By Tim Binnall
In a remarkable story out of Florida, a pair of teenagers who got stranded out at sea during a swimming excursion gone wrong found their prayers for help answered by a boat bearing the name 'Amen.' According to a local media report, Tyler Smith and Heather Brown decided to celebrate their 'senior skip day' with a trip to the beach that turned into a rather harrowing ordeal when they swam out into the ocean in the hopes of reaching a nearby island. However, due to a strong current, the duo wound up two miles from shore with no way of getting back to the beach.
Stranded in the ocean for a grueling two hours, the pair began to panic and they wondered how much longer they could stay afloat. As is often the case in such distressing predicaments, the two teens began to pray for help. "While I was laying on my back," Smith recalled, "I just called out, 'God, please don't let this be the end. I still want to see my family ... send someone to save us.'" As luck would have it, the pair were eventually spotted by a bewildered man who was captaining a boat sailing close to them and they were safely plucked from the sea.
As the duo regained their bearings aboard the boat, their misadventure and subsequent rescue took on an even more miraculous tone when they noticed the name of the vessel: 'Amen.' Upon making the realization, an astounded Brown reportedly recalled "the first words that came out of my mouth were, 'God is real.'" And it would seem that the teens were not the only ones taken aback at the almost-eerie turn of events as Erik Wagner, the captain of the boat, also marveled, "I don't want to call it dumb luck, it wasn't, it was the hand of God."