A missionary on furlough told of this experience while visiting his home church in Michigan:
While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital. Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting; one of whom had been seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time witnessed to him of the Lord Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident.
Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known carried money and medicines. He said, “Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that 26 armed guards surrounded you.
“At this I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone out in that jungle campsite. The young man pressed the point, however, and said, “No sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.”
At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact day that this happened. The missionary told the congregation the date, and the man who interrupted told him this story:
“On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong; I called men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?” The men who had met together that day stood up. The missionary wasn’t concerned with who they were — he was too busy counting how many men he saw. There were 26.
[Another source gives this credit: “Anonymous—Submitted to Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul by Murray Moerman”]
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TruthorFiction.com makes these comments at http://truthorfiction.com/rumors/twentysixarmedguards.htm –
This is one of the most widely circulated stories on the Internet. We’ve never been able to get close to a first-hand source for it, but there are other, similar stories for which there are sources.
Overseas Missionary Fellowship, which is named in the rumor, says this version about an African missionary is not from among them because they don’t minister in Africa. They are in East and Southeast Asia.
One of the most widely-circulated versions of this eRumor states that the origin is a man named Steve Huffman. He’s received requests from all over the world asking for substantiation of the event, but never intended to be regarded as the source for the story. He was given the story at church and posted it on an email list and it circulated from there. He says he has no first-hand validation for the account.
Here are some of the stories for which there are sources:
… In her book “The Spirits of Mindoro” published in 1988 by Overseas Missionary Fellowship, Catherine Davis talks about a woman who worked in the jungle on Mindoro Island in the 1950’s. She was sleeping alone in her house one night when she heard men outside talking about killing her. She prayed for protection and the men suddenly grew quiet, then ran away. The next day a woman from the village said that the men did not carry out their plans because of two large people dressed in white who were standing on each side of the path to the house.
…Dr. Billy Graham relates a story in his book “God’s Secret Agents” about missionary John Paton and his wife in The New Hebrides. It is said that one night they were surrounded by hostile natives who wanted to kill them. They prayed through the night for protection and at daylight, saw that the attackers were leaving. A year later, the chief of the tribe of the attackers became a Christian and Paton asked him about the night of the attack and why nothing had happened. The chief was surprised and said it was because of all the men who were there protecting them, hundreds of them in shining garments and with drawn swords. [see HolwickID #10810]
Variations:
…The missionary is speaking at his home church in Michigan.
…The missionary hears of a planned attack on a village by bandits and gathers everybody in a school building for safety. The bandits approach the school, but then turn away because they see guards with fiery swords protecting the school.