When John, a family doctor from Bristol, aged in his early sixties, set off for a holiday hike on a remote Scottish mountain, he could never have known that he would become stranded, and still be there over 48 hours later.
Walking over wet rocks, he has slipped, fallen and immediately experienced enormous pain. Realising he is unable to stand, he self-diagnoses a hip fracture, and panic starts to set in.
Miles from civilisation, and without any signal on his phone or GPS, he decides to try and reach higher ground. So he scrambles almost two miles up the mountainside, only to realise that his clothing is so camouflaged into the landscape that, when the rescue helicopters circle overhead, they sadly fail to spot him.
He ends up enduring two nights of freezing temperatures, and a storm.
But John also knows he is not alone; he senses a very close presence with him.
As a Christian, he has been praying. He also later discovers that others have been praying for him too. Jesus has been hearing his prayers, and responding.
What follows is a battle for survival, which has left the experts utterly baffled. How is it that this man survived, for such a long time, after such a perilous slip, through such treacherous weather conditions, at the time of year it happened? It makes no medical sense.
But God …
If you want a ‘light through the cracks‘ story that has, unusually, been reported by the mainstream media, this one is for you.
You can read the full story here.
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Have you, like John, ever been stranded in a remote location, without any functioning means of communication How did you feel, and what did you do?
Have you ever prayed in a panic, and sensed a very close presence with you? Could it have been an angel, or Jesus himself, and what did you decide?
As ever, constructive comments are welcome below.
Photo by Tim Russmann via Unsplash
2 Comments
Fabulous to see this reported in the media but I’d love to chat to him myself! I am sure he would have more to say about the help and presence of God through what must have been a terrifying ordeal. A miracle he survived and was found.
I felt similarly to you, Joy, and have shared it because I was so amazed that the BBC even mentioned his Christian faith as playing a part in his story. But like you, I would love to sit down and chat with him about how he sensed God sustaining and strengthening him, while he was on that mountain.