AMAZING TRUE STORY OF ONE OF MY ADVENTURES ON A MOTORCYCLE!
AN AMAZING TRUE STORY OF ONE OF MY ADVENTURES ON A MOTORCYCLE!
WE WERE TOSSED INTO THE VELVET BLACKNESS OF THE NIGHT AS WE HIT AN ALMOST VERTICAL HUGE PILE OF GRAVEL! WE FOUND OUR SELVES WAY ABOVE THE GROUND ON A MOTORCYCLE IN THE UTTER BLACKNESS OF NIGHT!
To tell this story in it's proper setting I need to give you some background information. I had been to the Philippines multiple times reaching out to the indigenous people. The areas I went were considered to be one of the most primitive settings in the nation. When I go to the Philippines, I always worked directly with a Filipino Bible college in the province of Samar. I have been told that Samar is one of the most poverty-stricken parts of the Philippines and one of the most dangerous. Missionaries very rarely go there because of this. It is far away from all the modern conveniences of Manila. It is also inhabited by the New People’s Army which is a Communist movement. The NPA are extremely dangerous. I have personally known Philippine pastors who I have ministered with who have been killed by them. During my time in the Philippines the natives have allowed me to use their motorcycles to go up into the mountains to preach to churches in the boondocks.
Now, on one of my missionary endeavors I was just finishing up three weeks worst of outreach when the Spirit of God quickened my heart to ask them a strange question. I said to them: Where it is the most dangerous place to go to in this province?. They told me it was an island called Laoang. I asked him why? They told me that two American missionaries had gone to the island of Laoang, and had not come out alive. That the NPA had slit their throats as they were there. That there had been no missionary endeavor there for at least 10 years. As they told me this story, I heard myself say out of the blue: that I needed to go and take this place for Jesus. As I declared this bold statement to them, there was an amazing peace within my heart!
I informed them that the next time that I came back to the Philippines, that I needed to go to that island and preach the gospel. They asked me if I was serious. I said absolutely! I told them I would give them the money that they needed to make the flyers and posters to spread the word that we were coming. Before I left, I was true to my word, and I gave them the money that was necessary to print flyers to distribute to inhabitants of the island.
About six months later, I arrived back in the Philippines with one of the men from my church who is now a pastor in the Phoenix, Arizona area. When we arrived in the province of Samar, the brethren informed us that the Communists were aware of us coming and were going to be waiting for us. I did not ask them to explain to me what they meant. I absolutely had no fear in my heart. It is hard to explain to people what it is like when you are operating in a gift of faith. It is not normal faith. It is faith that makes you know that in Christ you cannot be defeated. In the operation of this faith there is always overwhelming peace. It is the peace of God that passes all understanding. The minute you lose your peace, you need to stop and asked the Father what is wrong. This is a major way in which God leads and guides us is by his peace.
Isaiah 55:12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
In order to get to this island, we were first going to have to go by land on a worn out concrete road that had been built right after World War II. We had to travel from Catbalogan City to the town of Catarman . Then from Catarman we continued our journey another 40 miles to reach our canoes that were going to take us to the island. Altogether the journey was hundred and 14 miles. Now this may not sound like a long-distance when it comes to traveling in America, but that is a long way on a rough Filipino road. We finally reached a river called the Pambujan River. To our dismay the bridge was out. They were putting in a brand-new bridge which they had only begun. So we had to take a long alternative route to reach another bridge to get across this river. This river was over 300 feet wide. (I only mention this because it's an important part of my journey on the motorcycle) We stayed on this road until it ran into the Philippine ocean. From there we took two large canoes. Each canoe had an outboard motor on the back of them. We would have to traverse on the ocean over a mile to reach Laoang.
After all of our equipment and the people were loaded into the first canoe I found myself up front at the very tip of the vessel. During this time there was great excitement and peace in my heart to see what God was about to do. I was optimistic of God manifesting himself on this island that had been shut off from the gospel for many years. I knew that God was going to have to perform miracles to keep us alive, and yet there was absolutely no fear within my heart, nothing but overflowing peace. As we were coming closer to the island, I could see that there were men lined up along the beach waiting for us. There was absolutely no fear in my heart as we approach the island. There is approximately 30 men who were standing there with guns and machetes in their hands.
The Filipino brothers who were navigating the canoes kept the engines of the canoes running fast enough so the canoes would drive themselves up a little bit onto the dry shore. As we approached the shore I was so excited that I stood up to my feet, getting ready to leap out of this canoe towards these communist. It had to be the spirit of God within me, because no sane man would leap to his death. I almost felt like George Washington's famous painting of him crossing the Delaware River.
