God Keeps Air in Mission Plane Tire

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your prayers for the little girl who was snake bit on her hand. She was in the hospital at Boavista in Brazil for several weeks, but has been released to go home. Praise God for His healing! Thank God I could fly her out for medical help!

Let me share this story from a recent experience.

I was on my way back home from San Francisco with a patient and stopped in Kamarata to pick up another patient. (The photo at left is loading the patient I picked up first.) As I softly touched down and the nose wheel grabbed the ground I immediately knew the tire was very low. I quickly shut down the engine and climbed out to have a look. Sure enough, the tire was almost flat. Now what should I do?

I had only an hour of time before I'd have to leave in order to make it back to Santa Elena before dark. The patients needed to be at the hospital. Asking someone to find me a tire pump I prayed that God would help me to somehow patch the tire so I could take off and land. Then I waited . . .and waited . . . and waited. By the time someone arrived with the tire pump I had only a few minutes before I must leave. If they'd only come quickly with the pump I'd have had an hour to work on this project, I thought.

Hurriedly I pumped up the tire, then checked it for a leak by pouring water over it. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't find a leak anywhere! I considered how the tire had leaked down to nearly flat during an hour's flight, and it would take me that long to return to Santa Elena, so it could be totally flat by the time I needed to land. I poured on more water, hunting for a leak---nothing showed.

"Okay, I'm going to leave," I told the villagers standing around. Bring the boy who was attacked by the dog." As I checked on the woman in the plane she appeared to be loosing consciousness, and I didn't relish spending the night stranded with her in that condition. Praying again, I prepared for takeoff.

Flying through rain and bad weather the hour passed. My thoughts again went to the tire as I approached Santa Elena. Was it still holding air? I had loaded the plane with more weight in the back, keeping it light where the nose wheel would touch down. I requested my front passenger to push the seat back as far as possible. I touched down softly and rolled along on the main wheels until I was as slow as I could get and still keep the front wheel in the air. Then I gently touched the nose wheel to the ground and it felt good! The air had stayed in!

Thank you God, I prayed. As the ambulance drove off with the patients I looked again at the tire. It hadn't lost any air at all! Marveling I made the short hop over to our home base and rolled the airplane into the hanger for the night.

The next morning I went out to fix the tire, and yes, it was totally flat. Taking it off I discovered a thorn had made a hole in the inner tube. Again I thanked God for His intervention and helping me get those people to the hospital.

The lady I transported was very ill; they sent her on to the larger hospital at Boavista, where she received medical help. She has recovered and is waiting for me to fly her home when I have a flight near her village of San Francisco. The little boy is already home.

Yes, God hears and answers our prayers when we most need His help. Thank you for all your prayers in our behalf.


Bob & Neiba Norton

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