Last week I wrote about how to be prepared in some sort of emergency, and of course, about the greatest emergency of all, that which affects our soul and spirit.     About thirty years ago, we had a sailing boat, and one of our greatest pleasures was taking our visitors out for a sail on the beautiful Bay of Islands in New Zealand which was our base. We had done this many times, and this particular time we had visitors from England with us. Coming back to base after a pleasant three day trip on the water, the skipper thought he would give Howard a chance to take the steering wheel.       The wind was directly behind us, taking us gently up the channel to the mooring. The sails were in what is called the “goose-wing” position, which means that one sail is out one way and the other sail the other way. But it is most important that the boat stay with wind directly behind.

     I was inside the cabin, packing things away when I heard Howard calling out from outside. On going out into the cockpit, I saw the skipper lying on the seat, moaning , and with blood everywhere.      Howard, with his lack of experience, had let the yacht wander just the slightest bit off beam, and a gust of wind had swung the boom over with a bang,  catching the skipper unawares and throwing him down onto the gunwales.     I started the motor and quickly ran up front, and dropped the sails. This made the yacht easier to steer and I felt capable of taking it in to the mooring. Once this was done, it was imperative to get help as quickly as possible.      I sent Howard ashore with instructions to go to the end house and ask them there to ring a friend up the road who had his yacht moored next to ours, and ask him to come down to help.  “Oh, that’s no good, he’s at work”, the lady at the house said (I had completely forgotten it was a Friday!). As Howard turned to leave,  the lady called out, “Here he is, coming in the gate!”

    Howard quickly explained the situation, and our friend went out to his yacht, and called up on the radio telephone for help and for an ambulance to come. By this time, the skipper had just about filled a pillow with blood from the gash on his head, and  was decidedly light-headed. The ambulance eventually came to the beach, and as the tide has risen quite a bit more by then, the yacht was able to be taken in much closer to where the ambulance was waiting. We managed to get him ashore and into the ambulance where the two staff were able to attend to him.

     I went with him in the ambulance, leaving our friend to take the yacht back to the mooring and put it away, while Howard drove our car behind the ambulance to the hospital where the staff were waiting with a bottle of plasma to put into him. This perked him up pretty quickly, and he was ready to go home with the rest of us. “Oh no, you don’t!” said the doctor, “You are staying here overnight to make sure you are alright!”

     Much later, I asked the friend who had just turned up, what made him come to the bay at that time. “Well”, he said, “Work was pretty slack and I thought I might as well go home early and take the money that I owed the man at the end house on the way!” After asking him what time of the day that would have been, I worked out that he would have left his office at the very time that the boom had swung over causing the ropes to catch the skipper’s head! I couldn’t help but marvel at the Lord’s timing and prompting….nothing would persuade me that it was mere coincidence! Everything had dovetailed together perfectly to get us help when we needed it most!