Jesus Sign, Prayer, Seeking God, Airplanes

Jesus Sign

Pilots run out of fuel, pray, land near Jesus sign

Men able to glide powerless microlight to a safe landing on grassy strip


updated 8:26 p.m. ET, Wed., May. 21, 2008

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - It seemed like an almost literal answer to
their prayers. When two New Zealand pilots ran out of fuel in a
microlight airplane they offered prayers and were able to make an
emergency landing in a field — coming to rest right next to a sign
reading, "Jesus is Lord."

Grant Stubbs and Owen Wilson, both from the town of Blenheim on the
country's South Island, were flying up the sloping valley of Pelorus
Sound when the engine spluttered, coughed and died.

"My friend and I are both Christians so our immediate reaction in a
life-threatening situation was to ask for God's help," Stubbs told The
Associated Press on Wednesday.

He said he prayed during the ill-fated flight Sunday that the tiny
craft would get over the top of a ridge and that they would find a
landing site that was not too steep — or in the nearby sea.

Wilson said that the pair would have been in deep trouble if the fuel
had run out five minutes earlier.

"If it had to run out, that was the place to be," he said. "There was
an instantaneous answer to prayer as we crossed the ridge and there
was an airfield — I didn't know it existed till then."

After Wilson glided the powerless craft to a landing on the grassy
strip, the pair noticed they were beside a 20-foot-tall sign that
read, "Jesus is Lord — The Bible."

"When we saw that, we started laughing," Stubbs said.

Nearby residents provided them with gas to fly the home-built plane
back to base.