The moment we hit the beach, I was up and out of that canoe. The Communists were standing there waiting to kill us. The Spirit of God, the gift of faith, the peace of God was possessing me as I began to walk towards them very rapidly. I headed right for the center of this crowd of gun toting and machete wielding communist. As I reached them something supernatural happened. It was like the Lord splitting the Red Sea, but instead of water it was men who had murder in their hearts. They separated from left to right and allowed our team of men to walk right through the midst of them.
We Held Our Meeting That Night!
That night we held a crusade right in the middle of the village. As our worship team was singing, the Communists and pagan religious people were marching through our meeting trying to disturb what God was doing. We simply ignored them and kept on with the meeting. There was a very large crowd that night, probably because they wanted to see a white man. It was very seldom when Americans or Europeans came into this area. The tourists flock to Manila and Mindanao. It had been 10 years since anybody missionary had even dared come to this island to preach Christianity. The last missionaries that had come they had murdered. Now here I was about to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. A message that saves, heals and delivers just like it did in the days when Jesus walked in his earthly ministry.
After the singing was finished, it was my opportunity to preach. It literally felt like the spirit of God was flowing through me like a mighty river of electricity and power. I preached under the unction of the Holy Ghost, not thinking at all what to say, but letting the spirit have his way. When I was done preaching, there was barely enough light to make out the crowd in front of us. They had lit some torches around the meeting area, trying to give as much light as possible. Because I could not get down into the crowd to pray for them, I had to speak the word of healing and salvation over them. I began to command their bodies to be healed in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Every time I would speak something in the name of Jesus, the interpreter would translate me in two their language.
Miracles began to happen the moment I said: In the Name of Jesus. One old lady who had been blind in one eye could now see. A little boy who had been deaf could now hear. It was too dark out for us to tell how many miracles happened that night, but to this day I have been told there is a thriving church there because of this meeting.
After this large meeting we were led to a two-story shack. The precious brothers we worked with had made arrangements for us to be put into a two-story house. We would be on the second floor, while they were going to be on the first floor. I know why they did this! They were going to make the Communists have to kill them before they would let the NPA get to us. These were the kind of men that would give their lives without hesitation for the sake of the gospel.
It was late by the time we went to bed. They gave my friend and I some type of straw mats to lie on. We threw these mats on the wooden floor, and tried to go to sleep. During the night, we could hear the Communists outside making a racket. The communist had surrounded our house with groups of men. They had started little bonfires around the house where we were staying as the communist sat or stood by their fires. As I went to sleep that night, I saw two large angels like pillars of fire in a dream with swords drawn standing over the top of the house we were staying in. When we woke up in the morning, it was very peaceful. And the Communists were gone.
Driving A Motorcycle at Night Through Communist Infested Area under the Influence of The Holy Ghost!
We had left the island in the morning, and we were now holding meetings in a town called Pambujan, which was about 19 miles away. God was moving in a wonderful way. The Philippine brother who was over all of the work in this area is named Danny. He also had two other brothers, Jonathan and Hurley, who are also ministers of the gospel. (You can friend them on Facebook if you like). I personally knew their father, Reese Monte's (who has since gone home to be with the Lord), who was an amazing man of God who was instrumental in starting over five hundred churches throughout the Philippines islands. The name of the organization was "Faith Tabernacle". These men are all apostolic in nature. If I understand correctly, Danny has been instrumental in starting over seventy churches. Now here I was ministering with Danny. Danny came to me late one night and said he was really homesick. He had never been away from his wife this long. We were approximately 32 miles from his home in Catarman. This may not sound like a long-distance to you, but believe me with the road conditions, the weather, and the communist it was quite a distance, especially if you are going to travel in the night. Actually in this area I never saw any vehicles out on the road after the sunset.
Now I had earned a reputation for being pretty good on a motorcycle. In all reality though I wasn’t very good on a motorcycle at all. It is simply that the Spirit of God would quicken me as I would take a motorcycle up into the mountains to preach the gospel to the natives. I’m kind of hyperactive, so in between Crusades and conferences.when everyone else was taking a siesta, I would find someone who was willing to go with me to interpret for me, and I would head up into the mountains.
