Rescue

May 31, 2007

By Gary Rogers

It was mid-morning at Fire Station Number 5. Morning duties were completed and it was time to think about lunch and the afternoon. Then the alarm came in. The information given over the radio was an emergency rescue at the low water dam. I wasn’t mentally prepared for the scene in front of us at our arrival.

Two men in a small yellow raft with plastic oars were stuck on the dam. The current was slowly moving them towards the boil where their raft would quickly capsize throwing both of them into the churning water. They would sink to the bottom and be held there by the pressure of the moving water.

We had seen a number of films of what seemed to be harmless currents taking the lives of rescue workers. I remembered one scene of an overconfident fireman standing in a rescue boat as it reached the boil before slowly capsizing and killing everyone aboard.

The chief arrived at the scene just behind us. “Rogers,” he said, “pick a helper and get ready to go!”

I turned to my long-time friend who had proved himself on a number of occasions. “LeRon you want to go with me?”

“Have you prayed about this?”

“Yes, always!”

“Then I’m ready!”

A construction crew nearby had a bucket crane. We jumped in and it carried us about 20 feet from the shore onto a concrete support at the end of the boil. We needed to catch the men prior to hitting the boil and try to get both of them on the 10-foot diameter pier we were standing on. Armed with a rope, we threw it to the first man. He quickly placed the loop around his chest and we pulled him out of the raft and onto the pier.

The first rescue placed the second man in even greater danger. The shifting of weight caused the raft to capsize and the other man went into the water. A tree limb was caught between the pier and the boil on the edge of the concrete frame, and the man grabbed hold of the limb protruding in his direction.

I threw him the rope but he could only get one arm through the loop. I pulled hard and secured his one arm. By that time the crane operator was able to get two other firemen into the bucket and was lowering them over the victim in the water. A hand from the bucket extended to the man in the water and pulled him into the bucket to safety. We walked away from that rescue having saved two men’s lives.

God taught me several spiritual truths that day. One is, never be overconfident and underestimate potential danger. We have an enemy who wants to destroy us and any one of us can fall victim to his plots, schemes and devices. Peter described Satan as a “roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, NIV). Never no matter how strong you are in God, never believe you are above failure. You need Jesus! You are nothing without Jesus!

Another lesson was how much believers need one another. My partner and I may have somehow been able to drag the man up the side of the pier by one arm, but the other firemen secured the rescue. As great as our intentions sometimes are, we must be willing to ask for help. We need one another! We cannot do it alone! “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).

The final lesson from that day was the tremendous feeling of having saved someone. It is a feeling that continues today every time someone responds to an altar call for salvation. No, I’m not saving them, but I’m being used as an instrument, like the rope in the hands of the Savior pulling them to a place of eternal safety. Nothing compares to having been used by Jesus in saving someone’s soul. Every Christian should experience that feeling.

Gary Rogers is senior pastor of First Assembly of God in Coweta, Okla.