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Pastor Chadd Pendergraft said his prayers got very short as he swam underwater with killer bees covering his head.

It was Sept. 11, and he was conducting baptisms for African villagers in northwest Ghana.

“We were standing in floodwater,” he said. “It was fast moving and murky. I was in the water and had baptized 30 to 40 when I saw people swatting. Then I heard a baby scream. It turned into chaos.”

More than 100 villagers standing on the bank scattered. The bees began to sting Pendergraft.

“I dived into the water, but they stayed on my head,” he said. “The river caught me and carried me a little over a half mile. I could see a brush pile. As the water brought me in, I was too weak to hang on, and I was sucked underwater, thinking I was going to drown. I thought ‘Lord give me strength.’”

Pendergraft swam out of the brush pile and to the opposite riverbank. He was on his hands and knees as the bees renewed their attack.

“My head was one solid swarm of bees attacking my lips, my eyes and my ears,” he said. “I contemplated lying down and dying. When you think you’re going to die, your prayers get really short. I just kept saying ‘Jesus save me.’ Then God showed me a picture in my mind. It was my wife’s face.”

Pendergraft swam back across the river and ran into a field. Villagers started beating the bees off him and removing stingers.

He began to feel ill as the poison entered his system.

“They got me back to our hotel, and the ladies began to pull out more stingers,” he said. “They took about 200 out of my head. We later estimated I had well over 500 stings; a lethal dose.”

Pendergraft, 34, was not discouraged by the near-death experience.

“God spared my life because my work isn’t done,” he said. “That’s why we later went back to the village and celebrated. We realize that happened for a reason. All our suffering has a purpose. If I go through that, I can help you if you’re going through that, too.”

Pendergraft was part of a mission group from Crescent Valley Baptist Church 9 miles east of Fort Gibson.

In their third year of partnership with the Ghana Baptist Convention, they have been working with the people of a town named Bimbilla to plant 400 churches by the end of this year.

Student Pastor Nick Howk said the mission to Ghana was his  first international trip.

“It was a baptism by fire of sorts,” he said.

But the main thing Howk remembers is how the African people impressed him.

“Seeing entire villages accept the gospel at one time,” he said. “That’s something we don’t see over here. We’re lucky to save one at a time.”

Howk said he was a changed man when he returned home.

“I came away from the trip with a different perspective,” he said. “I see how we Americans are spoiled. I treat the people around me differently. The villagers in Ghana have nothing, but they still praise the Lord. They rejoice, not because of what God’s hand can give them. But because of the sacrifices he was willing to make for them.”

Howk said all of the people who went on the mission ended up thinking more about how their creator protects them.

“Our eyes were opened in ways they aren’t here,” he said. “There is no way humanly possible that we should be alive. We were able to walk away and say ‘I had no hand in this.’”

Pendergraft said that when he thinks about the incident now, he remembers a quote by the late missionary Lottie Moon: “I have a firm conviction that I am immortal — until my work is done.”

The Crescent Valley missionaries completed the remaining six days of their 10-day visit.

“We baptized more than 500 people and saw more than 1,000 make their first commitment to Christ,” he said. “Our partners  there are on their way to completing their vision, with the 400th church scheduled for Dec. 31. The new vision is to plant 1,000 churches by 2015.”

Pendergraft said the central church in Bimbilla is also named Crescent Valley Baptist Church.

Because of the time difference, they have their Sunday service five hours before services at Crescent Valley Baptist east of Fort Gibson.

“The globe is our mission field,” he said. “Christ died for every individual on this earth. We like to say ‘From neighborhood to the nations.’ This is not just about what is going on here in Cherokee and Muskogee counties.”

Reach Keith Purtell at 684-2925 or kpurtell@ muskogeephoenix.com.