Military families tell of protection, guidance and healing in challenging situations and in everyday life . . .
I was serving on a U.S. Navy ship operating in the Vietnam theater. One afternoon we were steaming off the coast, when suddenly the general alarm sounded and all hands immediately went to their emergency/battle stations. The problem was a burst steam valve in the engine room of the ship. The space was located low in the ship with access/egress via only two vertical ladders about twenty feet in length. The engine room immediately filled with steam and condensation vapors, creating intolerable heat and very limited vision. Those on duty in the engine room scrambled up the ladders as they had been trained to do. Subsequently a roll call was taken; one man was unaccounted for.
As the executive officer, or number two man on the ship, I had no specific assignment during such emergencies. I went to the bridge to find out the details of the situation. It sounded grim for the missing sailor. Knowing there was nothing of a physical nature I could do, I retreated to my room, away from the chaos of the engine room and the bridge. I was then able to take command of the situation – at least in my thinking – with aggressive prayer. I declared that God, Spirit, was actually in control, and that each of God’s ideas, was always safe in His tender and infinite care. I knew that the divine Mind would provide every right idea necessary for protection in this human situation. I thought of Daniel in the lion’s den and of the three Hebrew men in the burning fiery furnace. Even in those extreme situations, the God they knew to be all-powerful was there providing safety and comfort for them.
I continued with this specific prayer for maybe twenty minutes, and feeling that all had to be well, made my way back to the bridge. I found out that the missing sailor was all right; he suffered no ill effects. When the steam valve broke he was not able to reach one of the egress ladders. However, he wisely dropped to the floor where the steam was less intense, then crawled on his hands and knees to a spot where he knew there was a water spigot, which he turned on to provide cool relief from the heat and steam. He remained there during the time it took the engineering crew to rectify the situation by turning off the steam flow from an adjoining space, and then venting the engine room. All of that was accomplished in the time frame of the twenty minutes that I was intensely praying.
I was so grateful for the positive outcome of this situation, which certainly appeared to be a grim one initially. The power of prayer is always available to meet the need required at any moment. It is these experiences that we have along the way that reinforce our desire to depend on the power of God in our lives to meet all human needs.
Doug – U. S. Navy, Retired
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