Harmon Schmelzenbach was divinely called to be a missionary to Swaziland, South Africa. While a student at Peniel College, Harmon one night saw a vision of a stream of black men, women, and children on their way to the judgment throne of God. Harmon told me about the vision when I lived in Pittsburgh, and he had made his first furlough to America in more than twenty years.

"Every once in a while one of those dark Africans would step out of that great procession and point a finger of accusation at me."

So great was the urgency in Harmon's soul that he would not wait to finish college, and he asked Dr. E. P. Ellyson, the president, to ordain him, so that he might go to Africa.

In the long career of this famous pioneering missionary, whom the British government called "the greatest missionary in South Africa since David Livingstone," many miraculous deliverances and escapes came in answer to prayer.

One particular day Harmon had a trip to make through the veld. Kneeling down, he consecrated his life anew to God and asked the arms of divine protection to be thrown round about him. Getting on his horse, he started through the veld. At a certain spot he felt a peculiar sense of imminent danger. A voice whispered, "Duck." Harmon ducked his head. When he had ridden by the danger point, he looked back and saw a great snake lying on a limb just above his head. He recognized that, as he rode by, the snake had reached out to grasp him, and the warning Voice that said, "Duck," had saved his life.

Harmon kept a diary, and in this diary he made a note of the occurrence, giving the exact hour of the day.

Some time after that a friend in America wrote Harmon, saying that on a certain day, at a specific time, he had felt led to pray at that very instant for the missionary in far-off Africa.

Then Harmon went back to his notes in his diary and found that the very moment the snake had lashed out at him and he had been warned to duck, the friend in America was on his knees praying for his protection.

 

From: ANSWERED PRAYER IN MISSIONARY SERVICE By Basil William Miller, Beacon Hill Press, Kansas City, Missouri. First Printing, April 1951 Second Printing, July 1951 Printed in United States of America

 

 

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