Now we were deep into a heavily populated area where there was known to be anti-government radicals, Communists, the NPA, and it was extremely dangerous to be there and especially at night. Brother Danny came to me though one night asking me if I would be willing to take him home on a motorcycle that someone had drove who was on our team. It was a very rainy and foggy night. Now the motorcycle that was available was an old machine—I believe it was a Kawasaki 250. This motorcycle had some issues though. The headlights were very dim, and at times the shifting mechanism would fall off if you were not very careful.
When Danny asked me to take him home, the Spirit of God quickened my heart and said: take him. It was like when David had said he was thirsty for the waters of the well in Bethlehem. Three of his mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well in Bethlehem for David to drink. This quickening in my heart was so strong that without any hesitation I told Danny I would take him home to see his precious wife and children.
Danny informed me with almost a whisper that we must not stop along the way no matter what, because the Communists would be out in full force. He also said we would have to to be very careful because the Communists(if they heard us coming) would stretch a thin cable wire across the road in order to kill us. I saw a video one time where this is exactly what they had done, and it was captured on film. The motorcyclist was cut right in half. It was not a very pretty image. He also informed me that if they got their hands on us, we would be dead men. Even with this dire warning from Daniel, I had total and perfect peace. Actually there was a divine excitement within my heart to go on this journey. This is not something you can explain to a person who has never experienced the quickening, moving, empowering presence of the Holy Ghost.
As we began this journey, we had made one major mistake. We forgot that there was road construction all along the way, and that the main bridge was out. If we would have remembered then we would've taken the long way around. As it was we took the regular route that would've been the shortest route to Danny's home.
Now as I was driving the motorcycle, I could barely see where I was going. The rain and the fog was coding the shield of my helmet. The headlight was very dim almost nonexistent. I had to keep reaching up with my left hand to wipe my face shield to see where I was going. Danny was sitting behind me holding on tight as I was driving. I believe I was driving at approximately forty-five to fifty miles an hour.
After we had been on this rough construction road for a number of miles I thought that I could see something very dark and threatening in the pathway ahead of us. In my mind it seemed to me to be an enemy and waiting, and yet I had total peace. I should have slowed down but I just kept on going. The next thing I knew, Danny was yelling very loud in my ear with great warning, “watch out.” I yelled back at Danny: Hold on, we are going to go through it! Whatever this object was, we slammed into it doing about 50 miles an hour.
As it turned out, it was a very large pile of gravel and road material. We hit this very large pile of construction material which was almost vertically straight up. The bike without hesitation raced to the top of this pile of construction material and launched us up into the void of the night. During this event Danny took his head and put it underneath my left forearm, under my armpit. It turns out he had been in a terrible motorcycle accident before, and now he was trying to protect himself as much as he could from the disaster which was unfolding. In every scenario this was going to be a major catastrophe. Not only would would be killed or extremely hurt when we hit the concrete road, but then the communist would be upon us. There were no hospitals, or help that would be available for us. We Surely Were Dead Men!
Now here we were launched up into the darkness of the night. As I was up in the air on the back of this motorcycle, it the truly felt like I was just sailing through the sky like when I used to fly airplanes. During this experience I was supernaturally engulfed in an amazing bubble of peace and joy. I had absolutely no fear or anxiety whatsoever. I was operating in the REALM of the spiritual. It seemed like for the longest time we were not going to come down. We were suspended in the heavens. Of course we must've been sailing through the skies in an upward and downward flow. It was obvious when we hit the wet concrete roadway below us, that something would have to give. But when we make contact with the road, it was so smooth, so nonresistant, that it almost felt like putting on a pair of comfortable old bedroom slippers. This is the only way I can describe it. We did not skid, bounce, or slide in any sense of the word.
The only thing negative that happened when we met the road is that the gear shifter fell off of the motorcycle. We were stuck in the Top Gear as we headed down the road. We had to stop and go back and look for it. We went all the way back to the pile of gravel we had hit and started from the pile working our way out in order to find the shifter. I did not think to measure the distance of our jump. We looked and looked, and looked with the dim headlight of the motorcycle. By this time Danny was very concerned about the Communists seeing the headlight of the motorcycle and hearing it's engine running, so we decided to leave the motorbike in top gear and leave. As we were headed down the road at about four hundred feet away from the pile of road gravel, I saw something gleaming on the road in front of us in the rain. We stopped and there was the shifting mechanism! We put it back on the bike, and went our way. How far we flew through the night sky that night, only God Knows! Now if you think this sounds incredulous, weight two ye hear about the next part of this journey. Danny Monte's can verify every bit of this journey.
Over a 300' River, on Wet Slimy 18 inch Planks in the Fog, in the Night with the faulty headlight!
