He still calms the storms (literally) - Miracle stories #27

This was the first time my dad and I talked through in detail together our encounter with death together back in 2010.  We witnessed God's miraculous intervention. We humbly pray all who listen are ready to die, because their hope is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Here is the home video from that visit in Guinea Bissau
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FI1XennS3E

Here is William Booth's vision that  I believe needs to be seen by every Christian 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnLOCfCbCkA

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Blessings to you. This is Wade, and this is an unusual one that we're gonna be doing here. Usually, obviously, it's Katie with me, but I have the blessing to be with my dad. And um, for those of you who are aware, we we've done these memorial stones, we've written these testimonies, and we think it I believe it's very important that we document and and journal. In fact, I was just dad was just verifying he just journaled this what we're gonna talk about here, which I didn't even know he did. But it's important that we do that to be able to be able to remember details and um that were accurate in our recounting of these events. So we did two. We did uh Katie did this one, the memorial first memorial stones, and then I had done some other ones on this one. And the testimony we're going to share today actually is the very last uh testimony in this booklet, and it took place back in September 2010. And so my dad and my mom had come over, this was their their third visit. They'd already come to Dakar, they'd come to Kolda when we were there over those course of those seven years, and then this was the last time that they joined us in 2010. We were so every time they came, we were so excited, and we would actually purposely do our vacation time so we could get away from ministry, do something fun. We had gone down to uh what was the name of the waterfall dad that we had visited in Senegal? Oh my almost to Kedigo.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Kedigo most to Mal to Molly, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Yep, Ketigo, we did that, and then we also did the um beach time with Lauren when she came that one time. That was towards uh Sally, I think. So the last time we were capskiering and um the beach right there in Senegal. And just so backdrop, I'm my dad's from Maryland, I was raised in Maryland. We were kind of grew up as saltwater fish, loved the ocean, uh, felt confident with the ocean. Um but this was an unusual day that happened. So did you want to just that was really interesting. I didn't even know about that with Caleb. Do you want to share about that?

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Here we are on the side of the Atlantic, the salt water, but we're looking, we'd be looking where the sun would set, not where the sun would rise, like we would swing like we did in the Carolinas. And we were we were on this beach, and everything was fine, but it got overcast and it began to drizzle a little bit, just drop a little rain. And Caleb was with us, and we we had walked out to a sandbar, and we were we were a good distance out from the shore. And then Caleb decided, I think he he saw his grandmother and his sister in on the shore, they were going to go shell hunting, and Caleb decided he would go in. Well, he went in, of course, he he went from one sandbar to a lesser one, but there's a trough in the middle, and in the middle of that trough, it was over his head. So as he began to navigate in, he went under, his head went under, but Wade kind of stayed with him, kind of followed behind him, and when he went under, he started a panic. And Wade actually grabbed him with two hands. I remember one hand was behind his neck, and other one maybe grabbed him by the back of his shorts or something, and and he took pulled him out of the water and he got down on his to his ear and he whispered to him or said to him in a in a low voice, he said, You know, you mustn't do this. You you must remember to swim because it's a matter of life or death. And and Caleb did. He paddled in and he got to the other, to the to the sandbar inside and you know, closer to the shore, and made his way on. Then Wade came back out to where I was. And we're standing on this sandbar, and the weather began to change. It began to rain a little more steadily, and I didn't pay any attention, but I guess you know there was a there was a an increase in windage. And he and I were having this conversation, and it started out. He was talking about his two good friends, um, two missionaries, uh, one who was you know very closely related to why we were there, who was Jack Wilson, and another man named Dick Brogdon, who has a powerful ministry, and Wade, you know, was was close to both of them and was giving testimonies about their uh escapades. But there were what they cousins, Wade? Just friends from high school. Well, they had these uh adventures apparently, and Wade was talking about the kind of extreme risk they would take. You remember him talking about Jack going up on walking up on a bridge or something, and you know, just doing things that were a little bit uh uh risky, you're risky, unusually risky. And uh anyway, so with that conversation morphed into another uh part. And for some reason, whatever he was saying to me prompted me to bring up Stonewall Jackson. Because Stonewall Jackson, of course, as you know, the way he got his name was the fact that he was fearless. And in and in the early wars in the Civil War, he was standing on his horse, and I believe he's actually shot in his hand or something, but he he absolutely was immovable. And I was saying that to wait, I said, Well, you know that reminds me of Stonewall Jackson, the fact that what that he said that when in that he knew that God had told him not to fear death, that when it was his time to go, he should be ready and he shouldn't have no fear of it. I had no, I don't think I'd gotten those words out of my mouth. And he and I were looking at each other. In fact, I journaled that. There was a point in time when he we weren't even talking to each other. We were like looking at each other, and we could, and we, and the sense was something was happening, and it was happening. A wind was coming, and a tremendous undertow, the likes of which I which I had never felt before in the Atlantic on the other side. And even there, even even we had been at the beach uh uh before when we were there in the years past. We had taken to a beach for the first time we were there in 2002, and and my wife and I, Linda and I, we had swam out to a rock or something way out in the in the ocean and back, no problem. Well, this undertow was powerful. And of course, I I suddenly realized I gave away five inches to him because he was standing there looking at me and the water was rising up to my chin. And I and and he said to me, Dad, can you feel the bottom? Uh, you know, are you feeling the bottom? And I suddenly realized that I actually had to, I actually had to let myself go down inches before my feet touched the bottom. So the water was actually over my in my face. It was up, it was over top of me. And I'm looking at him, of course, and I'm seeing he's he's got the water maybe up to his neck or something, but he's okay. And I'm and I'm losing it. So I tried paddling, I tried to to to turn myself to go towards shore, and I wasn't having any success. My problem was I didn't get my feet, my legs up high enough. The weight is grabbing me. He's reaching out and grabbing my leg, grabbing my arm, and he is trying with all his might to pull me towards him and towards the shore. And and and it was obvious he wasn't having any success.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Well, I I remember, I remember that I after I tried pooling, first of all, the look on your face I had never seen before. It was like a look of worry. And I was like, Dad, and uh, and then that's when I realized how fast we were moving away from shore. And then I pulled, and then I don't know if you remember, I got actually under the water and I was trying to push you from behind to try to time the waves, but they were just so choppy. And um anyway, and then before I knew it, I I was physically exhausted from pulling, and there was adrenaline by that point, by adrenaline's dumping. And then I remember quite honestly, I mean the waves are so choppy. I remember them just I remember you just going under waves. Yeah, yeah. And um, and then uh and then at one point you started saying Yeah, I started I started I started saying the name of Jesus and save me.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

