Jesus Loves Me

I made reference to the song, "Jesus Loves Me" in a post about musical talent on May 11, and explained "that's another story".

Well here's the story.

Oh goodness, time flies; about 20 years ago I had been on an Army Reserve mission to Germany to carry some documents to the German government. Usually there would be two or three of us on this type of mission, but this time I was alone. (Yes, I was on active duty with the Navy and later joined the Army Reserve.)

With mission completed, I boarded a loaded 747 for the flight back to the U.S.

Back then there was a good bit of terrorist activity going on. Because terrorists were particularly fond of tormenting and killing American military personnel, we traveled in civilian clothes, drove rented cars, stayed in local hotels, and ate in local restuarants. I kept a set of orders and an ID card in my sock. But I digress.

We were trained to spot terrorists and were updated prior to each mission. When I got on the plane I noticed a whole group of people in tourist class who were not speaking a recognizable language. They were dark skinned caucasians with black hair and the women had muscular legs.

Upon takeoff, fire spurted from the two engines on my side of the plane. Flames seemed to shoot about 50 feet in my direction. My first thought was that those folks were terrorists and had sabotaged the plane or we had been fired upon from the ground. I was mortified, but remained calm. One of the flight attendants "lost it" and became hysterical.

By the time I had said several prayers, the pilot came on the intercom and announced that we had some engine problems, but said he had the plane under control. I prayed some more. Then the pilot came back on telling us we would be circling the German countryside for about an hour as we jettisoned fuel and then we would make an emergency landing back in Frankfort.

I prayed some more. As I looked around, I noticed the "terrorist" looking people were crossing themselves. So I determined they were in the same situation as everyone else, but still didn't know who they were.

After praying for everything I could think of and most things several times, I felt at peace with my destiny. So I decided to mentally sing hymns to keep my mind occupied. The only hymn I could remember was "Jesus Loves Me". I sang it over and over and over in my mind.

We came into Frankfort airport in a crash position. Emergency vehicles of all sorts had lined the sides of the runway, and as we touched down, they began to follow us. We landed safely, departed the plane, stayed an extra night in Frankfort and flew home the next day.

Oh those "terrorist" looking people? A ballet team from the Republic of Georgia in what was then the Soviet Union.

To this day "Jesus Loves Me" remains my favorite hymn. I have written instructions that it shall be played at my funeral.