It seemed as if we had been on the road for long time when we finally came upon the river. This river was over three hundred feet wide. It was a very deep and fast moving river that flows into the Philippine Sea. We forgot we had taken another way to get to the village of Pambujan. The reason we had to take another way is because the bridge was out. I believe God’s hand was in this in spite of this very serious situation.
In the mist of the construction of a new bridge the workman had driven wooden pilings down into the bed of the river in order to create a walk-able system over the river. They had placed rough sawed planks upon these pilings. These planks were approximately eighteen inches wide and were loosely attached on these pilings. This footbridge appeared to be four to five feet above the river. These planks were extremely wet and slimy. I would not have wanted to walk on them in the daylight, let alone on a wet and extremely foggy night. To get to the beginning of the planks you had to go down a muddy embankment and back up a pile of dirt to get to the plank walk bridge. There was no way we could walk that motorcycle across this river.
When we found ourselves in this situation Danny said to me: “What are we going to do?” The Spirit of God rose up in me, and I heard myself say “Hold on Danny!” With that declaration, I started to rev the engine of the motorcycle! Before I knew what I was doing I slapped the bike into first gear, headed down the muddy incline, hitting the bottom, I headed up the other side. I was not thinking, simply surrendering to the divine quickening in my heart and in my flesh. Then I went up the embankment they had built to get to the planks. I came up the other side in first gear watching my front tire hit the first plank along this narrow pathway across the 300 foot river. I can honestly tell you that at that moment I was not thinking with my natural thinking processes. I was under the divine influence of God.
When I hit the first plank of approximately 30 planks with my front tire of the motorcycle, I shifted into second gear. I watched as my bike sailed across the wet slimy plank in front of me. I gunned the throttle as I continued to drive the motorcycle over the wet, slimy, loose planks—not slipping one time. If I would’ve gone to the left or to the right either way, we would have plummeted into the raging river, swallowed up into its strong current, never to be seen again. It was the Spirit of God that took us across that three hundred foot river in the rain and fog, on slimy wet 18 inch planks, over a precarious bridge that was only made for foot traffic during the daylight. I'm telling you that if I had not been there to experience this myself, I probably would not believe this story. We sailed across that makeshift bridge all the way to the other side without one mistake or mishap. To make a long story short, the Lord saw us safely to Danny’s house.
Years later I went on the internet to look at this river that we had crossed. The internet image had been updated in 2010. The new bridge that they were just getting ready to build at that time had been completed. You can see the alternative road we had to take as another route until the new bridge had been built. I am overwhelmed at the amazing things I have watched God do.
Danny informed me with almost a whisper that we must not stop along the way no matter what, because the Communists would be out in full force. He also said we would have to to be very careful because the Communists(if they heard us coming) would stretch a thin cable wire across the road in order to kill us. I saw a video one time where this is exactly what they had done, and it was captured on film. The motorcyclist was cut right in half. It was not a very pretty image. He also informed me that if they got their hands on us, we would be dead men. Even with this dire warning from Daniel, I had total and perfect peace. Actually there was a divine excitement within my heart to go on this journey. This is not something you can explain to a person who has never experienced the quickening, moving, empowering presence of the Holy Ghost.
As we began this journey, we had made one major mistake. We forgot that there was road construction all along the way, and that the main bridge was out. If we would have remembered then we would've taken the long way around. As it was we took the regular route that would've been the shortest route to Danny's home.
Now as I was driving the motorcycle, I could barely see where I was going. The rain and the fog was coding the shield of my helmet. The headlight was very dim almost nonexistent. I had to keep reaching up with my left hand to wipe my face shield to see where I was going. Danny was sitting behind me holding on tight as I was driving. I believe I was driving at approximately forty-five to fifty miles an hour.
After we had been on this rough construction road for a number of miles I thought that I could see something very dark and threatening in the pathway ahead of us. In my mind it seemed to me to be an enemy and waiting, and yet I had total peace. I should have slowed down but I just kept on going. The next thing I knew, Danny was yelling very loud in my ear with great warning, “watch out.” I yelled back at Danny: Hold on, we are going to go through it! Whatever this object was, we slammed into it doing about 50 miles an hour.
As it turned out, it was a very large pile of gravel and road material. We hit this very large pile of construction material which was almost vertically straight up. The bike without hesitation raced to the top of this pile of construction material and launched us up into the void of the night. During this event Danny took his head and put it underneath my left forearm, under my armpit. It turns out he had been in a terrible motorcycle accident before, and now he was trying to protect himself as much as he could from the disaster which was unfolding. In every scenario this was going to be a major catastrophe. Not only would would be killed or extremely hurt when we hit the concrete road, but then the communist would be upon us. There were no hospitals, or help that would be available for us. We Surely Were Dead Men!