And then I lost sight of I lost sight of Wade. I was being pulled out and the waves were choppy and it was raining and and the wind was blowing, audibly nothing could be heard, I'm sure. And I I as he said, the look he saw the look on my face, he said it he said it I remember him saying to me as I saw death. And um so when I when I said the I said the name of Jesus, well I realized that it I was I was going and I was I was beginning to uh resign myself and when I did a piece came over me as I as I went out beyond, I couldn't see Wade anymore, I couldn't see anything, I began to, I changed my what I was saying, and I and I and I said, Well, I I know I'm gonna die. I know this is it. Uh there's no hope. Wade couldn't save me. At one point, I thought when I was going out, I saw I saw uh Wade in a and there was a boat at the shore, so what they call Piro, I guess, and Africans, but I lost sight of that. And I began to cry out, life in Jesus, life in Jesus. At first I said it as a as a as a a kind of a piece to myself, as acceptance of the fact that I was getting ready to go under. But then I began the the the my mindset was I wanted the Africans to hear it. I wanted those who who were going to see me drowned, I wanted them to know that the only life that matters was life in Jesus. So I was shouting life in Jesus, which of course, you know, with the with the roar of the ocean, you know, you you don't hear anything of, but I that that was my mindset. I was getting ready to die. I knew there was no hope for me. But what I didn't know that Jesus wasn't done, because suddenly, without no consciousness upon my part, I was on my back, and I was and my knees were drawn up to my chest, and I was bobbing like a cork in the ocean, and I and and my face was to the sky, and I looked up and the the sky went blue. The storm passed at that very moment. It went it went uh guess south. And I was in, I was I was literally on my back floating, and I and all of a sudden I could see Wade. The water flattened out, and I could see Wade, and I could see an African swimming out to me.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

