A trip to the beach

On October 7th, Sunday, we went to a beach in Hitachi after eating lunch. In attendance was Dan, Thomas, Michi, and myself. The waves had a huge swell and we could see the quickly pulling undertow. There were about 5 elementary age kids playing in the skim and the waves as they washed up on the shore. We were really worried that one of them was going to get pulled in by the undertow. Dan jokingly called which kid it would be. The really bad part was that none of the children's parents were there watching the kids. Anyways Michi told one of the older girls, not playing in the water, to go get some of the parents. About that same time, I had turned around to look for some sea glass. About a few minutes later I hear Michi screaming. I turn around to see Dan taking off his shirt and Thomas running for the water. I start sprinting immediately, fully clothed, Thomas and I hit the water about the same time.(What had happened was that one of the boys got pulled down and out by the undertow, in about ten seconds he was at least 30 meters out!!!)Thomas reached the kid a few seconds before I did, and got his head above the water. We were so far out that neither Thomas or I could touch bottom. I tried to help support Thomas as he carried the kid because the waves were so bad! They were pushing all three of us under together. Michi and Dan had waded out about knee deep and took the kid from us because we were practically exhausted after getting him back to the shore. At this time the parents finally showed up. Michi gave a nice speech to the parents and the children as Thomas and I tried to come back to our senses. There were a lot of thank yous and apologies from all the parents. My cell phone got ruined, so I had to replace it.It was such a rush.

Now, I'm not writing this to make us look like heroes or anything. But we all felt as if God had put the four of us there to save that kid; basically something like Devinne intervention. Sito-san preached that day and finished at 11:30. We ate at a quick little restaurant near the church, and Michi and I both had a strange desire to go to the beach. Thank God for all these events that brought us to the beach at that time.