BY LAMAR PHILLIPS Illustration by Ralph Butler
In November 1994 my wife, Felicia, and I were in transition from the Philippines, where I had been ADRA director, and she, a chaplain at Manila Sanitarium and Hospital. We had been reassigned to Haiti, where I would be logistics officer for ADRA. Since we had a three-month furlough, we were spending our time around Collegedale, Tennessee, where our two youngest sons attended Southern Adventist University.
One Sabbath we had gone to Knoxville so Felicia could make a presentation at one of the local churches on Sabbath morning and again in the afternoon. While she was engaged in her afternoon appointment, the boys and I decided to drive a few miles over to Oakridge, where I used to pastor the Coalfield-Harriman district.
On the return trip we agreed to take a back road to Frost Bottom, the little community where we’d spent several precious years when our boys were just children. As we drove along we had to cross some railroad tracks. My youngest son, David, a somewhat inexperienced driver, was behind the wheel. I said to him, “If there’s a train coming, no matter how far away, let’s stop and let it pass before crossing.” He agreed.
Sure enough, when we were within sight of the tracks, we saw a long freight train coming our way, traveling at perhaps 40 or 50 miles per hour. The train was at least 1,000 feet down the tracks. But since it was moving quite fast, I thought we should play it safe. “Let’s stop, son, and not run any risk,” I said. “We have plenty of time this afternoon.”

But my son in the back seat told David to go on, that there was plenty of time. For a moment there was a little tug-of-war between me and the backseat driver. David, confused, decided to drive on.
As we pulled up on the tracks the car’s engine died. By that time the train was getting close and beginning to sound its horn. David tried unsuccessfully to start the engine. He tried again. The train was bearing down on us.
At that point I shouted, “Let’s get out of here!”
Chuck, in the back seat, threw open the door and fled back across the tracks. I opened my door and sprinted past the front of the car.
I remember thinking, I’ll be lucky to get out of this alive! I imagined the train hitting the car and throwing it on top of me. I assumed David had made a run for it also.
As I dashed forward and passed the front of the car, I thought, What about David? Did he actually get out of the car?
Then, to my great relief, the car sped past me and went on about 100 feet more and stopped. By that time the train was passing, and we later calculated it had missed the car’s back bumper by a mere six to 12 inches. It was, indeed, a very close call.
After stopping the car, David got out, and we embraced and cried, thanking God for our deliverance. Since then I’ve thought many times, Why, Lord, did You save us from certain death?
A Pattern Emerges
The answer has come slowly over the years. Although we can never understand with total confidence our mysterious God, I can say with little doubt that God had a plan for us. Even Felicia, had something happened to me, would’ve continued to serve the Lord, but not, perhaps, as we have done together since then.
Take, for example, the hundreds of students Felicia influenced through her teaching in the Seventh-day Adventist academy and university in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
One 16-year-old girl came to Haiti for just one year to stay with her sister and brother-in-law. She ended up taking Bible studies from Felicia and was baptized. Four years later she stayed in our home in Costa Rica for three years while she studied nursing at Central American Adventist University. Five years later she became our daughter-in-law!
Two little boys used to visit us every day, looking for a better home life, moral support, and a little joy in exchange for the deplorable poverty in which they lived. As grown men they are now members of the church. One is married to a lovely Adventist in Canada.
In Honduras, as chaplain of the Adventist hospital in Valle de Angeles, Felicia brought many people to the Lord, including an illiterate, isolated-at-home, wheelchair-using boy, who through her ministry learned to read the Bible and write. He blossomed into a fine young Christian, and was baptized into our precious message.
Then there’s the church Felicia raised up in nearby Santa Lucia. She prayed for funds, and God provided them just in time to cancel the outstanding balance on the property and open the way for Maranatha Volunteers International to construct the building.
And what about the $1 million that ADRA Honduras received from ADRA Germany as a result of a grant proposal I wrote? More than 300 women in Tegucigalpa were able to start a business that led to their greater economic prosperity. Other funds helped thousands of victims of Hurricane Mitch recover from that disaster. When an earthquake struck El Salvador in 2001, more than 100,000 victims received disaster support thanks to ADRA.
In Costa Rica, our next field of labor, our ministry had many arms, thanks to God’s providence. The brightest gem from the years we spent there is Leo, one of Felicia’s students from the theology classes she taught at the Adventist university in Alajuela.
Person to Person
From Costa Rica God called us to Albania, one of the most difficult fields in the world—not because of opposition to Christianity, but because of its general apathy toward God and religion.
What Do You Think?
1. What event can you look back on that changed the course of your life? What series of events did that one event trigger?2. What God-given talents do you have for building up God's kingdom? How have they proved useful in the past?
3. To which friends or acquaintances have you reflected Christ's character? How would they describe your influence in their lives?
4. Is there some dream or aspiration that you have for serving God that remains unrealized? How might it be fulfilled?
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One of the needs in this field had been for a dedicated, wise, and highly organized administrator. Upon the recommendation of Felicia, Leo was called to the position. After pastoring one of the most challenging churches of the country, Leo became mission president.
The cleaning woman who worked in the ADRA office in Albania was baptized. Our engineer accepted the Lord and was baptized. And Felicia, as pastor of the Ali Demi church in Tirana, brought the first complete Albanian family into the Advent message, and prepared more than a dozen others who have learned to know and love God.
And what about the young man who committed to prepare for the ministry? What about the 39 government buildings such as orphanages, health centers, kindergartens, and elementary schools that ADRA repaired; bringing better health, better education, and better emotional life to thousands of children who would have gone without?
God has unlimited resources at His disposal. He could easily have accomplished all this, and more, without us. Yet, as we look back over our lives, Felicia and I are honored that He used us to reveal His faithfulness to the people with whom we came into contact.
Does God order our lives for His purposes? In His infinite wisdom He intervenes, sometimes saving us from death, sometimes allowing it.
Yet God is always there, utilizing our efforts in ways He sees best.
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Now retired, Lamar Phillips lives with Felicia in Ooltewah, Tennessee. This article was published April 28, 2011.