I am submitting this testimony because of an overwhelming desire to express my thanks to God for evidence of His wonderful care during a moment of extreme danger.

Years ago we built a home on a piece of property that had a deep drainage ditch at the back of the lot. At the time, I welcomed having the ditch, thinking that the children (there were four then) would enjoy scrambling up and down its banks. They did, but after about two years the city decided to pave the ditch. It was paved in a U shape of concrete with a five-foot opening leading from a newly laid culvert at the high end of our property. This proved to be one of the main drainage avenues for the whole area where we lived.

Late one morning after I had picked up the children from swimming, we returned home unaware that the rainstorm we had driven through had actually resulted in a flash flood in our vicinity. When we reached our home, the children begged to run out back and check on how their ditch was doing in the rain. Always before, they had enjoyed playing and wading there during and after light rains. I agreed to their going but told them not to put even a toe into the water until I got an umbrella and joined them there.

When I came back outside with the umbrella, I was met by our oldest daughter, who was then ten years old. She was running toward the house, crying, "Mamma, where are my books?" (She was referring to her copies of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.) She then frantically told me that her little sister and one of her younger brothers were gone. I did not fully understand, and I asked her what she meant. She indicated that the two children had each put a foot in the water and had then been swept away.

I ran toward the ditch, and the closer I got the louder the roar of the water became. I cannot describe the dread that I felt. When I reached the edge of the rushing, angry water, our other son was standing there in great fear. It was certainly a time for us to affirm spiritual truths of Christian Science.

My next thought was to feel deeply grateful that our children had been taught both at home and in the Christian Science Sunday School that God was always with them, guiding and guarding them. I simply knew that they were aware of this right at that moment. I raced back to the house. There I told our daughter to call a Christian Science practitioner, tell him what had happened, and ask him to pray for us right away.

Through the study of Christian Science I had come to a firm realization that the human measurement of time is certainly not God's measurement. As the Apostle Paul wrote (II Cor. 6:2), "Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." So I clung to the realization that no matter what seemed to have happened, right now the children were in the loving care of their Father-Mother God.

Later I learned that all along the ditch, men were rapidly putting up sandbags to try to stop the violent flow of water. Two homes were already flooded. Also, water was rushing over the heavy bridges that residents had built across the ditch to enable them to enjoy the woods on the other side of their properties. As our two children were swept wildly along, the men stopped their work to race to their aid, but they could not catch up with them. At that point large slabs of concrete were being forced to the surface by the pressure of the water. At the end of a city block the ditch took an extreme left turn, and the water was crashing into a retaining wall. This was the route our children were traveling.

I took our car and drove to the end of the block. All the while I was praying to hear the thoughts of assurance and comfort that I knew were coming to me from God. By the time I got there I was feeling a calmer certainty of God's presence with our children. When I reached the turning point in the ditch several of the men had arrived before me. I heard them saying repeatedly that it was a miracle.

When I looked across the roaring water, I saw our two children on the opposite bank. They had made the sharp turn, passed the retaining wall, and were clinging to two little vines hardly the size of pencils. The men said that they couldn't possibly get to the children from where we were standing but that they would drive several blocks to reach them on the other side. To me the children's rescue from this situation was not a miracle; it was evidence of God's omnipresence. I will never forget my sense of awe and deep gratitude for this wonderful proof of God's love and power to care for His children under any human condition.

Later, when I had the children at home, I saw that there was practically nothing left of their bathing suits except the double-stitched straps and leg openings. And yet they had only a few scratches on their bodies, as though they might have brushed against a rosebush. I asked both of these little ones separately about what they had done during their ordeal, and each responded with the same statements. Each told of coming to the top of the water and crying, "God is Love," before being pulled back under. When they had passed the sharp turn in the ditch, each had reached out and caught a little branch and then come to rest on the sandy bank. Until that time, neither had been aware that the other was in the water. Once again, enormous gratitude to God was uppermost in my thoughts.

I only hope that my sharing of this experience will somehow express my boundless thanks for the privilege of raising our children (a total of six) in Christian Science. God has been my source of strength, and theirs, all through their formative years, and we have experienced years of freedom and joy in learning about God through the study of this Science.

JANE W. LACEY
Fairhope, Alabama