Sid: My guest is so red hot for the Messiah because on November 12th 1991, well let me have his wife Pat Hicks describe what occurred.
Pat: Okay sir, on November the 12th I got a call that a friend had died, made arrangements for Dell to come home to the funeral, he was flying on a private charter. About five o’clock that afternoon the plane went down in the Bahamian waters. We were at the airport waiting for him to come in. He didn’t come in of course. The next…from Tuesday afternoon until Thursday morning we had absolutely no clue as to what had happened to the plane or the people on it. We had been studying Psalm 91 for now a long number of years; it was very precious to us. We had been studying Psalm 91 and in the course of the evening I told the Lord that because of our faith in His word and in particular Psalm 91 where it said that He would give angels special charge over us, if we lived and abided under His shadow that Dell had to be safe. I just felt like he had to be.
Sid: Yea, yea but when one night went by and another night went by and according the news papers this was probably the biggest search mission in the history of southern Florida and no sight of him. Did you lose faith that he’d survived?
Pat: No Sir, as a matter of fact I think the news media even thought I had lost it. And while I was at the airport, the Lord gave me a scripture that says don’t… think on a good report; that’s part of the don’t be anxious scriptures and I looked down at it and said, well Lord if you want me to think on a good report then it can’t be a bad report. And that was kind of the mode of operation I suppose that we went into.
Sid: Okay, because he was missing for forty hours; two nights went by and he was in freezing water; shark infested, he should not, should not have survived short of both of you having been prepared by God by studying Psalm 91.
Sid: Hi Del, I’m going to take you back to November 12th ’91, your wife explained; you were coming back for a funeral and the plane crashed; you were in these icy waters; you were…how far away from the Bahamas would you say?
Dell: We were in the Bahamas, but we were away from land about twenty to twenty-five miles.
Sid: Okay, so you’re in that freezing water, how many survived the crash?
Dell: There were five of us.
Sid: Okay, however of the five there was a couple and the woman could not swim and there was a dog. What did you do with her?
Dell: Well, what we did with the lady for the first night the husband carried the lady and the dog until he passed away.
Sid: Now fortunately, one of the passengers was an expert swimmer and for the first time he had some of his swimming equipment in the plane and he dove down and got it and got some life preservers for everyone. And what was going on when this first started and he went down and got this protection what were you thinking? Were you thinking you would survive? Were you just plain fearful or what was going on?
Dell: Well, I didn’t have much concern about of being scared right at time it was just so cold, the water was just so cold that I guess our mind was more on that than anything else, but there was no fear of anything right at time.
Sid: And, I understand that you were quoting Psalm 91.
Dell: Yes Sir.
Sid: But then the couple, the husband just finally gave up the following morning after the crash and died, but you tried to hold on to his body, why?
Dell: Well, we wanted to bring him back where he would have a funeral with his family and stuff and we just thought for sure that we was going to make it with everybody being alive.
Sid: So, tell me what were you doing? Were you quoting Psalm 91, were there times where you were praising God, what were you doing, this is a lot of time forty hours?
Dell: Well, ha-ha, there was lots of stuff going on all during the night and everything, but when I could get alone by myself I would just praise God. Even when I was holding the lady helping her to survive I was still just praising God. I didn’t know really what else to do.
Sid: Okay, so you’re holding on to the dead man, the husband of the woman that was one of the survivors and a ten foot tiger shark smelled the dead body, what did you do?
Dell: Well, Danny and I had been together quite a bit so we knew when he start circling I said that something was about to happen so we knew that we had to get rid of the body so maybe to draw the shark off of us so that’s what we did, we dropped the body.
Sid: Okay and how were you helping the woman who could not swim and had a dog to boot?
Dell: Well, the way we did it we put the ladies leg over Danny’s shoulder and I was carrying her kind of under arms and the dog was on top of her and that’s the way that we had to do it.
Sid: But after her husband died I understand she gave up and what happened?
Dell: I think she had seen so much going on with her husband dying and the cold water and everything, I think it all just got to her and later on that afternoon she died.
Sid: I image this must be a hard story to rehearse going through all of the dealing with these people that your probably kidding and laughing with or and then all of a sudden, both motors go out in your plane and you’re in the water. And you’re hanging on for dear life and you see two of them die, that must have been very difficult for you.
Dell: It was very very much so and you know for about eight hours during that day everything happened one right after the other so it was very emotional.
Sid: But I have to ask you, it’s one thing to teach in a Sunday school class to praise God in a problem, but how did you praise God frozen? What was going on, I understand one of your legs was cramping bad.
Dell: Yes sir, I would just when I could, I would just throw up my hands and praise God and thank him.
Sid: How could you do that though?
Dell: Well, I don’t know, I guess it is just part of my makeup, but I love Him and I figured he was going to be with me this whole storm.
Sid: But if your leg was cramping up I understand you were so frozen you got to a point where you couldn’t even straighten it out. How were you treading water? Just on one leg?
Dell: Just on one leg most of the time after about five or six o’clock that evening.
Sid: I mean, close to forty hours of treading water in freezing temperatures would be, sounds near impossible with both legs working. How in the world did you do it with one leg?
Dell: I think it would be impossible if you didn’t love the Lord and the Lord was with us and I believe He was with me all the time.
Sid: Okay, there was one fellow that was a strong swimmer, his name was Dan. When he left the plane and arrived at land, how many hours did he have to swim?
Dell: He swam from eight o’clock, from nine o’clock that evening that evening until about eight o’clock the next morning.
Sid: I don’t see how he could do that after being in the water and going through that trauma and treading water all those hours before. So it sounds to me like you were just…what you actually did pass out. Is that correct? That is correct, I passed out I think, it must have been before Danny left me, because he had told the pilot to stay with me and that he was going to swim to land and get help.
Sid: Okay, you pass out but and then you got separated from the other person that was there, the pilot. How did you survive passed out in the water?
Dell: Huh, I really don’t know.
Sid: I don’t know either, that that Psalm 91 got a lot of power. Look we are out of time today we’ll pick up right here on tomorrow’s broadcast. But Mishpochah your faith will just soar when you read Peggy Joyce Ruth’s updated version of Psalm 91. There have been so many miracles from people that have taken advantage of what she has studied and the revelation that she learned. As a matter of fact most people there is such a supernatural impartation when you read her revelation of Psalm 91 because if you remember she asked God on one of the worst times in her life. She said God is there any way to be protected from all the things that I see that are coming on the earth? Now that was a number of years ago but imagine how.
