The branch cracked loudly under Paul's foot. He froze, but everything was quiet. Paul breathed, "Thank you, Lord!" and went on. Soon he was on the trail to the airplane. The woods and trail were wet with rain.

"Thank you, Lord. The leaves make much less noise this way," he said inwardly.

Paul's "thank-yous" and steps both came faster and faster as he headed toward the plane. But the night was pitch black. He lost the trail and got tangled up in thick vines and bushes.

Paul groped his way back to the trail and stooped over so he could feel the path with his hands as he moved forward.

Finally Paul got to the spot where he thought the plane would be, but there was no plane! In the blackness of the night he thought he saw a house. Paul felt confused. He didn't remember a house there. Had he taken a wrong trail somehow?

He crept up to the house and put out his hand to feel it. It was the airplane! It was covered with black plastic, logs, and palm leaves.

Paul got the leaves and plastic off the plane. (Click on the picture to go to a larger picture you can print out and color.)

"Oh, no!" thought Paul." Now I have to get rid of all this stuff before I can even turn the airplane around!"

What an enormous job! And at any time the guerrillas might discover he was missing. Well, he would just have to keep trusting God to keep them asleep or blind and deaf until he was gone.

Paul shoved off wet palm and logs, and tore off the plastic. Then he wiped the whole airplane off with his outstretched arms, and prayed for strength to move the plane.

He tugged the airplane back and forth. Whoops! Ouch! He slipped and hurt his back. Paul took off his shoes so he could get a better grip with his toes. With his shoes in his hand, he suddenly remembered the key in the shoe lining.

"Man! I don't want to lose that!" he gasped. Paul stuck the key deep in his pocket and kept on working. He tugged and pulled, tugged and pulled.

Once, the airplane was really stuck. Feeling his way along the plane, he found that the tailwheel was up against a stump. Paul prayed for strength to lift the tail of the plane up over the stump.

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