I love reading stories about how angels have been sent to help humans. I’m sure that I have read hundreds of them.  There are at least two hundred angel /human encounters recorded in the Bible alone!

I especially enjoy reading biographies about missionaries like John Paton, who went to the New Hebribes Islands in the late 1880’s and lived under the constant threat of hostile natives. One night, as far as the eye could see, the shore was covered with a dense host of frantic natives rushing the village. Paton and his people cried out to God for protection. Then, only 300 yards away, the host became suddenly still. An entire band of angry, frenzied, knife-wielding men, freeze-framed against the horizon. A tense and cadaverous silence followed as the villagers held their collective breaths and prayed “as one can only pray when in the jaws of death and on the brink of eternity.” Then, without natural explanation, the entire band spun on their heels and disappeared into the bush by the harbor.

A year later, the ambushing chief became a Christian. John Paton now had his chance to ask why they had fled without explanation that day. The chief replied: “Because of the hundreds of armed guards in shining armor circling your mission! Why else?” (John G. Paton, as quoted by Jerry Orthner in Angels: Friends in High Places, Horizon Books, 1997)

Stories like that give me goose bumps, but while I trust the biographers to have investigated each of these encounters and to have written an accurate account, I know that at least some of you would be skeptical. For that reason, I am presenting the stories of three people that I know quite well; whose integrity I can personally vouch for.  

Each of these women had a different kind of angelic encounter. Valerie met an angel in human disguise, a disguise that proves that God has a sense of humour. Cyndi’s two experiences were with angels who could not be seen, but their effect was felt quite dramatically. Donnalee had an encounter with five angels who showed up as an answer to her mother’s fervent prayers.

Valerie

I have known Val since university days when we were both getting our Bachelor of Education degrees. After graduation, Val spent two years at a school for missionary kids in Ivory Coast, Africa. We met up again when she came back to Canada and got a teaching job at the same Christian school where I was teaching.