A Year Beside the Wreck

“We are pressed on every side, but not crushed. We are knocked down, but not destroyed.” — from 2 Corinthians 4

Samuel went up the Niger River again and again, to tell the people who lived along it about Jesus. In 1854 he went with a little steamship called the Pleiad. After more than a hundred days on the river, nobody had died! Samuel said, “Not unto us, but unto God, we give praise.”

In 1857 he went up the river once more, on a ship called the Dayspring. On the way he left two African helpers in the town of Onitsha to start a church there. Then the Dayspring went far up the river.

On 7 October 1857, near a town called Jebba, the ship hit some rocks and tipped over! People came in canoes to help, and everyone got safely to shore. Nobody was hurt. But the ship could not be saved.

Fifty people had to camp beside the river for a whole year, waiting for another ship to come. Samuel held prayers every morning and every evening in his tent made of mats, and he let sick people rest there. One night a leopard came into the camp! Samuel laughed and admitted, “I am no gunner.”

He did not waste the year. He made friends with the people nearby. He learned their language, called Nupe, and began to write it down. The people were amazed to see their own words written on paper.

When things go wrong, it is easy to give up. But Samuel kept trusting God and kept working. God can use even our worst days.

Dear God, when things go wrong, help me not to give up. Help me to trust you and to keep doing good. Amen.