10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
Pastor: Dr. Lester Hutson

All of the material listed herein is the property of the Byron McCartney family, and may not be copied without express written authorization.

There are plenty of passages in the Bible that tell us that God blesses and protects His faithful children: those who are living by His commandments and principles. For example, Moses wrote, 'know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations' (Deuteronomy 7:9). David wrote, 'O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful' (Psalm 31:23). However, there do not seem to be any verses which specifically state that He will protect one of His children during the commission of an act of stupidity. Never-the-less, I know He does because I am still alive.

Between the fall of 1960 and the Summer of 1965 we lived in the Brazilian northeast state of Pernambuco. Part of that time we lived on a piece of property my father and another missionary purchased a couple hours drive in from the coast of that state.

This property, which Dad named 'Betel' ('Bethel' in English), was over 100 hectares consisting mostly of thick rainforest. The surrounding areas were also very large and undeveloped. The only areas cleared on this property were where the church, Bible institute, dormitories, four homes and several outbuildings were located. Consequently, we were subjected or blessed, depending on your point of view, to the continual presence of rainforest critters.

Actually, we all felt blessed at the presence of the beautiful birds and monkeys. There were brilliantly colored birds such as parrots and parakeets as well as many varieties of song birds. Interestingly, the prettier the bird the uglier its 'song.' It is as if beauty is indeed only skin deep. Take the peacock for example. Everyone considers it to be one of the most beautiful of birds. But have you heard its call? It sounds like a fire alarm! One of Brazil's most melodious singing birds is the canary but its plumage is a simple yellow or green and yellow. Another singing bird is the 'curio' and it is a very plain, dark brown bird.

The monkeys came in a variety of shapes and colors too and we were glad to see them. The cutest were the marmosets. These little guys when full grown would only take up the palm of your hand. The little white tufts of hair sticking out around their ears gave them a comical look. Then there were the other larger monkeys like the capuchins and the spider monkeys. It was a pleasure to watch them play in the tree tops, chasing each other just like the squirrels do here in the US.

The types of animals most everyone felt subjected to were the insects and the snakes. I, on the other hand, felt blessed to be around any bug or creepy crawly thing. My mother used to break out in a cold sweat when she would gather my clothes for washing because she never knew what was going to crawl out of my jeans pockets. 

Scorpions and spiders were by far our most frequent 'visitors.' It seems like we had to deal with one or the other almost every day. We found scorpions on our beds, on the walls, on the floor and sometimes in our clothes. You also never knew where you were going to see the next spider nor what size it was going to be.

One time a large, hairy tarantula just walked in from the outside through the kitchen door like it was coming home after a hard day's work. The whole house was alerted to its presence by my mother's frantic screams and the sounds of pots and lids crashing into the walls and the floor. Being regular visitors to that area of the house, Dad and I got to the kitchen first and found Mom up on the counter top throwing whatever she could get her hands on at that poor spider. He just sat there all bunched up wondering what in the world he had done wrong. I got the dust pan, scooped him up and took him to the edge of the forest and let him go while Dad tried to calm Mom and get her down from the countertop. I think we fended for ourselves for supper that night.

Despite the abundance of these and other poisonous insects none of us were ever bitten or stung. We had visitors get stung by scorpions and we heard of others who were stung but 'somehow' (thank you Lord) we escaped such a painful experience. Ironically, while cleaning up the yard in my Houston, Texas home after hurricane Alicia blew threw in 1983 I was stung by a very angry scorpion and spent several hours in intense pain. Then, just this year my older sister was stung by a scorpion in Peru while on a mission trip there with her church's youth department.

Then there were the snakes. Lots and lots of them. Some colorful some dull, some poisonous some not, but plenty of them. Few of them felt as bold as that tarantula and so we seldom found them in our home. But you could count on finding them anywhere around the outside of the house.

Brazil has some of the most dangerous snakes in the world. The Jararaca (Bothrops Jararaca) and the Bushmaster are two of the most life threatening snakes in the world for two reasons: The potency of their venom and the size of their fangs which allow for deep penetration ensuring lethal envenomation. There are also coral snakes, rattle snakes and a variety of other venomous snakes.

