Story of miracles
Prayer Breakfast speaker recounts his rescue from a plane crash in the Bering Sea
BY TAMMY KRIKORIAN SUN STAFF WRITER
Before the sun rose Friday, more than 1,000 people gathered for the 13th annual Yuma Area Prayer Breakfast at the Yuma Civic and Convention Center, where they heard a Tempe evangelist recount his experiences of bringing Christianity to Russia and surviving a plane crash.
As the crowd ate a meal of sausage, eggs and potatoes, event chairman Bill Esmeier introduced the guest speaker, Dave Anderson.
Anderson and his wife, Barb, singing evangelists from Tempe, run Fellowship Ministries and have put on more than 5,000 concerts throughout the world, Esmeier said.
Anderson told some of his personal experiences, focusing on a miraculous rescue from a plane crash in the Bering Sea.
He and his wife and a team of about 15 people had gone to a community of 3,000 in Russia that had never heard a word of the gospel. In four small planes, they took 3,000 pounds of food, medicine and 500 Bibles.
They held meetings, speaking and singing to the people, and several people became Christians that week. When the last meeting was over, the translator approached Anderson and told him a woman named Rosa had asked to be baptized.
Rosa had been the communist leader of that village.
"God's love had invaded Rosa," Anderson said. "It was one of the most holy experiences I've had in my life."
The Andersons and five others left Russia, stopping on St. Lawrence Island just across the International Date Line. From the island, they were to stop in Nome to refuel, then head further north.
Anderson fell asleep on the plane, but awoke to a strange motion. His back to the pilot, he opened his eyes to see the other passengers staring wide-eyed at the gas gauge. It was in the empty zone.
The right engine quit at 7,000 feet. Nine minutes later, at 3,500 feet, the left engine quit.
"I know what prayers you pray when your plane is falling from the sky," Anderson Said. "You pray really simple prayers."
One of the men on board the flight said, "Lord, I want to see my family again."
Anderson's wife said "the most practical prayer."
"Lord, if you could start the engines?" she asked.
"And God answered and the answer was no," Anderson said. "Sometimes our answers are not God's plan. God said, 'I have a better plan, so lust wait.' "
The plane hit the water at 90 miles per hour, which Anderson likened to hitting rocks. There were 3- to -5-foot swells in the water.
"This is a story of miracles," Anderson said. The group opened the exits and it took them a minute to get out of the plane as water was gushing in. One minute later, the plane sank.
"We didn't have lifejackets, we didn't have rafts," Anderson said. But they did have floatation devices -17 empty 5-gallon gas cans which were being transported so they could be refilled and used on another mission.
The water temperature was 36 degrees, and the life expectancy in that cold water is between five and 13 minutes.
"We didn't know how cold the water was, and we didn't know the life expectancy," Anderson said. "It was a good thing we didn't know."
The group was 2.5 miles from an island with no beach or shore, and 22.5 miles from Nome.
When the plane hit the water, another plane, running an hour behind schedule, was in the vicinity. On the ground, somebody radioed them and said, "We think we lost a plane, did you see anything?"
The pilot responded, "Eight minutes ago we thought we saw the tail of a whale. It could have been the tail of a plane."
They circled and didn't see anything, but just as they were leaving, the man next to the pilot said, "Go back one more time. I think I saw something."
It had been 20 minutes since the plane hit the water, and it would be another 20 minutes before two helicopters showed up. They weren't equipped to rescue. The first helicopter brought seven body bags. The passenger in the second helicopter was a Canadian geophysical surveyor.
"Neither helicopter had any idea what was going to happen," Anderson said. "They risked their lives to save ours."
They lowered the bellies of the helicopters into the water, and got out of the helicopters onto the skid to pull in the survivors.
"We couldn't help them save us," Anderson said. "We were the recipients of mercy - and courage and grace."
Each of the seven rescue stories was dramatic, Anderson said. His wife was wearing a "pretty purple coat," which weighed 50 pounds wet. The Canadian couldn't pull her in the helicopter, so he put her neck between his legs and wrapped his legs around her body and carried her like that for 2.5 miles before she fell.
"The man that saved her life once saved her life again," Anderson said.
The helicopters then flew them to a hospital in Nome.
"Praise be to God for rescuing his servants," Anderson said.
"Father, thank you... so that we can have peace that passes all understanding."
Many local youths attended the event, including Arizona Western College student Lane Young-Walker, who read from the Old Testament, and Antelope High School student Vaneesa Morga, who read from the New Testament.
Kathy McCloud, chair for next year's event on Feb. 3,2006, announced that the speaker will Daryl Scott, whose daughter was killed in the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
