Stranded in icy, snowy mountains, lost at sea on flimsy rafts, overboard and swimming alone in the middle of the ocean – there are many astonishing stories of people who survived against what appeared to be impossible odds.
Many cases are well known and have been made into Hollywood films. Yet the role of faith in these encounters is often underplayed - though many people who have had apparently miraculous escapes from death will talk of God being with them. Here are six of these stories of astonishing survival:
Alone in the ocean (2022)
James Michael Grimes from Alabama was drinking and taking part in an “air guitar” competition on a cruise ship. He does not remember how he fell overboard in late 2022, but awoke to find himself swimming alone in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
His absence wasn’t noticed for 12 hours, by which time the cruise ship was long gone. The US coastguards then had 7,000 square miles to search, a seemingly impossible task. Yet incredibly, he was found alive after an estimated 20 hours in the cold, merciless sea.
Grimes is sure that God helped him to survive the long ordeal in an area known for sharks.
“I can’t float even when I’m trying to,” he told ABC News. “The Lord was with me when I was out there, because something was holding me up the whole time when I was passed out.
“The fall didn't kill me, sea creatures didn't eat me, I felt like I was meant to get out of there.”
Miracle of the Andes (1972)
One of the best known, and most incredible, survival stories is what followed the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which left a team of injured and traumatised young people stranded for 72 days in the harsh Andes mountains. The more lurid details of the cannibalism of those who died has been the subject of a number of movies: Alive in 1993 and more recently the Spanish language film Society of the Snow on Netflix.
But they do not say much of the faith that became an important part of the experience of the survivors and their families who prayed fervently after they received the terrible news that the plane was lost.
The survivors also prayed together every night, discussed the religious implications of their actions, and perceived a much deeper meaning to the companionship with one another that they needed to survive.
“In the mountains, we got to know a good God,” Gustavo Zerbino told Aleteia.
“Despite everything that was happening, he was with you, he accepted you, he accompanied you. Our God was love.”
Many miracles happened. Not only surviving multiple challenges - the crash, an avalanche, the freezing temperatures and the lack of water and food – but their eventual means of rescue was two young men hiking out into unknown, brutal mountains without any of the necessary equipment. Somehow they found the correct path and reached help after a 33 mile trek.
Sixteen survived from the original 45 crew and passengers.
Against the sun (1942)
Harold Dixon and his crew of two, Anthony J Pastula, and Gene D Aldrich, were forced to make an emergency sea landing after their plane got lost in the Pacific Ocean on a routine patrol near Pearl Harbour and ran out of fuel. But despite their best efforts to prepare for the landing, most of their survival gear sank with the plane and they were left with a 4’x8’ rubber raft, a police whistle, pliers, a pocketknife, a can of rubber cement, patching material, a .45 pistol with three clips of ammunition, two life jackets and the damp clothes they were wearing.
It took five days for the men, desperately thirsty and hungry, to start to pray. As soon as they did, it rained and they could drink.
“In the midst of our trial and tribulation, we felt the need for God,” Dixon told Life magazine.
“So, in the blazing sun, pushed by trade winds, surrounded by sharks and rolling waves, we held the first of what soon became a daily prayer service.”
They ate passing birds, sharks and fish as they struggled to survive for 34 days. Eventually they arrived at one of the Cook Islands – just days before a hurricane “which certainly would have meant sure death had they still been at sea”, according to the US Navy memorial. All men were honoured for their courage and fortitude.
Saved by a seal (2022)
Scott Thompson’s work as a professional fisherman gave him plenty of experience of the sea on the California coastline. But nothing could prepare him for his five-hour ordeal when he fell from his boat into the cold ocean.
He saw an oil rig some miles away and decided to swim towards it, with images of his wife and children motivating him to keep going. Then surprising encouragement came in the form of a harbour seal that he said appeared next to him and swam alongside him.
He believes he was divinely protected.
“I looked up and said 'God will you please take care of my family,' that's all I asked,” a tearful Thompson told news service KCBS. “And the next thing you know, I'm at the oil derrick.”
‘Miracle man’ (2004)
Eric LeMarque had been fit and healthy due to a professional sports career – but he would need much more than health to survive six days in the ice cold snow on California’s Mammoth Mountain after he got lost while snowboarding.
He was stranded in a snow storm dressed in just a thin layer of clothes, with some chewing gum and a bag of meth, a drug that he was addicted to at the time. He hiked for miles, sleeping in caves, aware that he could not feel his feet – which would eventually have to be amputated.
Told in the book and film ‘6 Below’, in the process of his battle for survival he would seek God, while his believing mum prayed for him during the search.
“I’ve been humbled, and I’ve had to go to this depth before I realised why I need to live for God. [Learning] not only who I am, but whose I am,” he told reporters.
“I said, ‘all right God, I’m gonna press into you with all of me, without doubt, with a childlike faith’, and he not only showed up but he shows off and he still shows off today.”
Unbroken (1943)
Another story made into a Hollywood film, though again omitting the vital role that faith played in the story, Louis Silvie Zamperini spent 47 days struggling to survive on a flimsy raft with fellow airmen after his WWII bomber crashed into the middle of the ocean 850 miles south of the Hawaiian islands.
Any joy they felt about their incredible survival in the face of shark attacks and few resources was short lived, as they were captured by enemy forces on the Marshall Islands and sent to the notorious Japanese prisoner of war camps.
These traumatic experiences would leave Zamperini bitter and drive him to alcoholism. But his wife became a Christian at a Billy Graham crusade and soon the former airman would find the same faith, eventually becoming an evangelist. He said this prompted memories of all his prayers during his gruelling ordeals.
Heather Tomlinson is a freelance Christian writer. Find more of her work at https://heathertomlinson.substack.com or via X (twitter) @heathertomli