Now, at the age of 10 I considered myself to be a world-class expert on snakes. I knew everything there was to know about the snakes of the world. After all, I had read a field guide to North American snakes cover to cover. The fact that most of the snakes in that book did not exist in the southern hemisphere or that most of the snakes I had seen so far were not included in that guide did not shake my self-confidence one bit. I was sure that as long as a snake looked somewhat similar to one pictured in that book I would be able to know if it was poisonous or not.

And so one morning while walking to school with my sisters, my brother not being of school age yet, we saw a bright green, blunt-headed, pointy-tailed snake stretched out in our path. Ignoring my sister's warnings I applied my great knowledge of serpents to the occasion and promptly caught and deposited that snake in my school bag, all the while assuring my sisters that it was of the non-venomous variety. Besides, I thought to myself, since this particular snake is not in my guide to North American snakes it must not be worth mentioning and therefore definitely not poisonous.  However, this advice did not have the calming effect on my sisters I thought it should have had and they continued to nag and warn me all the rest of the day. 

I played with that snake all that morning, between and sometimes during classes. Every chance I got to open my book bag was a chance to hold that snake. During lunch time I let other kids touch it but since it was my pet I jealously guarded against it developing an attachment to anyone else and so never allowed anyone else to hold it.

Right after classes let out mid-afternoon I once again pulled the snake out for others to see and touch. Just when a large number of kids were gathered around looking and touching my pretty new pet one of the workers my father had hired to work on that property came by. Most workers in that area wore large knives on their belts to help with clearing brush, cutting up fruit to eat or even for self defense. Well, this guy saw that snake in my hands ran over to me, slapped the snake to the ground, took out his knife and sliced it into 4 or 5 pieces. The whole time yelling at us to get away and to check ourselves for bite marks.

Initially I was too shocked and horrified to do or say anything. But as I watched my beautiful green snake turn into several small wiggling pieces I became hurt then furious. However, before I could blow up all over the worker he picked up the head and with his knife he opened its mouth and showed me its fangs. They were small but they were definitely there. I stood there for several seconds watching the poison run down the knife edge and couldn't think of what to do or say. Slowly reality sunk in. I had been playing with a poisonous snake all morning. I had allowed others to touch it. I had put all of us in peril.

With my father's help I went through what we would today refer to as a paradigm shift (a new way of thinking or looking at things). Ironically he had a snake skin belt and on that day it did more than hold his pants up. I retained my love for snakes and bugs but from that day forward I no longer considered myself an expert on them.  

SUMMARY:

I believe God protected me and my friends that day. However, let me quickly and very clearly state that in no way do I believe that we fell under the protection Jesus applied to the Apostles and the early Christians in Mark 16:18. He promised them that, 'they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.' I believe God's Word is very clear that those special gifts from the Holy Spirit and the special protection God placed on those early Christians was strictly for that time: the apostolic period that started with the giving of the gifts and ended with the completion of the Word of God. Paul made it quite clear that when the Bible was completed the special gifts of the Holy Spirit would come to an end (1 Corinthians 13:8-10). I simply believe God prevented that snake from biting any of us. 

I also believe God protected the ministry He was performing through my father. Had any of us taken a hit from that snake the least that could have happened would have been the disruption of the Bible institute's classes for the time my father would have been absent taking care of the victim or victims. The worst could possibly have been my father's resignation from the ministry because of my death or because I had inadvertently caused the death of someone else.

God promises to provide for and protect His children as they faithfully live for Him. As you by faith apply God's Word to your life you will successfully face the obstacles and endure the trials and tribulations you encounter along the way. God promises that He will never leave nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5) and that going through those difficulties with the right mind set will result in positive and Godly growth in your life (James 1:3-4).

However, we are not robots or puppets. God does not make our decisions for us. God also does not put information into our heads (that act of God towards man, 'inspiration,' also ended with the completion of the Bible). We are solely responsible for the quality and quantity of information we store in our brains. David wrote, 'thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee' (Psalm 119:11). This principle of learning can also be applied to all the other areas of knowledge. It is our responsibility to load our brains with truthful and accurate information so that our decisions will result in the proper actions.

NEXT LESSON:

I had a wonderful and very special childhood due to my parents' selfless submission to God's will for their lives. In the next lesson I'd like to pay them a tribute as well as to try and give you a sense of what they had to face to remain faithful to God as missionaries in Brazil.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"