Jim Blades and his six-year-old son, Clint, spent a chilly December day fishing for king salmon off Cape Edgecumbe, Alaska. As dusk closed in on his 26-foot wooden troller, he radioed his wife that they would see her in the morning.
Jill wasn’t worried about them staying out at sea overnight. As a commercial fisherman, Jim had done it many times before. But later that evening a hard wind slammed into her house and five-foot breakers began washing up to the outside wall. Unexpected gale-force winds had suddenly descended on the area.
She raced to the radio calling out the name of the fishing vessel, “Bluebird? Bluebird?”
Getting no answer, she switched to the Coast Guard channel and immediately heard Jim’s voice calmly speaking to the dispatcher. “I’m taking in water, I’m not sure where I’m at.” The Coast Guard radioman asked, “Can you tell us how to reach your wife?” Jill took the microphone, “This is Bluebird’s base. Jim, please take care!”
She then contacted friends who attended Trinity Baptist Church with her family. Throughout the evening they all prayed as they listened to the conversation between Jim and the Coast Guard helicopter.
The rescue team risked their own lives to battle wind blasts and 30-foot waves to bring Jim Blades and his six-year-old son to safety, and they received numerous honors for the heroic rescue. But Lieutenant Commander John Whiddon admitted, “The truth is, we flew the helicopter beyond our limitations. I used all the skill I had, and we used up our luck. It took something extra. I’m not a guy who normally preaches, but there was that prayer gathering. We got the awards, but any credit goes to God.”
When you’re caught in a storm, it’s good to have people to pray you through it. Let’s be a church that is “continually united in prayer” (Acts 1:14, CSB). This Sunday we’ll talk about that. It’s part of our campaign called, “Forty Days of Prayer.” Do you have a prayer request we can pray about during these 40 Days? Turn it in at www.hillcrest.church/prayer.
(I first read about the Blades’ rescue in “Night of the Bluebird” by Allen Sykora in Reader’s Digest January 1990.)
--Tom
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