Fourth of July Disaster

I believe there is no such thing as luck or accident. Everything that happens to us is for a purpose.

It was just an ordinary Fourth of July camping and fishing trip to Arkansas until it turned into a disaster.

The lake was dark with calm water. We could see my brother's boat lights not far from us. Fishing was good. We were pulling in the biggest Brim I had ever seen.

A faint glow out beyond the rise of the trees puzzled us. What could it be? Suddenly, the wind began to blow very hard. The water lapped up into our Bass boat and we could see my brother's flat-bottom boat struggling in the high waves to keep from swamping.

I yelled over the sound of the tornadic winds to my husband "we have to pull
Teeny in to shore." My brother had recently gotten his artificial leg and I was afraid if his boat swamped he would not be able to hold his own in the turbulent water even with a life jacket. We cranked our motor and pulled up anchor and slowly made it through the white caps to his boat. By that time our boat was taking on water really bad. The decision was made to abandon our boat and get into Teeny's small boat.

Teeny's boat could not hold all six of us. My husband made the brave decision to anchor our boat and stay with it so we could get safely to shore. I was hysterical with the thought of leaving my husband in the raging lake. Yet, we left for shore and called for help on arrival.

My husband fought hard to keep the boat afloat but the wind over turned it.
He had given all the life jackets to us. He was not wearing a life jacket. Somehow, he found a rope tied to the underside of the boat and hung on for his dear life. He later told me that during the storm he wasn't sure if he would make it and he thought about asking God for help. He told my oldest brother Bobby later that he felt like he had committed too many sins in his life to ask God for anything. Bobby, told him that even though he did not ask out loud that night "he had asked God for help."

God did help him and the police boat found him hours later still holding onto that rope under the boat. He was helped into their boat and brought back to shore. I had been sent to the hospital due to my hysteria but released to go back to our camp.

My brother Teeny came to me and said the police wanted to speak with me. I thought "this is it; they're going to tell me that my husband is dead." Thank you, God, he was alive.

We did not know before we ventured out on that lake that night if there had been any bad weather or tornado warnings. What we thought would be a pleasurable night of fishing became a life and death struggle. We all had God and His angels looking out for us. We could have all drown that night.

I guess the moral of this story is be prepared to meet our maker at any time. We do not know the future but He does. This story was told to me by my mother. My daddy was saved that night. He lives in Heaven with our Lord today.