Hudson Taylor almost died before he ever got to his missionary assignment in China.

            The sailing ship carrying him fell into calm winds, then drifted toward a dangerous reef near an island where cannibals had settled.

            The captain gave up trying to save the ship, but Taylor said, “Four of us on board are Christians. Let us each retire to his own cabin and agree in prayer, asking the Lord to give us immediately a breeze.”

            Certain their prayers had been answered, Hudson Taylor went up on deck and asked the first officer to let down the sails, but the officer said, “What would be the good of that?”

            Taylor answered, “We’ve been asking a wind from God; it is coming immediately.” Within a few minutes the wind began to rise.

Taylor’s ship soon landed in China where he spent his life winning souls to Jesus. (Autobiography of Hudson Taylor)