I'd just say my vantage point because you're gonna you're gonna touch on the you already touched on the miracle of God, but I want to just from from my vantage point, what happened. So my dad just shared, like he supernaturally the Lord somehow put you in a position like you were, like you said, like a cork, like you you be drew your your legs up, yeah, which is just strange. I I don't know why you wouldn't do that. No, you know, but it was just like God just He did it. Yeah, it was like fetal. Like a fetal position. Yes. So for me, like what as soon as I was pushing before we separated, you know, I had to make the terrible decision. There's two things that came to my mind, you know. First was I also was that close to resigning. And it's um it's a very sobering thing, you know, you just come to a place where you just accept like this is it. And so I was that I was that close, I was like, okay, this is this is how I'm gonna go. And but the first hard decision was to let you go. I realized at that point I couldn't save you, and I was going to drown also trying. So I I thought if I could at least try to get free, I could send help back. But it was a it was a very difficult decision. So and I remember just as you said, supernaturally, the choppy waves, the stormy sky suddenly began to change. And there is no human explanation for how fast it happens. So I I began to swim before it was it was pointless. We were already, by the time that we were, I was still pushing him, we were already at least a hundred yards offshore. And then he drift, my dad drifted even much further off beyond. So I I began to swim, and then the waves began to still, it was enough for me to begin to break and to go towards a sandbar. I was still some distance from the shore, and I but I was finally able to get my feet on the sandbar, and I remember I looked back and I did not see your body, and um and I was screaming in Woloffin English, um, screaming out um, Dimbala, Dimbala, and help me, help us. I was just screaming, and at first there were people that were beginning to look my way, and what what startled me was like no one did anything, they just stared. I'm not blaming them, but it was it was just a real picture of like in the moment of panic, how few people respond or know how to respond. But as I was screaming, um, unfortunately, Caleb witnessed that. I know that really impacted him, and uh, he wanted so much to jump in the water, even as a nine-year-old boy, you know, to help you, he knew he couldn't do anything. And I I as I was screaming, I looked back again, you weren't there. And then at one point, when the waves were crushing, I could see your body, but I didn't know again if you were alive or dead, but it was way in the distance. And at that moment, I had a vision as clear as a movie, and I saw myself come to shore because my mom had walked down the beach with my wife. I saw myself get out of the water and tell, I mean, it's clear as a video. It was like a moment like that, like a vision. And I said, mommy's gone, and dad's gone, and I saw I just saw mom buckle and saw her fall to the ground. And um I just when I saw that vision, I screamed out loud, no God. I was like, no, don't let it happen. I started screaming, I was like, have mercy. And and and all of a sudden, then these two men, and I remember I was just shaking. I mean, I, you know, when your adrenaline dumped, you're so weak. And I was like, I was like, I I I didn't have the strength at that moment to try to swim back. But then all of a sudden, these two men jumped into the water. One of them was a French man, one was a Senegalese man, and they started swimming towards me. And when I saw them swimming toward me, all of a sudden I was like, and I remember say, God, give me strength to go back. I just cried out, and it was like, God just gave me, you know, grace and strength. And when I saw them, it put courage in me, and then I went back out for for you with them. And by the time that I got to you, you you were whispering, you're I don't know if it was your strength was so gone, but you were saying, I speak life in Jesus' name. And I remember saying, Dad, I'm I'm here, I'm almost here.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

