As part of the group of 14 pastors going for additional training, my flight to the Cincinnati meetings was interesting to say the least. I left for the airport about 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 21, with a light snow falling sporadically. By the time we got to the airport, the snow was coming down much harder, but none of the flights were delayed or cancelled.

I noticed that every plane was being deiced as the temperature dropped. My flight boarded on time, but was delayed with the deicing and the flights backing up because of the weather.

We finally began taxiing for takeoff about half an hour late. As the plane began to accelerate to the point that you could feel the wings begin to lift, there were two loud bangs that seemed to come from under the plane!

I felt the plane settle onto the runway and the wing flaps being whipped from take-off to landing position, heard the engines scream into reverse and felt the brakes being applied—all in the matter of seconds!

I knew we were past the point of taking off safely—or of being able to stop before we reached the end of the runway.

Now the plane began to turn ever so slightly clockwise as we slid off the end of the runway into a deep, powdery snow—finally stopping about 100 yards past the end of the runway.

The pilot informed the passengers that "something" happened with the #2 engine.

Thankfully no one was hurt and the plane stopped safely, because it took the emergency vehicles about 10 minutes to reach us. As they approached the plane, most of them became stuck. Finally they plowed a path and had us walk to the end of the runway to board the shuttle buses.

The airport had to shut down that runway, and with the snow coming down pretty hard, they had to shut down the other runway to plow it. I caught another flight, but arrived in Atlanta 30 minutes after my connecting flight left for Cincinnati. After sleeping in the airport and finding my lost baggage, I finally arrived at the home office 18 hours after I was originally suppose to.

In spite of many, many hassles on that leg of my journey, I was extremely grateful that the plane was not trying to climb when "something" happened to the #2 engine (we probably would have crashed).

I was touched by all of the individuals who told me that they were praying for a safe trip for me and all of the other men flying that day. In doing so were others spared a worse fate?

God does listen to our prayers, and they are a sweet fragrance before Him (Revelation 8:3-4). Thank you for your prayers—for me and for all of God's saints.