Inside Story: Miraculous Rock
Miraculous Rock
A miracle rock stopped the pickup truck of Bounprany Vannady, who was serving as president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Laos.
Image © Pacific Press
It was just an ordinary creek. Any car could pass through its shallow waters easily. No car was known to have ever gotten stuck there. But the pickup truck decided to stop just as it entered the creek. It simply stopped.
Bounprany and two young pastors traveling with him found a rock blocking the way, but it seemed to be too small to stop the vehicle. Just to make sure, they moved the rock and tried to restart the vehicle. It refused to start. They hailed down a passing car and tried to jumpstart the battery, but the pickup truck still refused to start.
Since it was getting dark, Bounprany walked over to the nearest village. Several villagers came back to the pickup truck to help, but they couldn’t get it to start. The village chief invited Bounprany to spend the night in his house, while the young pastors stayed with the pickup truck.
“What are you doing in our area?” the village chief asked.
Bounprany explained that he was taking some sporting equipment to the next village. He was hoping to establish a connection with that village.
As he listened, the village chief sensed that Bounprany was a Christian, and he announced that he was a Christian. He pulled out a Voice of Prophecy correspondence school certificate issued by the Seventh-day Adventist Church of Laos several years earlier. He said he had reached out to a former church leader for support several years earlier but had been dismissed, so now he and about 200 other villagers were worshiping Jesus on their own. He asked Bounprany to teach him and the villagers about the seventh-day Sabbath.
It was at the moment that Bounprany realized that an angel must have stopped the pickup truck. It was like Balaam’s donkey who refused to go farther because it saw an angel of the Lord. This car must have seen an angel of the Lord standing in front of it in the creek, so it decided to stop.
The next morning, the pickup truck started at the first turn of the key.
Thank you for your Sabbath School mission offering that will help spread the gospel to the people of Laos and the other countries of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division. Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help open an elementary school in Laos.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
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This story reminds me of the following anecdote: One day we were coming back from Mexico, but our old Oldsmobile would not start.
After half an hour of failed attempts the car started, and I told my wife that we would not stop until we got to Loma Linda, but when we were close to Temecula, California, I noticed that the gas gage was almost at empty. We stopped for gas, but the car refused to start.
We kept trying on and off for four hours. The tow truck mechanic inspected the engine and his verdict was that the timing was broken and the car would never start.
We were ready to call a taxi and find a motel to spend the night. My wife said: “Let me try one more time.” She said, “In the name of the Lord” and turned the ignition. The car started.
We got home and, and the next morning I tried to start the car to no avail. I had the car towed to the mechanic, who after looking at the engine reported to me that the timing was broken and that there was no way to get it started.
We concluded that an angel of the Lord had acted on our behalf.