And um, yeah, we they they got, I think one got your legs, and then I got Well that yeah, the later that that that was like but the but the first guy came out and got behind me like you had tried to do before. He got behind me and started pushing me. And I feel I it's a it's it's a it's humbling and humiliating, I should say, just to to admit this. But I was like that, I stayed in that cork position. I stayed, I mean, you know, like I wasn't, I I wasn't in in a condition at all like you were. I wasn't exhausted at all. Like I was just floating. I was just out there in the water floating like a little kid. And this African guy behind me started pushing me. He got me into a point where you and these other African guys started grabbing different my limbs and all, and I and then you, I was like at a sandbar. I could, I could get my feet on the ground, of course. They thought I was, they probably thought I was in a terrible condition. Actually, you were the one that was in terrible shape. I remember looking at you, and and all I guess the only word that comes to mind is grim, because you were exhausted and the look on your face spoke volumes. But the Baffrican guy that came out, as we subsequently found out, because we had fellowship with him that night in a tent on the beach, his name was Esau. Of all things, God sent Esa out in the water to help my son retrieve me. And Esau in his language is Jesus. The one I was calling out, crying out to, that's the name of the guy that comes to get me. Now, what what are the chances of that? That's God. A humble guy, too. He was very, he was very, you know, it was there was no drama. You know, he didn't he didn't make any big deal about it. But because a lot of, I have to say, you know, having been to Africa several times now, found out that a lot of Africans don't swim. They don't, they don't even like the water, even though they live on the water. They don't. Some of them do. This guy did. Praise God. It was an African that would swim out to where I was and and then push push me towards Wade, and then you know, then I was retrieved. But that's God, you know. I've I've you know, probably many people, if anyone listens to this testimony, you know, you have you may have had experiences like this. I've I know that there have been there are times in my life when I should have died, uh, but it was in ignorance. It was it would I wasn't cognizant of of how close I was. It was it was it was just something that came upon me, you know. Both Wade and I have been in law enforcement, and there have been times when I was in situations where, yeah, it could have been a could have been a bullet, could have been something that would that would have killed me. But this was conscious, uh a conscious encounter with death where I I knew, believed in my heart that God was gonna receive me. He was it was okay. I actually came to a place of being at peace. Just before that sky cleared, I had resigned myself to being gone. But I wasn't my mind wasn't like Wade's mind. Wade's Wade was in there, God gave him a vision of tell having to tell my wife, his mother, that I was gone. That is the worst. That's war, that's worse than death. Surviving is is is can be horrific. And I say that as a widower. I say that my wife is with Jesus. The one I was praying to, my wife is with Jesus, she's a total peace. No more sorrow, no more pain, no, no suffering, no regrets. When you're a survivor, Wade was the one that was suffering. I was out there bobbing around, you know, just making my peace and thankful, thankful that I've been saved for many years. Because if that happens to an unsaved person, that's a greater sorrow. To be to not know the Lord and not have that blessed assurance in your heart that that if this life is over, that you're okay, you're more than okay. But when you're saved, you can have that peace. And that's that that's our prayer for this this video, of course. It's that you you would hear you would hear somebody tell you uh that God is faithful. I think about, you know, is it it's uh it's it's it's Psalm 34, you know, for verse 4 says, you know, that this poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles. Well, boy, if that didn't ring true. You know, and I know we know this this you know this is just one testimony, but I pray it I pray that it does encourage somebody's heart because I'm grateful. I'm grateful that that God spared me. And and you know, as a as a just just to show you a cultural difference, I you know, Wade, I remember when we got into shore that day, and Wade was so exhausted and just really at the end of at the end of himself, you know.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

There's a huge crowd by that time.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Yeah, it's a crowd. And and and and we were staying in a place at at that at that beach resort. We were staying. In fact, Jack Wilson and his family were there too. We w uh uh the woman that ran that resort came down to the beach and started chastising him and and rebuking and and speaking all manner of remember she said she was angry, she says, Don't you know that two weeks ago two people died in that very spot?

SPEAKER_00 22:53

I don't know if you remember she said that that's why she was so angry. She's like thinking that we're like we did that purpose, or we were just we were just um real careless and reckless. But yeah, there had been two drownings in that same area a couple weeks prior. So she was irate and yelling and all that.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Yeah, I remember that. And then and as a result, Wade said, I think we're not we're not gonna be staying in your place anymore.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

It's like this is not the time for you to be yelling right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Anyway, God it God, well, in that a juxtaposition of God's grace and man's inability to take in the whole import of what happens in life, you know. Don't you value people that that can that can empathize with you when you when you face difficult times and God brings you through, he pulls you through.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

And I I I I have one more thing, Dad. Do you remember how what was the story of the sparrow in your hand? Wasn't it it was the same night, wasn't it? There's a picture of you and you're holding a little bird in your hand.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

What was a was that at was that when after we had the meal on the beach that night?

SPEAKER_00 24:10

To me, it was such a powerful picture and a bookend that you like you said, I don't even remember saying that to Caleb. That was such a picture prophetically almost of what was gonna happen, and the father looking out for us, you know, grabbing us out of the drink. And then the way that it ended was there's a picture of you, and you're holding a sparrow in your hand, and it was alive, and then it flew off. And I thought about uh the you know, obviously the scripture that his his eyes on the sparrow, you're of much more value than the sparrow. That of all the things the animals that he brought that you were holding was that one. Uh, we have a picture of that, and uh I'll I'll put that up on the video as well. With also with Issa, we have a picture of Isa. Yeah, remember that? Yeah, yep. The look on my face on that picture is one of like I'm still processing the mercy of God, you know, that he had and and I and I've also resolved to also say that God would have been good, he is good no matter what. So if he had not rescued you, he had not rescued me, he'd still be good because as you said, you had the confidence that your soul would have been in his hands forever, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But in his mercy, he extended my life, extended your life. Yeah, and um he knew that mom, you know, would have just shattered her, and uh and his mercy, you know, mom didn't face that, um, but she saw you walking out of the water. Yeah. So I think she had come right up right when you were getting out of the water. That was the irony. It was all all of us together.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

