“God, forgive me!” I cried out as tons of sand squeezed the air out of my lungs. A moment before, our family was horrified when our four-year-old son was buried alive. Tim had crawled into a tunnel that we had dug in the base of a sand cliff and it collapsed on him. I crawled into the other end of the tunnel to rescue him, only to find sand filling the tunnel. Digging furiously, I soon came to his face. As I was telling him that everything would be okay, the sand above came crushing down on me. Now both of us were buried alive!
At the age of 13, I had spoken with our pastor after a Wednesday night service and prayed the sinner’s prayer. Soon after, I was baptized and joined my family’s independent, fundamental Baptist church. A few years later, I became president of the youth group and after graduating from college taught an adult Sunday school class. After meeting Mollie, I made sure she was saved before we were married during her junior year of medical school. We joined independent, fundamental Baptist churches when moving from Pennsylvania to California to Georgia and to England.
However, I was never interested in sharing the gospel with others. When Mollie wanted to go soul winning, I would find excuses for not participating. While completing my Ph.D. at the University of California at Davis, I stopped taking communion. On several occasions before getting buried in the sand, I woke up in the middle of the night with the Holy Spirit clearly telling me that I was not saved. Each time I tried to ease my conscience by using the profession of faith I had made when 13.
The sand cliff where we were buried was on the west coast of Ireland. We were vacationing there after arriving in England for a 12-month sabbatical leave from the University of Georgia, where I was a professor of biological and agricultural engineering. Even before coming within a few heart beats of death, I had realized that education, career, international recognition, family, church membership, and other earthly efforts did not satisfy the longing in my soul for a personal relationship with God.
God performed many miracles the day Tim and I were buried alive in Ireland. My feet were still visible, so Mollie pulled on one ankle and Daniel, our 13 year-old eldest son, tugged on the other one. I was still conscious and strained to push back against the heavy sand. Inch by inch we worked together until I was free.
Then panic gripped my heart! There was no evidence of the entrance or exit to the tunnel where Tim was still buried. The 12-foot high sheer vertical wall was now a steep slope of loose sand. Where should I start digging to save our son from sure death in a matter of minutes?
I started digging with my hands about two feet above and to the right of where I emerged from the sand. For every two hands full of sand I removed a handful fell back into the hole. At this rate Tim would be dead before I reached him. I yelled to Daniel and Andy, our 8-year-old middle son, to go for help. Mollie was praying like never before.
Andy ran to the previously deserted beach and found a young couple from New York City. When they arrived, I was exhausted after struggling to make a small hole about the length of my arm. They had the strength to quickly enlarge and deepen the hole and soon reached Tim’s forehead. The Lord miraculously held back the wall of sand as we removed additional sand that prevented him from breathing.
We would have missed Tim completely if I had started digging a few inches to the left. We do not know how long he had no air, but when uncovered he started crying. Glory to God, Tim expects to graduate from a Christian college this spring.
Hope filled my soul while driving to my pastor’s house after returning to England. The chorus of an old hymn that I had not heard for many years filled my mind, “There’s room at the cross for you.” On my knees beside my pastor, I yielded my pride and self-will to the will of God through tears of repentance. Joy filled my soul as the precious blood of Jesus washed away my sin atthe age of 43.
After yielding my heart to the Lord, I became interested in reading the Bible, attending church, and witnessing to others. As a scientist and an engineer, published materials on creation science profoundly increased my faith in the scriptures. “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” (John 3:12).
In 1998, I publicly dedicated my life to serve the Lord in any way He desired. In May 2004, the Lord called Mollie and me into full-time missionary service in the Philippines. Mollie closed her medical office in 2005 and I resigned from the University of Georgia a few months later.
We took a survey trip to the Philippines and the Lord confirmed my calling to Scriptural Science Evangelism. BIMI missionaries and local pastors arranged for us to visit seven public schools and three colleges where we had liberty to share the gospel with students. Messages included science demonstrations showing the need to start with God’s Word to understand science. To God be the glory, over 330 students made professions of faith.
In September 2006, we made a second survey trip as part of a BIMI CLAIM medical team. Mollie and other doctors, nurses, dentists, and a chiropractor saw patients at clinics arranged by four churches. Each patient had a personal consultation with a soul winner from the church after receiving medical treatment. Praise God, over 600 patients made professions of faith.
The key to both survey trips was working with missionaries and pastors of local, independent, fundamental Baptist churches. The Lord willing, we will move to the Philippines by the end of 2007 to help missionaries and pastors plant and strengthen churches in their communities. We will be able to immediately travel throughout the country, reaching students and patients for Christ as done during our survey trips.
We thank God for calling us to serve Him at this season of our lives. We are eager to serve Him for as long as we are physically able or until Jesus Christ returns.
“They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing” (Psalms 92:14).
