Excerpt

Help! Accident on board! The radio operator frantically searched for a doctor. My family was aboard a freight ship, the SS Steel Artisan, traveling to Siam. It was August, 1952 and we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Having sailed 11 days from San Francisco we were still 14 days away from Manila, Philippines. The nearest land was Guam, a good three days distance at top speed. There were four passenger cabins with three bunks each. Our family occupied one cabin with my younger sister, Faith and I sharing a bunk. At ages four and seven we were the only children on board

A crew member doing maintenance work needed to put a metal stud into a cabin wall. Since it would be shot out of a gun the ships passenger deck was cleared in case the stud should go through the wall to the outside. Faith and I were amusing ourselves pushing chairs around the deck. In our crepe soled shoes we pattered softly around unaware of any impending danger. Coming around a blind corner I found myself suddenly stunned and lying in a pool of blood. The stud had indeed come through the metal wall and struck my right thigh. It continued through and lodged in my left leg. My sudden cry brought crew and passengers alike racing to the scene on deck. Someone with first aid experience applied pressure to blood vessels to stop further hemorrhage.

The ship radio mans call for help was finally answered with, Wait. It meant wait until the patient gets better or wait until he dies. In other words, the other ship was not coming. Insistently our officer radioed again, Its a child. Both ships then changed course to meet as quickly as possible.

While waiting for the rendezvous a crew member heard Dad whistling. How can the childs father sing in a time like this? he asked another missionary passenger.

Do you know what he is whistling? she asked. Its The Love of God.

In Gods providence there was an American doctor vacationing on a Japanese weather boat in the area. Within a couple hours the doctor had boarded our ship and surgically removed the stud from my left leg. There was pale yellow matter around the screw end of the stud. Because this was assumed to be bone tissue, it was thought that both femur bones had been penetrated. The doctor forbid me to walk or do any weight bearing until x-rays could be taken whenever we reached land.

My childish concerns had been focused on the physical unpleasantries. I complained about the itchy wool army blanket I was carried on from the first aid room to the cabin. I cried that my favorite little yellow sunsuit was thrown away into the ocean when it was bloody and torn from the stud whizzing through it. The daily penicillin shots probably hurt me no more than they did the tender-hearted first mate who had to administer them.

Two weeks later when the ship arrived in Manila, Philippines an ambulance met the ship and took us right to the hospital for x-rays. A retired American army doctor read the films and shook his head in disbelief. Ive been a doctor through two wars and seen many strange things. But this stud went into the right leg, around the large femur bone, into the left leg and around the bone again. You must have a God. Everyone knew it was truly a miracle that no bones had been broken. Mother said to me, Joy, God has spared your life for a reason.