Episode Transcript
It is all too often said that there are no miracles performed in these days. Well, I'd like to challenge this idea with my story of the shark attack. Welcome to miracles in the 21st century. I'm Jacob Atchison. So it would have been a cloudy afternoon, probably around 2 o'. Clock. I caught up my friend and I asked him, do you want to go for a surf? And my friend, he's actually from France, he's been wanting to learn to surf for a while, and so he gladly accepted. I picked him up in my car, we borrowed a surfboard that was big enough for him to learn on, and then we took him to the beach, just me and him. We got to the beach, we waxed up the board, and on the sand we started going through some drills. How to pop up on the surfboard, what to do to get under the waves, all those kind of things. And so we then excitedly went into the water and I started to teach him to surf. It was a very busy day. There was lots and lots of people around, especially down the beach a bit where the waves are bigger, but towards where we were, the waves are more small and good for beginners. After that, yeah, we'll probably be in the water for half an hour. I look over, I see a seal, and there's this, the seal at Cabarita beach, this beach that I've surfed at my whole life and I've never seen a seal here before. And there was just out there in the. In the ocean. So I swam out and had a look and got pretty close with it. I thought it was really cool. As I came back, the thought went through my mind about the possibility of there being a shark in this water. Actually, one point I want to make is before he entered the water, I said a prayer with my friend. It's a habit of mine to always pray before I surf because I know the dangers of the water. But I prayed with him. I prayed for protection, that God would keep us safe and that God would help us to be a witness and, yeah, that we could have a fun time. This friend of mine is not a Christian, but he was willing for me to pray. And he said, amen. Just thought, that's an important point for this story. If we go back to the seal. After I'd seen the seal, the thoughts went through my mind that there's possibly a shark in the area. And that was about it for a while. I was just sitting out there looking at the horizon, enjoying the peace and serenity. Just blanked out. As a surfer is just enjoying the water as me and Tom were waiting for the sets of waves. And this is when it happened. I heard the scream and it was quite a loud, hysterical scream. I turn around and I see this young boy. He's waving his arms around in the air. He's yelling and he's screaming, somebody help. He wasn't in trouble, but I soon found out who was. When I looked across from him and saw this fin that was moving around in the water and an arm that got pulled under the water and fins and body parts. And you could see that somebody was being flung around in the water by the shark. It was a shark attack. It wasn't my friend. My friend was over the side of me, but it was somebody else. As soon as I saw this, thoughts went through my mind. Firstly, that this boy could not die. I knew the shark was attacking him and it looked like it was pretty bad. And so without really even thinking, I just started paddling towards this boy. When I got to him, I slipped off my surfboard and yelled and thrashed about in the water. I think I made contact with the shark at some point. I then pulled up this boy from under the water. And at this point the shark had backed off and had let go of its hold on the boy. But he was very badly bitten. His arm was very mangled up. And very soon the whole water around me was filled with blood. And the first thing I thought of doing was to grab his arm. And so I grabbed his arm just above where he was bitten would have been from here downwards on. His body was all mangled up. His whole arm was very badly bitten. So I grabbed his arm and stopped the blood in this pool of blood that I was in in the water. And at this point another surfer came over and together we pulled this boy to shore. When we got to shore, I looked back and I could see the shark right there in the water. It followed us the whole way back and was staring at us. It was. It was very clear that the shark had followed us the whole way and that it should have bitten us. And yeah, I was just so thankful that I'd gotten him to the sand and out of the danger zone. There was then an offshoot paramedic that was on the shore. Another miracle. I believe that someone was there that could help. This paramedic then came and took charge of the situation. We eventually wrapped a tourniquet around his bitten arm to fully stop the bleeding. And someone called an ambulance and was able to call in a helicopter as well. But yeah, it was A crazy experience. But the relief to know that the boy was alive, even though he was not in a good condition, was amazing. It came to a point that I found his mother and I got to speak with her, and she was very upset, as you could imagine, and so was his other brother that sounded the alarm. But I was able to pray with her and comfort her, hopefully. And, yeah, it was. It was a privilege to be able to know that this mother could still have her boy. They went to hospital where they did surgery on his arm and actually managed to restore all the blood vessels in his arm. Somehow his arm has been saved, and to this day, he's got his arm. His leg was also beaten up, but they've managed to fix that up as well. And, yeah, praise God for that. So that's my story, but I want to make a point of how it's a miracle. First of all, I'm afraid of blood, like, massively afraid of blood. And sharks are also one of my biggest fears as well. Whenever I'm surfing, I'll think about it and think what I'd do if a shark would attack. I'd probably swim to the shore, get away as fast as I could. But I truly believe that because that morning I'd prayed and asked for the Holy Spirit because I'd chosen to give my life to Jesus, to surrender each day that God was with me and that he helped me overcome that fear. I'm truly convinced that God gave me strength to actually rescue that boy. Yet during the time when it happened, I had this strange strength. I know adrenaline is a thing, but I shouldn't have swam towards that attack. I truly believe that God really helped me with that. Another thing that I want to point out how God's hand was in this is that the shark followed us back and yet it didn't bite us. Often those who go to help the victim who's getting eaten by a shark will get bitten themselves. Yet I'm completely unscathed. And I can just attribute that only to God, as the shark wanted to bite us because obviously followed us back. The angels must have shut its mouth, which I'm totally convinced of. And, yeah, I was able to still be in contact with. With that boy today. And he's doing well and he's on the road to recovery. But I praise God that He can use us and orchestrate us to be in certain places at certain times to do his will when we are willing. There's a verse in Zechariah that I'd like to read. Zechariah chapter 4, verses 6. And halfway through the verse, it says, not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. I'm convinced that when we abide with the Holy Spirit, when we abide with Jesus in the morning, that that steady peace that follows us is able to help us in all situations. Whether it's some hard time we're going through in life, whether there's some problem that we need to overcome, whether it's saving a life, but most importantly, whether it's saving a soul. And I think back to a few years ago or a year ago now when I did arise, which is a Bible school that goes for three months and also Bible worked, which was doing Bible studies with people in my local church and school. I think back to that time that I spent serving God in that way. And I had the privilege to see some people give their lives to Jesus, to see. To work alongside the Holy Spirit, to work for the salvation of some people. And the privilege that that was kind of really became apparent after actually saving somebody's life. And I think it is the most important role that we're called to as Christians to work alongside the Holy Spirit to save those that are lost. So I think probably one of the biggest miracles that Jesus does today is a changed life. He changes lives every day. And that we can work with Jesus to help save others. That is one of the biggest miracles that God can do. And I had this experience where I was able to save a life, somebody from death, somebody from a shark attack. But I want to encourage you guys to work with the Spirit and to continue to save lives in that way. Yeah, God still does miracles today, and he will work a miracle through each of us if we allow him to.
