HERE IS ANOTHER GREAT MEMORY FROM MY BROTHER, FRED....

 TWO CLOSE CALLS IN ONE DAY

    by Fred M. Allen

Sometimes we do silly things which could put our lives in danger. When nothing happens and we are safe once again, we should learn an important lesson from it and move on. So why am I writing this story? To thank God for watching over me in spite of my poor decisions and to remind our readers of the importance of not putting God to the test when He said He would not leave us nor forsake us. In other words we are expected to use common sense in all decisions we make as it relates to our safety.

On August 31, 1997, Joy and I were spending a night in the safari camp on Kafue River on our way from our home in Mongu, Zambia, to the capital city of Lusaka, to prepare to leave Zambia for retirement on October 1. I told her that I wanted to go fishing one more time on the great Kafue River. I secured a guide and we drove a few miles to an area he recommended for fishing. We came upon a washed–out area which blocked our intended route. He inspected the area where seasonal rains had cut a deep ditch so we had to go around it. The grass was very thick and tall and I could not see where we were to drive, so he pointed where I should go. I followed him around the embankment just above the deep ditch. I stopped and checked my tracks and found that, because of the sharp turn I had to make, the right wheel of my double-cab pickup was half-off the embankment. A few inches closer to the ditch could have caused the vehicle, which was heavily loaded, to fall into the deep ditch. We were 150 miles from Lusaka, so it would have been a major effort to have retrieved the vehicle had it hit the ditch.

As the guide and I proceeded around the curve in the river, he asked me to drop him off so he could catch small fish for his family in an inlet just around the bend from where he said I should fish. I found a clean bank right near the water where I fished for almost an hour but caught nothing. I left the scene to pick up the guide and head back to the camp with no fish. Later, I realized that the spot I had chosen to do my fishing was a spot where the crocodiles came to soak up the sunshine each day, and the six-foot embankment behind it would have made it impossible for me to escape had a croc come out of the water to attack me.  

I shared this story recently with one of my sons and admitted that either of these close calls could have been avoided had I used common sense and surveyed the path around the embankment that I needed to take, and if I had found a fishing point which was at least four feet above the water so the crocs could not have reached me. Once again, God in his mercy protected me in spite of my poor decisions. Can you imagine the devastation we would have faced had the vehicle tumbled into the ditch loaded with all our earthly goods? Or, what would Joy have done if I had been eaten by a crocodile? I hope our readers will see why I am writing this story: to encourage you to use good judgment when making decisions which involve your safety. God expects us to use the brain He gave us so that He does not have to keep bailing us out because of our silly mistakes. Footnote: That was the same day Princess Di of England died.