little baby boy, a deadly king-cobra snake, and a little old

lady 10,000 miles away! It all begins with a mother and a grandmother making an agreement. The mother in our story was preparing to go away to be a missionary in Africa.

At the time, there was no internet, or cell phones, and it often took over 3 months to deliver a simple letter. So, the mother and the grandmother agreed if anything important or out of the ordinary happened in their worlds, they would immediately put it in writing with dates and times and mail a letter to the other.

Fast forward almost four years and countless letters and we get to the next character in our story. This young missionary family had been serving for four years now and had experienced many adventures as a missionaries in a far off land. These adventures included giving birth to a baby boy in Africa (yes it is the baby boy in our story). They had decided to take a short vacation to a nearby campground before heading back home to America at the end of their four year term.

One scorching hot afternoon, not long after lunch, mom and dad lost sight of the baby (as he was walking now). After a few hectic moments of frantic searching the father noticed the boy round the corner into the "latrine"... that is missionary speak for bathroom. The father rushed to retrieve the boy and as he rounded the corner into the bathroom immediately saw it. . . yes, this is where the deadly king-cobra enters the story! The snake was raised up, fanned out, and was actively striking at the two-year-old, ominously spewing it's venom. The father, with no regard for his own life, quickly swept in and rescued the baby from it's imminent demise. After a thorough examination, they determined the boy had not been struck by the deadly fangs of the Cobra, but it had gotten the highly poisonous venom in his eyes. Remembering the anti-venom, the father asked for a cup of milk and they rapidly washed the screaming boys eyes to safely remove the venom. Thankfully, the boy survived the attack without any serious or lasting injuries. As you might imagine, this was a rather out of the ordinary story, so the mother immediately committed it to writing and sent a letter off to the grandmother being careful to include the dates and times as they had agreed.

Some of you may be asking at this point, where does the little old lady 10,000 miles away come into our story. Well, I'm so glad you asked. Back in the Ohio, there was a little old lady who 20 years prior to this incident, had been driven to church by the grandmother and her husband who was pastoring a small church. At the time, the mother in our story was only a teenager. Late into the evening (around 2:00 am) the little old lady was awakened from a deep sleep and had an impression to pray for Ruthan Fisher and her family (if she had one). It took her several minutes to remember... who is Ruthan Fisher? After a time she recalled, Ruthan was the teenage daughter of the preacher and his wife who had picked her up and taken her to church 20 years ago. She knew she had only one option, so she fell to her knees and began praying for Ruthan Fisher and her family (if she had one). The next morning she woke up and began calling around to find Ruthan's mother (the grandmother in our story) to relay her unusual story and to ask about Ruthan. When they hung up, the grandmother immediately sat down and committed this unusual account to her daughter hoping the letter would arrive before she returned home from her missionary term in a few short months!

By now, you have probably guessed. When the two letters arrived, the dates and times of our story matched up perfectly. At the very moment the deadly King Cobra had reared it's head to strike the baby boy, the little old lady was awakened over 10,000 miles, and 12 hours of time difference away to pray for Ruthan Fisher (the mother in our story) and her family, if she had one. Her faithfulness is very significant to me! You see, that baby boys name was James Curtis Burchel and his mother's name was Ruthan Fisher! It is possible in God's providence that were it not for the faithfulness of a little old lady (who remains nameless on Earth, but not in heaven) I may not have been here today!

One final sidebar: You can read this and other GREAT stories in my mom's book called African Creeks I've Been Up . Click the title for a link to the book on Amazon.