An Ordinary Believer

The Alliston Potato Festival was the perfect reason for all the community churches to join together for a mass service at the local soccer area.  While Mom and Dad taught Sunday school, I stayed in the service and listened to an older man share his amazing testimony.  I want to share Rev. Brian Steed's story with you.

Brian walked on stage in a short sleeved white button up shirt.  It was obvious to the audience that he only had a stump in the place of his right arm.  He was adament that he is not a hero, but a simple man who took his faith with him.  There is a God who loves us, we just need to call on Him.

Brian was a missionary bush pilot in Northern Ontario during his twenties.  When he was 28 he went from flying the church owned plane to flying a fixed wing airplane called the Beaver.  In October of 1968 he had just dropped off a plane load of supplies at a northern mining camp before flying over to a remote lake to spot areas for possible future drop-offs.  Landing on the lake, he opened the door of the Beaver to view the shoreline.  Wind came up and blew off his pilot's hat into the water.  Brian quickly made a plan to taxi the plane in a circle, so that the pontoon would come close to the hat... he was just going to scoop it up.

Steering the rudders with his hands while standing on the pontoon, he got closer to the hat.  Suddenly, Brian slipped forward and tangled with the invisible fan at the front of the plane.  Next thing he knew, he was in the lake, underwater, and missing an arm.  A large gash on his forehead was also noticed.  Brian quickly prayed an earnest reflex prayer of "Lord, help me!"

Brian immediately knew he had to get back to the plane.  Approximately 20 feet from him, the plane was still slowly trolling by.  He had to catch it before it went to the centre of the lake.  He started to swim towards the plane and was slightly confused when his right arm wouldn't due the front crawl.  With heavy clothes and work boots on, he swam hard enough to catch the edge of the pontoon before it went by.  Brian was being towed by the pontoon and it took a lot of effort just to hold on.  He pulled 4x to get himself up onto the pontoon, unsuccessful.  Then he paused and said another sincere prayer, for God has always said "Call to me and I will answer you."  So Brian prayed, "Lord, if you want me to go on living, I need your extra help."  On the fifth try he was able to successfully beach his belly on to the deck of the pontoon.

Brian slowly got up, shimmied across the pontoon and up the ladder of the back door.  Inside the airplane he looked at his arm and really realized it was gone.  He saw lots of ropes in the bowels of the plane, so he grabbed one and started to wind the rope around his wet, bloody, slippery stump.  Twice he tried to wind the rope, before he took the time to pray again.  "Lord, what do I do now?"... and then he listened, knowing that God has an unlimited number of ways of speaking to us.

Winding the rope around his stump and neck, Brian created a tight tourniquet that stopped the bleeding.  God had answered his prayers so far.  Being 20 miles from people, with no phone working, Brian had two options.  One - sit and wait... he knew that he would be found the next morning by the helicopter over at the next lake, or two - restart the engine and fly out.  Brian wasn't in pain yet at this point, but he knew that it would come and he didn't want to pass out midair and crash, leaving behind a wife and two kids... so he prayed again for direction.

Brian felt the peace of a green light to taxi off of the lake and fly back to base camp.  He was able to fly the Beaver with one arm, and quickly headed over to the other lake.  The staff on the awaiting dock looked up to see a bloody mess approaching the pier.  A decision was quickly made that Brian's mechanic would fly him in to the hospital in Thunder Bay.  His side-kick was only 19 and didn't have his pilot's license, but Brian knew he could fly the Beaver, so off they went.

Landing in Thunder Bay, an ambulance soon arrived with some very "helpful" attendants.  They asked Brian "which hospital would you like to go to?" and he quickly responded with the "closest!"  Thankfully the best surgeon was on staff when he arrived, but before any procedures could take place, the hospital policy stated that the next of kin needed to be notified first.  Being rolled on a stretcher, he was given a phone to call his wife.  Brian's wife was excited to hear from him because he had been north for quite a while, out of phone range in those days. 

"Where are you?"... "Oh, in Thunder Bay"

"Are you on your way home?"... "Yes, I am!  We are here though because there was a bit of a problem and we had to make an unexpected trip here to the hospital.  You see, it's me... I got my arm nicked by the propeller."

"Any chance you might lose the arm?"... "Well, actually it's completely severed, but God is with me!"

"I'll be praying for you and I'll be there soon with your parents."

Moments later Brian was on his way to surgery, and also received 22 stitches in his forehead.  Thankfully it wasn't his good arm, since Brian is left-handed.  :)  To God be the glory!