A jukung is a traditional Indonesian boat.
The jukung in this story looked like any regular jukung.
It wasn't a special color.
It wasn't a special length.
It didn't have a special engine,
but it had a special passenger.
Pastor Eduard saw the jukung arrive
at the island where he lived.
He saw government medical workers get off the boat
and visit his village.
Then he saw the medical workers preparing to leave on the jukung.
He asked where they were going
and learned that they were traveling to an island
where he wanted to go.
On the island, lived three Seventh-day Adventist families
who didn't have their own church.
They also didn't have their own boats
to travel to an island with a church.
They met in one of their homes
to worship on Sabbath,
but now, it was the end of the quarter,
and they wanted Pastor Eduard to come and worship with them.
Pastor Eduard didn't have a boat of his own,
so he asked the medical workers
if he could travel with them
on their jukung to the island.
They agreed, and the jukung set off Friday afternoon.
The jukung sped across the surface of the water.
The wind felt good on Pastor Eduard's face.
He looked forward to worshiping with the villagers,
but then a storm struck.
The rain fell hard.
The wind blew fiercely,
but the boat kept speeding through the rough waters.
Suddenly, the "vroom" stopped.
The engine fell silent.
Pastor Eduard and the medical workers
and the boat captain looked at one another.
All they could hear was the pounding of the rain
and the howling of the wind.
The boat captain yanked on a cord
to try to restart the engine.
Nothing happened.
He tried again.
Yank! Yank!
Nothing happened.
The jukung stopped speeding across the water.
Now it was at the mercy of the wind and the waves.
It tossed back and forth like a cork in the water.
An hour passed, then two hours,
three hours,
four hours.
The medical workers were scared.
All were crying.
They had heard stories about boats sinking in storms,
and they were afraid that they were going to die.
One woman who wasn't a Christian
remembered that Pastor Eduard was a Christian
who believed in Jesus,
and she begged him to pray for the jukung.
At that moment, Pastor Eduard heard a voice.
The voice was soft and gentle,
yet he could hear it above the roar of the rain and wind.
It said, "Tell the boat captain
to connect the fuel hose to the other fuel tank.
On the jukung were two fuel tanks,
a regular fuel tank
and a backup fuel tank for emergencies.
The tanks provided fuel for the boat engine to run.
Pastor Eduard was surprised to hear the voice,
but he didn't argue.
He felt like he had to obey.
Even though he didn't know anything about boats,
he went to the captain and told him to remove the fuel hose
from the regular fuel tank
and connect it to the backup fuel tank.
The captain had already tried connecting the hose to the backup fuel tank,
but he didn't argue.
He also felt like he had to obey.
He immediately pulled the hose out of the regular fuel tank
and connected it to the backup tank.
Then Pastor Eduard called the captain and medical workers
to join him in praying to Jesus.
The medical workers stopped crying
as they strained their ears to listen to the prayer.
"Lord Jesus,
our lives really are in Your hands of mercy,"
the pastor prayed.
"Your will be done."
Then he turned to the captain.
"Start the engine," he said.
The captain pulled the cord to restart the outboard engine.
Yank!
A split second passed
and the engine sprang to life.
All the medical workers,
including the woman who didn't believe in Jesus,
exclaimed at the same time,
"Praise the Lord!"
The rain didn't stop
and the wind didn't die down,
but the engine kept roaring
and the jukung reached the island safely.
The medical workers immediately told everyone on the island
that Jesus had saved their lives.
The Sabbath was an extra special day for Pastor Eduard.
Not only did he worship on the island,
but he also had his own special mission story to tell.