Grace

I am very glad tonight to be worshiping together with the students and their visitors, instead of holding a funeral.  On Sunday evening, several students took a walk down to the beach.  Penina and Matthew Chege walked ahead of the others.  The tide was out, and they were able to walk far from shore in the sand and shallow water.    The other students didn't see where they had gone.

Many of the students of UMS come from "upcountry", far from the seashore.  Most of them had never seen the ocean before, and most of them don't know how to swim.

As Chege and Penina became distracted by the coral reef, they didn't notice that the tide had begun to come in, and the water was deepening.  By the time they realized what was happening they were in serious danger.  Panic set in, and they began struggling to stay above water.  As time passed Penina found herself in a place in which  she was completely unable to hold on any longer.   She released her life into the hands of the Lord, and sank for the third time under the water.

Three Danish tourists were relaxing on the beach nearby.  They noticeda commotion was taking place far from shore.  Eventually they realized that something terrible was happening, and they rushed into the sea with a raft to try and rescue the students.  By this time, Penina had been completely under water for more than 20 minutes.   They dragged her lifeless body to shore, and began giving her mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Penina came around, and began breathing again.  Eventually she regained consciousness, and she and Chege began to speak to their rescuers about their Lord, and about the school that they attended.

Today, the three Danish tourists  who rescued Penina and Chege visited the Ukunda Missions School.   They ate dinner with the students, and participated in the evening worship time.  It was a time of thanking God and them for saving the lives of Matthew and Penina.    They seemed to really enjoy the time worshiping with the students, and of course the students were very grateful to the three Danes for saving the lives of their friends.

Chege with Michael and Bruce.  Both are soldiers in the Danish army

Penina and Luga (Bruce's sister)

God works in mysterious ways....