Now here we were launched up into the darkness of the night. As I was up in the air on the back of this motorcycle, it the truly felt like I was just sailing through the sky like when I used to fly airplanes. During this experience I was supernaturally engulfed in an amazing bubble of peace and joy. I had absolutely no fear or anxiety whatsoever. I was operating in the REALM of the spiritual. It seemed like for the longest time we were not going to come down. We were suspended in the heavens. Of course we must've been sailing through the skies in an upward and downward flow. It was obvious when we hit the wet concrete roadway below us, that something would have to give. But when we make contact with the road, it was so smooth, so nonresistant, that it almost felt like putting on a pair of comfortable old bedroom slippers. This is the only way I can describe it. We did not skid, bounce, or slide in any sense of the word.
The only thing negative that happened when we met the road is that the gear shifter fell off of the motorcycle. We were stuck in the Top Gear as we headed down the road. We had to stop and go back and look for it. We went all the way back to the pile of gravel we had hit and started from the pile working our way out in order to find the shifter. I did not think to measure the distance of our jump. We looked and looked, and looked with the dim headlight of the motorcycle. By this time Danny was very concerned about the Communists seeing the headlight of the motorcycle and hearing it's engine running, so we decided to leave the motorbike in top gear and leave. As we were headed down the road at about four hundred feet away from the pile of road gravel, I saw something gleaming on the road in front of us in the rain. We stopped and there was the shifting mechanism! We put it back on the bike, and went our way. How far we flew through the night sky that night, only God Knows! Now if you think this sounds incredulous, weight two ye hear about the next part of this journey. Danny Montes can verify every bit of this journey.
Over a 300' River, on Wet Slimy 18 inch Planks in the Fog, in the Night with the faulty headlight!
It seemed as if we had been on the road for long time when we finally came upon the river. This river was over three hundred feet wide. It was a very deep and fast moving river that flowes into the Philippine Sea. We forgot we had taken another way to get to the village of Pambujan. The reason we had to take another way is because the bridge was out. I believe God’s hand was in this in spite of this very serious situation.
In the mist of the construction of a new bridge the workman had driven wooden pilings down into the bed of the river in order to create a walkable system over the river. They had placed rough sawn planks upon these pilings. These planks were approximately eighteen inches wide and were loosely attached on these pilings. This footbridge appeared to be four to five feet above the river. These planks were extremely wet and slimy. I would not have wanted to walk on them in the daylight, let alone on a wet and extremely foggy night. To get to the beginning of the planks you had to go down a muddy embankment and back up a pile of dirt to get to the plank walk bridge. There was no way we could walk that motorcycle across this river.
When we found ourselves in this situation Danny said to me: “What are we going to do?” The Spirit of God rose up in me, and I heard myself say “Hold on Danny!” With that declaration, I started to rev the engine of the motorcycle! Before I knew what I was doing I slapped the bike into first gear, headed down the muddy incline, hitting the bottom, I headed up the other side. I was not thinking, simply surrendering to the divine quickening in my heart and in my flesh. Then I went up the embankment they had built to get to the planks. I came up the other side in first gear watching my front tire hit the first plank along this narrow pathway across the 300 foot river. I can honestly tell you that at that moment I was not thinking with my natural thinking processes. I was under the divine influence of God.
When I hit the first plank of approximately 30 planks with my front tire of the motorcycle, I shifted into second gear. I watched as my bike sailed across the wet slimy plank in front of me. I gunned the throttle as I continued to drive the motorcycle over the wet, slimy, loose planks—not slipping one time. If I would’ve gone to the left or to the right either way, we would have plummeted into the raging river, swallowed up into its strong current, never to be seen again. It was the Spirit of God that took us across that three hundred foot river in the rain and fog, on slimy wet 18 inch planks, over a precarious bridge that was only made for foot traffic during the daylight. I'm telling you that if I had not been there to experience this myself, I probably would not believe this story. We sailed across that makeshift bridge all the way to the other side without one mistake or mishap. To make a long story short, the Lord saw us safely to Danny’s house.
Years later I went on the internet to look at this river that we had crossed. The internet image had been updated in 2010. The new bridge that they were just getting ready to build at that time had been completed. You can see the alternative road we had to take as another route until the new bridge had been built. I am overwhelmed at the amazing things I have watched God do.