WALKING ON WATER ••.•• WHO BELIEVES THAT???
by Noel Adams
, Walking On Water
By Noel Adams
As a child I was brought
up by loving, caring
parents that didn’t have
a lot by the world’s
standards. But they
were.adamant about
seeing that I went to
Sunday School and church
from a young age. At
that time, it was
largely to no avail. I
was from the start
rebellious, and hated
authority. So much so
that my Father took me
into a prison at an
early age to show me,
where I was going to end
up at the rate I was
going. Meanwhile the
Bible stories continued
from my grandfather,
Sunday school teachers,
etc. However, I was more
than a listener as I
openly made fun of what
they were saying.
Hitting a rock and water
came out for the people.
The virgin birth. The
sea splitting and then
swallowing up the
Egyptians. God sending
his only Son to die for
us and then going into
heaven. etc. But the
thing I had the most
trouble believing was
walking on water by
Jesus and a disciple.
Now who in their right
mind would believe that
a real possibility? Not
me.
By the time I reached
the ripe old age of
seventeen my mind was
pretty well made up as
to what I believed and
it was certainly nothing
that would get me into
heaven. In fact a
fortune teller told me I
would die before the age
of 21. So with
graduation about to take
place I convinced a
large group of my
friends to have a
graduation party. We did
and did not make it home
for 3 days. When we did,
I was physically sick
from the weekend and
just wanted to rest. My
father had other ideas.
For some reason he felt
it was time to start my
working career. He gave
me the choice--Army,
Navy, or Air Force. This
was while driving me to
the recruiters. I chose
the Army to become a
paratrooper. By the time
we got down there the
only recruiter there was
the Navy recuriter. Dad
wasn’t to choosey which
branch I went in and the
offer of extra pay
without jumping out of
planes appealed to me.
So Navy it was. I
immediately went out and
talked 6 friends into
joining with me.We went
to boot camp in San
Diego, a couple other
schools, and then
submarine school in
Groton, Ct. In 1962 from
Groton I went to Pearl
Harbor to catch my first
sub. When I got there
the sub was already
deployed to the Western
Pacific, so I joined
another sub that was
going out on an
emergency mission to the
Western Pacific. We
completed that
deployment and when we
got back I was
transferred to another
boat which was asking
for volunteers. We went
out again to the Western
Pacific for about 7
months. This time it was
during typhoon season.
The weather was quite
cold.
The sub I was on was an
WWII reconverted sub
with 4 diesel engines.
It was considered a
diesel, fast attack. It
had 9 compartments; 8 in
a row composed the main
body, and the conning
tower sat over the
control room; the
lookouts were above the
conning tower. On the
bottom/sides of the sub
there were tanks which
are filled with air and
some fuel,and some
water, or a combination
of these. Half of the
tanks are closed and
half are free- flooding.
Free-flooding means that
they are open to the
ocean; they have holes
on the bottom like a
collander; as long as
the sub stays upright,
the air cannot escape
these holes, but if the
sub were to roll, the
air escapes and the sea
rushes in and the law of
gravity takes over and
the sub would sink.
Should that happen the
hope would be that the
sub would roll back
upright (the bottom of
the sub is heavier than
the top) and then the
tanks could be blown
with high pressure air
to expell the seawater
and bring the sub back
to the surface. Before
this would be
accomplished however,
the sub would sink many
hundreds of feet below
the surface.
Anyway, we were in the
northern western pacific
during typhoon season
and there was a storm
coming in behind us. Now
a lot·of people ask “Why
don’t subs just dive
down under during a
storm where its nice and
calm? The answer is,
it’s not nice and calm
down there any more than
it is on the surface. We
stay on top because if
the sub rolls and goes
under, there is a better
chance of righting
itself in time, before
reaching crush depth
than if it rolled while
under the water.
Normally we would have
turned 90% to the
typhoons path to let it
go past us.
Unfortunately, land
considerations prevented
this, so we had to try
and outrun it. Now a
WWII diesel sub is just
not fast enough to
outrun a typhoon, and
soon we were in the
middle of it. At all
times underway, one-
third of the crew are on
watch, and during this
watch I was the port
lookout, which meant I
was on top of the
submarine out in the
storm. Within a few feet
of me were the starboard
lookout and the officer
of the deck, and because
of the weather we were
chained in place to
prevent us from being
washed overboard. All
hatches were dogged shut
and our only
communication was with
the Chief of the Boat
(COB) .The Chief of the
Watch (COW) was
responsible to man the
airtanks and control the
Christmas Tree--which is
a board on the port side
of the ship with red and
green lights that
indicate the tank doors
being open to sea (red)
or (green) shut.
The reason we had to be
out there was to be the
eyes of the ship, as
radar and sonar were not
useable in this type of
situation. At this time
waves were breaking 30-
50 feet over my head.
Have you ever seen The
Perfect Storm? It was
kind of like that, but
darker. You could see
the outline of the
waves, sleeting rain,
and white spray. And it
was very, very cold.
The waves were huge and
the bow was rising and
dropping 40-60 feet as
it crested the waves. A
wave broke over us and
then another one came
immediately, and sent
the sub into a roll to
port that would have
sent us plummeting into
the depths. The thought
crossed my mind to undo
the chains that held me
to the boat so that I
might live a little
longer. But then I
thought no, my family
should have a body to
bury. I scrambled so
that my fingers were in
the decking where my
feet were standing:
moments before, as the
ship continued to roll.
In the dark, knowing I
was about to die, I said
Jesus please forgive me.
And at that moment I
realized that I was
walking on water. I
still remember the blue
green color of the water
as it was beneath my
feet, and the feeling of
absolute peace. I had
never felt that before.
I don’t know how long
the sub stayed in that
position, but the next
thing that happened is
nothing short of a
miracle. From this
position in which it was
impossible for it to
correct the sub rolled
back over and righted
itself. Afterwards I
talked to the COB/COW.
He said that his feet
were on the Christmas
tree and the overhead
(ceiling). His belief
was that everyone
topside had been killed
and he was trying to
find reliefs. He could
not understand how we
had righted ourselves
without going down at
least a couple of
hundred feet. No one
from an educated,
science approach could
explain it--it was
simply impossible for it
to roll that much and
correct itself without
going under. They didn’t
understand it to the
point where they didn’t
want to talk about it--
if people don’t
understand something,
they don’t like to talk
about it. These people I
talked to were highly
trained, educated people
who knew every part of
the submarine inside and
out, blindfolded.
From that point on I
trusted God with my
life, but it was not for
some years later that
while attending Triangle
Baptist Church I heard a
sermon that made a
difference too. Brother
Bob, who was filling in
for the Pastor, was
speaking about trusting
and obeying, saying that
trusting will get you
by, but obeying will
make you happy. This was
the point at which I
actually commited my
life to the Lord--up to
this point I had been
trusting but not
obeying.
Clearly God has a sense
of humor. He not only
had me walking on water,
he had me walking on
water with a submarine
over my head.. So when
the Bible says
something, believe it.
He is Risen!!!
Hallelujah!!!
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