It was November 2018. My wife and I joined the Little River Missions’ team as they went to Walterboro, SC to visit the veteran’s home. It was a wonderful experience, and the team did an excellent job of meeting and greeting as many veterans as they could. It was a happy and festive affair.
As our team was calling out numbers to give a gift to the veterans, I was delivering the gifts. I delivered a T-shirt to a man that we’re going to call Mr. Tom. I congratulated him and he saw my name tag which said Little River UMC. He was very appreciative, and he said that he had lived in Little River.
As he talked, I became amazed at how similar our backgrounds were. He and his wife were sailors, and they had a 41-foot C&C sloop and we had a 42-foot Tatyana, cutter rigged. Both had lived aboard about three or four years and had cruised thousands of miles. And we each became Christians later in life. Both had survived a brain bleed. Needless to say, he had my attention.
Then he started sharing his special story. He and his wife had left to sail around the world. They were harbor hopping and got down to a remote area of Mexico and dropped their anchor. The cruising world is a small world, and you get to know the other boats easily. They met two guys from Canada and found that they were doctors taking an extended vacation. After a bit Tom collapsed in his cockpit. His wife had no idea what happened. But she was able to get the two doctors to come and look at Tom. They knew that he was in trouble, and they contacted the dockmaster for assistance. There was a small emergency facility which was very rustic. They diagnosed the problem as a possible brain bleed. The Canadian doctors said that this was beyond what they could do. It looked like Tom was doomed to die. But one of the nurses at the emergency facility said that she remembered a young sailor who recently passed by saying that he had just graduated from neurology school. They tried to find him by radio and discussed the situation about Tom. They located him and he volunteered to try to help with a warning that Tom would be his first patient. The dockmaster went and got the young doctor and brought him back where he performed the operation with primitive instruments.
Tom survived and I’m talking to him now. This is not a case of coincidences this is a case where the right person being at the right place at the right time. And they were willing to act. How could that happen? We both agree that we thought that God was there. God was there! Thank God for demonstrating His presence to us. Tom said that he realized that God is there for everyone, for everyone regardless of their background what they are, who they are, and all they must do is accept Jesus.
One final point Tom said that a long time ago someone gave him a small hand carved wooden cross which he loved. He wished he had it now and he would wear it around his neck. As I walked back to our group to see if anyone could remember the name of the person who made them, a lady in our group handed me a wooden cross. I took it back to Tom and it was a blessed day for him.
To God be the Glory.
