STUCK IN THE RIVER FOR EIGHT HOURS
Today on let’s talk, a young man will be sharing his experience on a river where he went to Work.
My name is Fejiro, from Delta State, Nigeria.
I went to work in a village called Ohore with my boss and junior apprentice. We were there the previous day working on an engine used to dredge sand, we couldn’t complete the Job in a day hence, the remaining job was moved to the next day.
The next day, my boss called and said my junior apprentice and I should get to the dredging site before him. I called the junior apprentice and we set on course to the dredging site that morning, he was easy to access because we live together.
When we got to Ohore the dredging site at Ohore village along this sapele road. I can’t give the exact direction there now because I wasn’t too interested in the details then because of the tragic experience.
Finally, the junior apprentice and I took transport and we arrived Ohore in the morning before my boss would come. In other words, we went ahead of him according as he had instructed, we got on the boat and straightaway paddled to the dredger and began to do some clean up on the engine.
We arrived at about 7:30am and worked a bit till almost 9am. I was excited about swimming because I was just learning how to swim while the junior apprentice was good at swimming .
After we were through with our work, I would jump into the river and struggle to swim out 😂
It was sweet but a tiring experience for me then, though I can swim now.
Sincerely , I’m a guy who loves trying new things whenever I had the courage and chance to, I dare things. I left the dredger and jumped on the small iron boat we constructed in a welding yard close to our office then , cause the dredging Job was more like a contract job to our yard ( the welders built the dredger while we fixed the engine)
I got on the boat and began to paddle round the river that morning. There was a little place that looks like a carnal drainage where water flows to, I wanted to see where the flow went not having full paddling skills , so I sent out only the Junior apprentice who was my very good friend, there were no other persons there but just us in the river.
I paddled through that small place where the water flowed and finally the current of the water took over the boat and took me to a place where the water was stucked, the current was more from the opposite side.
I tried to paddle out , but the river current took me back until I got to a place , never knew it was a shrine in the river for their river god or whatever.
Fear filled my head but my heart was a bit bold as I was struggling paddling to get out of that current flow , but I couldn’t, then I shouted so my junior apprentice would come for my rescue since he was a good swimmer . I felt we could both paddle out on each side and since he was my very good Friend . In fact, I call him brother we went through school together lived in same area and I put him to learn the job with me. so we shared this bond of friendship or brotherhood – his name is Henry so I’ll call him Henry now and not junior apprentice ( the title is long lolsss). I called Henry and he hastily came to my rescue thinking also it was something we could handle. He entered the water , began to swim and finally got to where the current carried me to , from his account , when he got there he didn’t had to swim cause the force of the current did the exercise for him lolsss, a force stronger than him pushed him towards me and almost hit his head on the iron boat, but thank God he didn’t . Heclimbed the boat and we began to paddle out we couldn’t , we tried but end coming back to exactly the shrine spot. Now it was about 12 noon, our boss yet has not arrived , so we kept struggling to come out knowing our boss was simple but disciplined and could really get us grounded for trying to kill ourselves in our anxious desire to explore the water .We tried and couldn’t , we decided to leave the boat and jump in to swim, my friend jumped in first but couldn’t go any further but was stuck , it was as if the water held itself at the point where we got hooked as we couldn’t move further.
We tried till we almost began crying still nothing happened .It was now about 4pm , we couldn’t use our strength anymore cause we hadn’t had nothing to eat . so we continued unto prayer for God to send us helper(s). My friend who was very funny prayed and said lord save us we don’t want to be water babies or idol boys , he said we prefer being workshop boys than water boys. We were exhausted now but began to laugh after his prayer, we found strength and companionship in ourselves, we knew even if we couldn’t get out of that place we wouldn’t die there cause we believe we had prayed.
We quietly relaxed there, hoping God to send one of this fishermen who knew the creeks of the river our way so they could help us with wood boat since our iron boat is held back by the strong current.
Hmmmm, there was no sign of salvation of us then until about 5pm we began to hear voices on the other side of the river, we recognized one to be our boss’s voice . We could sense anger in his voice but at this point we didn’t care if he would kill us later , but they should try to save us first, that was how we got saved
I call this part divine intervention cause that was what it is.
Finally, we saw two men paddling towards our direction without clothes on except boxer’s in a wooden boat , they were huge men.
They paddled to our direction but not with the normal paddle they had a very long bamboo stick with which they tried locating the bottom of the river and forcefully pulled us out. I could see their muscle flaunts in the process, finally they rescued us in the small boat and one jumped into the iron boat which we used to get there and used another bamboo to paddle out . They told us after rescuing us that we were lucky , had it been we remained at that shrine part till 6pm, something else would have happened to us and we would transform to other things. I didn’t beliebed him then cause I was a Christian and still am a Christian today but not just a Christian anymore but a strong believer of Christ and a preacher of his salvation. He said we could have changed to something else at the shrine spot but I said it was impossible, but in my heart thank God that we didn’t remain there to know the true possibility of it 😂
After everything which had happened, we thanked God but I became curious to know how they knew we were in that spot of the river, and they said while I was going into the river part that got me stuck, there was a child by the side who saw me and when they came it was the child that directed them, but this is were I feel it’s a miracle and not a child because I remembered I said we got there about 7:30am and we were the only ones there , it was a quiet village and no child was with us . I asked my friend cause he came last to my rescue before we both got stucked , I asked, did you see any child ,? He answered and said none to his notice , and beside if a child was there all these while he could have raised an alarm while we shouted for help nobody heard us so I doubted a child being there all along , but the funny part was after the story on that day at that point we asked to see the child that pointed where we were to my boss and the men who came to our rescue none of us found the child unto this day. So permit to say it wasn’t just a child it was the GOD OF ABRAHAM who sent the SAVIOUR of the world as a CHILD to save mankind that also sent a CHILD to save us thereby repeating the process of salvation for me and my friend Henry. Beloved, I’m glad and in this Joy and hope I know Jesus doesn’t abandon but He rescues his own .
HOW I HANDLED THE SITUATION
I did the deeds of one who wants to survive. I had Faith in GOD for extra help while I tried my strength with my friend to get us out.
MY ADVISE
ANYONE IN NEED WOULD BE RESCUED IF HE OR SHE DOESN’T GIVE UP ON GOD. SO DON’T EVER GIVE UP.
Now let’s talk
1) Do you really think it was a miracle that they got saved?
2) Did they really really handled the situation well?
3) Do you agree with his advise?
4) If you were in their shoes, what will you do?
Indeed, it's a miracle