Note: This is the first chapter of a book my father, Rev. Matt W. Leach, wrote in 1955 about a miraculous trip to the Holy Land.
-Michael Leach
On Wings of Faith
Foreword
As a scientist works in his laboratory exercising extensive, exacting controls as he purposely and calculatingly carries out his experiments, so shall I treat this story, or experiment.
In an earlier day travel over any great distance carried with it an aura of awe, and travel books, regardless of how poorly written, were eagerly read and consumed. People would travel great lengths on boat, horseback, or by carriage, paying exorbitant prices to hear a world traveler speak and to see his pictures.
Now it is a common practice to fly to any part of the world any time, and we accept it with the same equanimity with which we turn on the radio or television set.
Today so many books have been written by so many different people about the same places that we can pick very discerningly that book which we want to read. All that could be written about a place has, to a routined, standardized, formulaic degree, been written.
To be interesting, to be read, to leave his mark, the author must now seek out the unusual, the overlooked, the never-before-mentioned. He must lift his story out of the ordinary, the commonplace, the ranks of anonymity. His story must live and breathe; it must be vitally alive to the reader.
To the adventurer always seeking the new and exciting, this offers a challenge. Perhaps the answer lies in the way he came to take his trip and the way he came to see the things he saw.
It is of the way that I speak. If this story is permeated with religion, that is my intention. For the way of which I speak not only concerns my mode of transportation but a “Way of Life.”
My spirit, troubled by many things, had caused me, a time ago, to examine Christianity a little closer. First God, Christ and the Church were my opiate. They gave me a sense of peace and fulfillment, all short-lived, making up for my own failures and inadequacies which were entirely my fault. In Christ and the Church I buried myself, nursing my wounds and making excuses.
Through growth, experience, maturity, and the Grace of God I came to find that I no longer needed an opiate. Religion looks different then. You can face it squarely and see it for what it is.
If you wish, you can look at it as a scientist in his laboratory looks at a chemical that might be the cure for cancer. Like the scientist, you can say “yes” or “no.” If the scientist says “no” without giving the chemical a chance, he has defeated his own purpose, and the cancer keeps eating and eating.
Into the Laboratory
But let’s not just talk. Let’s go into the laboratory ourselves and take a good look at this chemical. Put on your white frock, take your scales, your graduates, your beakers, your microscope, your Bunsen burners, your cultures, and begin putting the chemical through its countless tests.
The mysterious chemical is prayer. The cancer cultures are life situations.
First, a little about our chemical. It is quite difficult to isolate it from the compound in which it occurs. However, for purposes of this experiment we shall. A common accepted definition is “talking with God,” and it is found in many forms. To properly function, the chemical must be coupled with “faith” — a belief that God does hear and answer prayer.
It must be understood from the beginning that for the chemical to properly function, the God of whom we speak must be not a figmentation of the imagination, moldable into any form and with any characteristic our imagination desires, but a Power, or Being, other-than-man and other-than-this-world, over which man has no control, and Who exists in His own form and with His own characteristic, the same yesterday, now, and forever, no matter what anyone may think or believe.
This is the record of a trip to the Holy Land. It is the record of answered prayer. It is the record of faith. Throughout our entire trip, transportation was waiting for us each place we went, each step of the way.
The right people spoke to us. For example, when we disembarked from our plane in Cairo, Egypt, a gentleman introduced himself to us only as someone going to Cairo as we were, and thought the taxi fare might be cheaper if three shared it.
The Hand of God at Work
That the hand of God was very much at work we soon learned, for our new friend proved to be Mr. Charles L. Benton, Director of Business and Finance for the University of Maryland. A Baptist and a Christian. He too was going to the Holy Land. Together with this humble and selfless man we toured Cairo.
Together we went to Jerusalem, where he made it possible for Ferris and me to do much more, enjoy much more and see much more than we would otherwise have been able to do. Of this man we can truly say that for having known him our lives have been enriched.
On leaving Jerusalem, something told me that we would have a plane waiting to take us to Rome the next day. Did I say that “something” told me? No, God told me. The plane was there, but more than the plane.
God had prepared things for us so that as soon as we stepped out of our taxi that had brought us to Beirut, Lebanon, and stopped to look around to get our bearings, a man had his car stop and he spoke to us.
This man was a hotel owner. He took us to his hotel, where he introduced us to the pilot who was flying the plush Air Force executive plane that was to take us to Rome at 6 AM the next morning.
This same man gave each of us a single room and a supper (that still makes my mouth water to think of it), as well as breakfast in our rooms the next morning, for a price that still amazes me.
You call all these things “chance?” “Luck?” Can chance guide two people hour after hour for 18 days with never a slip?
This trip had its inspiration many months ago, when Ferris Liske and I first began to think about places we would like to go. We knew that if God wanted us to go, He would provide a way.
We prayed and put it all in His hands. From no corner did we find encouragement. Not a person said we could do it, especially when we had so little money — not even enough to buy one plane ticket one way.
Why did we do it? We had the Bible as our authority. We had the words of Christ to guide us. We believed. “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and never doubt, whatever you ask in prayer that will you receive.”1 We had Wings of Faith.
I do not know the exact number of miles we traveled; I would judge over 6,000. We flew 5,558 miles for a total of 35 hours in the air. We left Straubing, Germany on Tuesday night by train, arriving in Frankfurt, Germany Wednesday morning, August 17. God led us on to England, then, touching in France, we flew to French Morocco, then to Tripoli, Libya, and finally to Cairo, Egypt.
Here we toured, and then by plane to Jerusalem. From Jerusalem we went by taxi to Beirut, Lebanon, and then by a plane God had provided to Rome, Italy, touching in Athens, Greece. A short trip to Naples, Italy, a night in Garmisch, Germany, and back to Straubing. The entire leave cost less than $150.00 apiece. Praise God for His wondrous grace.
Dedication
It is with deep gratitude that I dedicate this record, a collection of experiences written in many different places at many different times, to two people.
To Lydia Mattar — a sweet and gracious young woman — the first Christian I met in Jerusalem.
To Mr. Mattar — a humble man of great faith whose words and inspiration I shall not forget — the second Christian I met in Jerusalem.
Note on the Scripture Reference
My father quoted Matthew 21:21–22 without giving the reference. The wording is from the Revised Standard Version, which he used here. The Scripture reference has been added for this edition.
Matthew 21:21–22, Revised Standard Version. ↩
