By Anietie Ukpe
Suddenly, the plane did summersaults in the air. You could hear the screams – blood chilling and ear-splitting. Shrills! Cries of agony! I shouted “Jesus!” Then the plane plunged down to earth and burst into flames. I woke up in a cold sweat.
For over two weeks, I had been having this horrifying nightmare. I prayed all I could but it kept coming. I assessed the situation. I was due to travel to Israel on pilgrimage and that was the only plane trip impending. The year was 2004. I had two options: one, forget about the trip and call it off; two, pray and trust God and embark on the trip. I opted for the latter.
Opting for traveling meant praying more and hoping God will answer. An indication that God has answered would be that I would stop having this terrifying nightmare. I stepped up the prayers and spent more time every night on it. The more I prayed, the more the nightmare came – in different forms but with the same result, the plane crashing and bursting into flames. I felt like a haunted man – but still I trusted in the Lord.
The day before the trip, I went to see Archbishop Elijah Mboho of Gospel Village, Abak. He was in his office having light brunch, when I walked in. After the salutations, I told him, “Daddy, I am traveling to Israel tomorrow and for over two weeks now I have been dreaming of being in a plane crash.” He looked at me quizzically, then he stuck out his hand and said, “Let us pray.” He finished praying for me and said in a warm and comforting tone, “It is well. Victory.” I thanked him and left.
That night the plane crashed in a farm, but I had left the plane before it crashed. I figured the prayer was working – at least I was not in the plane. In the morning, as I was on my way to join the bus that would take us to the airport, I stopped by and shared a moment of prayer with my pastor, Dr Sylvannus Ukafia.
We travelled from Port Harcourt International Airport to Abuja. At Abuja more pilgrims joined the plane and we took off from there to Cyprus. It was an uneventful flight but I could not sleep. The Bible says ‘watch and pray,’ and I was watching the plane and praying. Then from Cyprus, we headed to Israel. I was still doing the duty of the watchman. On two occasions, I actually dozed off but did not have the nightmare. So I figured it was over.
We landed in Israel and everything went well. The first thing I did as I checked into my hotel room was to thank God for sparing my life and those of the other pilgrims and not allowing the plane to crash. We had a whirlwind tour of Israel visiting all the Biblical sites, led by tour guides who had answers to all questions and told you everything you needed to know and what you did not need to know but they thought you should know anyhow.
I forgot about the nightmare until two days to when we were to head back to Nigeria when it came again. I was in the plane again and it became distressed and swung around in half circles. I jumped out of it and landed in a farm in my local government area. The plane crashed a short distance in front of me and everyone died. I was crying. I woke up again in a cold sweat. “My God and my Father! I figured danger was past,” I said to myself as I knelt beside my bed and prayed.
The night before the homeward trip was the worst. I could not sleep because every time I closed my eyes I was in a crashing plane. When morning came I decided to fast and pray. “My God,” I prayed. “There are many prophecies concerning me and You are not a man that You would lie, neither are you a man that you would change your mind. God your word is clear that no weapon fashioned against me shall prosper. Please honor your word. Please forgive my sins. Wash me with the blood of Jesus. Everything that could lead to this plane crashing, every turn of events, I scatter…”
I fasted and prayed. The other pilgrims came and stuffed all kinds of things into my luggage. I had not shopped much but most of them did. So they wanted me to help them with their loads. Not to be disturbed I asked them to put what they could into my luggage while I prayed and poured my heart out to God.
The first leg of the journey was uneventful. We landed in Cyprus for refueling. As the plane taxied down the runway and swung around for acceleration to thrust up into the air, I closed my eyes to pray. Then I tried to estimate when the tyres would lift off the runway into the air. Suddenly, I heard the kind of screams I used to hear in my nightmare. “Pilot! Pilot! Jesus! Jesus!!” The air hostess with eyes that reminded me of a rat pursued by a cat ran in total panic towards the cockpit. The air host was hot on her trail. Both collided and fell over each other in the narrow aisle. When they got up the air host was in front. He was screaming as he hit the cockpit and kept banging on it. The air hostess joined him at the cockpit. The plane which was already about to lift up, managed to circle and stay down. Guess what? The rear panel of the plane had come off and smoke from the engine filled the rear part of the cabin – air and smoke. Give the plane two more minutes and we would have been airborne and the crash would have been inevitable.
For some curious reasons, I was smiling as the drama unfolded. I was thanking God and saying so this is what would have happened in the air if God had not intervened and caused it to happen now. Some pilgrims developed fever. Some were in bad shape. One woman noticed how calm I was and how I went about smiling and consoling everyone and taking pictures. We spent two days in Cyprus before the airline could send other planes to come and fly us back to Nigeria.
After the incident, I sought a quiet area of the airport to kneel down (my favorite praying position) and thank God. As I thanked God I had a vision of the biggest snake I had ever seen in film or even in life. It circled the country of Cyprus and its huge mouth was lifted up to the sky – as if expecting a sacrifice. God frustrated the devices of the devil!
“When we almost had that crash there was this man who was smiling and so calm,” the woman, who noticed me, asked her niece who worships with me, when she returned to Nigeria. “I inquired about him and they told me that he is a pastor in your church. Is he normal?”
The niece, Maria, reported to me. I laughed, “When I was praying they were laughing and playing. When God turns again your captivity, you are like them that dream – you laugh.”
My eldest sister was aghast, “Pastor, you had a dream that the plane was going to crash and you still went ahead and entered the plane?” I replied, “The word of God is more powerful than my dream. I am moved by His word – not by my dream. He is a faithful God.”
I still cannot thank God enough for that crash that never happened. He is such a faithful God.
Ukpe, a pastor in Insight Bible Church, Uyo is a 2004 Jerusalem Pilgrim
