GOD KEPT ANDY FROM HARM

Juliaty Surja — Jakarta, Indonesia

Over the years, God has watched over me as I grew in His love in the True Jesus Church. He gave me a wonderful brother-in-Christ in marriage, and together we are blessed with two sons and two daughters: Steven, Linny, Andy, and Venny.

As a family, we went through many things together. I’d like to take this opportunity to impart one of God’s many blessings to glorify the Lord’s name, and to share how it really strengthened our faith.

A FAMILY GETAWAY

In December 1990, my husband suggested that we take a family vacation at beach Pelabuhan Ratu, in Sukabumi. Pelabuhan Ratu is a well-known tourist attraction. We had never taken our children there before, and my father also recommended the place because he had been there when he was younger and thought it was a great place to take the kids.

At that time, Steven was eleven, Linny was seven, Andy was six, and Venny was five years old. We packed up our bags and arrived at our destination in the afternoon. The children were so happy and they were impatient to get into the water for a swim. Since it was raining, we told them to take a rest at the hotel and wait for the rain to stop.

Early the next morning, Steven, Linny, and Andy woke up and were very excited to go to the beach. Consequently my father took them to rent swimsuits and accompanied them while they played in the water.

When Venny woke up, I took her with me to join the rest of the troop, leaving my husband who will come later. Venny swam in the hotel’s pool while Linny and I played by the sand at the seashore. We had a good view of the boys who were swimming at the sea not far from us. Everyone was happily enjoying their activities.

Periodically, Andy, who is an energetic boy, would often walk back and forth from the sea to the swimming pool, to see on what everyone is doing.

Around eight o’clock in the morning, Steven came up to me and asked, “Mom, did you see Andy?” To which I replied, “Wasn’t he playing with all of you by the water?” I told him to look for Andy by the pool.

Pretty soon, we were looking all around. My husband and father also noticed the commotion and they came over to see what had happened. When my husband realized we could not find our child, he told me that he had asked Andy to stop playing by the water but did not see Andy after he walked off the seashore.

By now, I was panicking because Andy was lost! Helplessly surveying the shoreline, I cried out to the Lord, “Lord, please help Andy!”

A CRY FOR HELP

Realizing we have to look for Andy immediately, everyone split up in different directions to find our little boy, but we returned empty- handed. When we saw the swimming float we rented for him was washed up to the shore, we thought that Andy could have been swept away by the great waves.

At this point, I I knew that I had to pray to God and ask for His help. A verse in the Bible came into my mind: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1).

My husband asked me to go back to the hotel and pray, while he and Steven went to the hotel’s security staff to report a missing child and to ask for assistance in the search.

On the way back to the hotel with Linny, Venny, and my father, I kept praying to the Lord but my father was pessimistic. He was not a believer at that time and his immediate reaction was hopelessness. He kept saying, “It’s over, it’s over!” thinking that Andy was probably dead.

When we got back to the hotel, my father stood on the porch and bleakly looked out to the sea. I gave Venny and Linny their baths and I asked them to pray with me. With tears flowing down my face, I said to the Lord:

            Lord, please forgive us because we didn’t take good care of the son You gave us. Now Andy is gone and we don’t know what has happened to him. But we are convinced that You are the almighty and living God, and You are ever merciful. You know what happened to Andy. If it Your will to let Andy live, we believe that You will save him. However, if it is Your will to take Andy away from us, God, please let us fing Andy’s body so that we can give him a proper burial. We pray that You would grant us a steadfast and strong heart to face whatever reality is before us. Lord, we put our hope in You and we entrust Andy’s life into Your hand. Please listen to our prayers and do according to Your will. May Your name be glorified always. Hallelujah, Amen.

After I poured the burden of my heart in prayer and put Andy’s life in God’s hand, I felt much peace and I felt the weight of the burden lifted from me. I felt stronger to accept whatever came next.

HE IS ALIVE!

Not long after, a hotel security staff called us to confirm that we were the family whose son was missing. I gave the staff a description of Andy and humbly asked that the security guards do their best to find my son.

Steven and my husband finally came back to the hotel. After they cleaned up, all of us knelt down as a family and prayed for God’s help. Since none of us had eaten all morning, we brought the children downstairs to have breakfast.

We left our hotel room and just when the elevator door opened at the lobby, a security staff saw us and put down his phone and asked if we were the family of the missing child. When he realized we were he said, “Come on, hurry up and follow me!”

My husband turned towards me and told me to go back into the hotel room to get our car keys, just in case we might need it. So I turned on my heels to get the keys; all the while praying in my heart for some good news.

When I finally got downstairs and the elevator doors opened, I saw my husband enter the hotel lobby carrying Andy, who was still alive. Praise the Lord!

From the puffiness in his eyes we knew he had been crying. We took him back to the hotel room and gave him a bath. Then we knelt down again to pray and give thanks for God’s help. My father, who doesn’t pray because of his unbelief, naturally knelt down for the first time to pray.  Thank God!

After breakfast and when Andy finally calmed down, we asked him where he had been. He told us that he had walked off the seashore as his dad told him. And even though he had walked back and forth between from the beach beforehand, for some reason he couldn’t see us.

While he was searching for us, he dropped his goggles twice. He had picked it up the first time but the second time it was washed into the sea. He kept walking until he saw a bridge. When he stepped onto the bridge, he realized that the foundation of the bridge was loose and it rocked back and forth.

Andy was scared he might fall through the bridge so he turned back but by then he was completely lost, and he had wandered into a deserted place. Frightened and lost, he started to cry. Some people heard his sobs and found him, and they took him to the hotel to report a lost child.

I really thank God for watching over Andy and keeping him from any harm.  I also thank God for reuniting our family.

Through this ordeal, we were strengthened in our faith and we were convinced that the God we worship is the almighty God and we have to trust in the Lord—to rely on Him to give us peace so that we will not fear when we are faced with trials. As long as we cry out to Him, He will surely help us.

May all the praise, thanksgiving, and honor be given to our glorious Lord! Amen.