Gods Messengers angels among
GOD’S MESSENGERS
By
Phil Scovell
In the mid 1970’s my wife and I were preaching on the indian reservation. We stayed with the pastor and his wife in Fort Defiance, Arizona for a week; preaching and ministering in his church of perhaps seventy members; mostly Navajo indians. Each night following the meeting the pastor, himself a full Navajo, and I sat up and talked about indian heritage, history, and culture. He even invited, because of my interest, an elderly woman to visit one evening for supper who had been an early white missionary on the reservation. I was fascinated with all she had to say about the pioneer mission work she and her late husband had done on the reservation. They invited me to speak one evening to a small Navaho church in a nearby town where the pastor had to translate my sermon.
One night the pastor told me a very unusual story. An old indian man in his church often told of his father reminiscing of a stranger on the reservation. He was white, preached the same Gospel, wore a robe, carried a book, and walked bear foot. He said that often when indians on the reservation were ill, this strange shoeless man would suddenly come walking up out of no where and request to see the sick one. He would lay hands on them and they would recover. The pastor said he would take my wife and I up in the mountains, about a ninety minute drive, to visit this old indian man in his eighties. We did so and the old man confirmed this story to be true in my hearing. Although this old indian man was too young to recall seeing the stranger for himself, his family spoke of him often and his father even once asked if he could touch the strangers bear feet. He reported his father saying the skin was as soft as baby’s skin and there was no evidence those feet had ever tread the rough terrain of the reservation.
Perhaps some will question the validity of this story since indian culture offers many such experiences in their heritage. This, however, I found highly unusual because the stranger was preaching the Gospel we preach today. All the other accounts, which I have read, of such manifestations were always strangely void of any such Gospel message. I believe this was, without a doubt, a messenger of God. We know that angels appear in many forms and we are even instructed to be hospitable because some have entertained angels unawares (Heb. 13:2). I believe God sent this messenger to preach and minister His Word until a missionary was sent. In fact, the elderly indian in the mountains reported exactly that. He said when the first white missionary came to the reservation, no one ever reported seeing the strange robed man again. Many today tell of stories where unusual and strange people have crossed their paths at times of danger or calamity. I think this is similar. I find it strangely comforting to know that God will always provide a way for His Word to be preached. I also find this story interesting because of the absence of the messenger as soon as a missionary appeared. God has commanded we, His disciples, to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). After all, we – the redeemed – are the true messengers of God.