David Moore writes in Everything was OK:

"I couldn't get to sleep, Dad. I had this terrible feeling that you were in some kind of trouble, and I thought, What would I do if something happened to my dad? I looked at the clock in the bedroom and it was already past 2 a.m. I got out of bed and prayed for your protection. Then I felt everything was OK, and I was able to sleep."

These were the words of my son, Royce, who was 14 at the time. I had called home from Italy to tell my wife about my experience that morning. I was invited to Rome to minister among people who had come to Italy to work mostly as house servants.

The day before I was scheduled to depart for home, the director of the Bible school wondered if I would enjoy a trip to Venice. I readily agreed. We would leave at 6:00 the next morning, traveling north.

We made our way out of Rome as the city was awakening. Soon the city was behind us and we were maneuvering through mountains on the freeway.

The view to my right was spectacular. A stumpy guardrail was all that separated us from the valley below. On the road, we seemed to be surrounded by semi trucks. In two hours we would be arriving in Venice. I imagined what the city would look like, with gondolas taking us through water streets.

The noise of a hiss followed immediately by a pop jolted me to reality. In an instant our vehicle became filled with steam so thick I literally could not see my friends in the front. The vehicle swerved. Though I didn't know it at the time, boiling water from a broken hose engulfed the driver's feet.

It was the only time in my life I had the feeling I was going to die.

I braced myself for the inevitable. But somehow the driver was able to regain control of the vehicle, and we eventually came to a stop nestled against the guardrail. I looked at my watch. It was a few minutes after 9 a.m. in Italy. But it was just after 2 a.m. at my home in Nixa, Montana, where my son was on his knees praying for his father because he sensed I was in some kind of peril.