“I’m alive!” exclaimed Steve Callahan in a telephone call to his brother Ed. “I always wanted to spend a few months at sea, but not like that!” Steve had just been rescued from a six-foot rubber raft near the West Indies in the south Atlantic Ocean. He had survived for 76 days and had drifted almost 1,800 miles before being rescued by some fishermen.
Steve’s ordeal began when his 22-foot sailboat sank near the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa. He had planned a five-week trip and was on the way only four days when the boat struck a reef and began sinking. Steve was asleep at the time.
“I woke up when I heard a huge ‘bang’ on the side of the boat,” he recalled from his hospital bed. “I barely had time to get on deck when water started gushing in like someone had turned on 50 water hoses!” He quickly inflated his life raft and piled supplies into it before his boat sank.
Steve’s survival gear included two pints of water, a fishing line, a protractor and charts for navigation, a few pencils, a few days’ supply of food and a cheap spear gun. That’s not very many supplies for a 2½-month trip! Most people today are poorly supplied with what is really needed for this life. Steve had the “basic emergency supplies” for his life raft. God is offering you far more than just the “basics.” He offers a complete rescue to whoever wants it.
The food that Steve had managed to throw into his life raft did not last very long. But he was able to spear fish with his spear gun. Eating fish and barnacles kept him alive.
Day after day he drifted with the westerly current. He watched seven ships pass by without seeing him. Finally, 76 days after his boat sank, Steve was rescued. Birds flying around the raft attracted the attention of the fishermen who found and rescued him. Although Steve was in bad shape from lack of water, sunburn and starvation (his weight dropped to 110 pounds), he recovered quickly after being taken to a hospital.
News of Steve’s rescue was sent by CB radio to other fishermen in the area. After all, it is not often that a person spends 76 days in an open raft in the ocean and lives to tell about it! The news was eventually heard by the Coast Guard in Miami, Florida, who notified Steve’s family of his rescue.
Do you think that Steve had any thought of saying “no thanks” to those fishermen who wanted to rescue him? Of course not! Yet, there are boys and girls who are saying “no thanks” to the Lord Jesus. They are refusing His offer to save them. Don’t wait any longer! The Bible says, “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2)).
Messages of God’s Love 7/11/2021