So I remember you sending Caleb for help, and he ran to his mother, didn't he, instead of doing what you thought he he would might do, and and you know, you you had to correct you know, I don't know. He that's all he could think of was if help meant going to mom. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Well he was probably thinking a language barrier, you know. Trying to he, you know, there's but again, just I would have picture that um there's so many illustrations you could pull from that experience, you know, people drowning in their sin, and uh, we're called to take those risks, you know, to reach people with the gospel. And we don't want to be a spectator, uh just watching everything happen.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Yeah, that's you're you're you're you're reminding me of the one of your favorite uh testimonies, and that's William Booth. Yeah. People, people that became recreational on the shore instead of being lifesavers.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Yeah, the vision. Yeah. I should drop by, I should put that link in the description as well. That's a very powerful, powerful truth. So well, Dad, if you you wouldn't mind just uh praying for anyone that's watching, just for um the knowledge of God's eye upon them, as you quoted Psalm 34, verse 4. And I I would just say in closing, before you pray, for those who are watching, this is the verse that comes to my mind. James says, Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit. James says, Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. Now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So just the knowledge that it's we walk by humility. Arrogance is to assume and presume upon the future. But humility says, if God wills, my life is in his hands. I don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring. But overall, then the knowledge is our life is a vapor. And um I think that brush with death in the ocean reminded me and and you all the more of the brevity of life and to not presume and um to appreciate what we have in our relationships and to give thanks for any day, any month, any year that we get to see uh in our lives, may it be lived for his glory. So yeah, if you could just pray, pray us out, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Lord, it I thank you, Lord, um, because this I pray, Lord, that this video, this this uh this testimony, first of all, Lord, would would be received in the spirit in which it was intended, not not uh as as a as a uh a testimony of boasting about uh an adventure or something that an episode in life which which would appear as though uh there was uh something special about us, God, but about only about you. You're the you're the actor here. We were just uh playing a part, God, to to illustrate your faithfulness and your mercy, God. And I thank you, God, that uh uh we can testify about your goodness. God, uh I pray that that that those who have had experiences, Lord, and that's it that would prompt them to look back and and and count the number of ways that you have been faithful and merciful to them. And maybe they've they've not given testimony, but you would prompt that testimony out of them, Lord, that that you would increase your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, God. You would that's the prayer that Jesus prayed, God, uh that that uh you would bring your kingdom here and and you do, God, and and and we're just a vapor. We're just we're just here for a brief time and and and Lord, but but the promise is that we will be reunited. And it won't be for a day or a or a month or a year, it'll be forever. It'll it'll be uh as as as the song says, when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing your praise, God, than when we first begun. That's that's our test. This is a this is a blip, God, uh of life, but but we are we are rich here, God. We have been rich. And I have been, I testify not only of this experience, as my son has has said that that he didn't have to tell his mother that that my life was gone and that our marriage would had ended, but but the fact is that we shared over 53 years of marriage together, and my wife, God, was was saved uh through cancer uh in 2013, not long after this, God. She went through that and you extended her life, God, uh, for another dozen, almost dozen years. And we and we relished every bit of it, God, and and you have blessed us with a family. And I pray that for those who are listening to this, God, that they would relish their families, their marriages, their friendships, their church uh body uh fellowships. God, that you would get the glory in everything. Everything. You say, uh, you know, where do we get breath? What more, what can we give you that you haven't given to us? Breath in our bodies. Every day, thanksgiving. You also pray continually, give, always give thanks, God. So I thank you for this privilege to speak these things out with my son, God, and and and I thank you for for the life that you've given to his children and and his uh nieces and nephews and and his siblings, God, uh, that we can't thank you enough. And I pray that blessing, I speak a blessing out over the viewers of this testimony. I pray, God, that you would bless them and keep them and make your face to shine upon them, God. You would be gracious to them, God, and you would lift up your countenance upon them, God, show them your favor as you should have shown it to us, and keep them in that perfect peace that passes all human understanding. It's the peace that only Jesus can bring. And we pray with my son that this has all been done to Jesus' glory. Amen.