I have a new hero. His name is Jose Alvarenga. No, he didn’t rescue a tiny baby from a dangerous kidnapper.
Jose Alvarenga, 13 months later!
And he didn’t use his body as a human shield to protect innocent bystanders from a terrorist bomb. All he did was drift. He drifted and ate seafood, for 13 months, in a 24 foot fishing boat. Sounds easy, eh? Absolutely not.
His story started December 21, 2012, when he and his 15-year-old fishing buddy Ezequiel launched their boat off the coast of southern Mexico to catch some sharks for the day. A storm and strong winds prevented them from ever coming back. On January 29th of THIS year, 13 months later, Alvarenga was able to swim ashore to a tiny Marshall island where he found help, 6,000 miles from Mexico. No one could understand his Spanish, a VERY foreign language on the Marshalls.
Throughout his journey he ate raw fish, raw birds, raw turtles, and drank turtle’s blood, rainwater, and even, when he had to, his own urine. His health, apart from some low blood pressure, was amazingly good. He was not thin.
He was not sunburned (healthy fats are far better than toxic sunblocks). He’d gone a year without bathing or washing. People doubted that his story was true.
“How did you survive that long?” he was often asked. “My faith in God,” was his ready reply.
Later it came out that his friend, Ezequiel, had died 4 weeks into the trip because he refused to eat the raw fish, birds, and turtles that Jose ate every day. But then it also came out that Ezequiel had given Jose a gift before he died, a gift of faith. He had taught him how to pray, how to cry out to God for mercy. And this Jose did, every day, until he finally made it to land.
That faith in God became just as vital to his survival as his raw seafood. At least twice Jose seriously considered taking his own life.
He even put a fishing knife to his throat once, greatly tempted to just end it all. But each time God strengthened him, gave him grace, and he persevered.
What a picture this paints of many today. Without faith in God, His goodness, and His power, many take their own lives “just to end it all.” But others, even those who do believe, sometimes refuse to take steps necessary for their own healing or survival. A diet of raw seafood can be very healthy and even healing, as Jose’s story proves. But if people refuse to eat what they need, as Ezequiel did, they too will die or at least be very sick.
We have a burden to help people in both dimensions of life, body and soul. That’s why we are preparing to launch “New Siloam
Ministries,” a larger and broader outreach that will encompass much more than Our Little Market. We hope to have a website and a blog. I’ve started an inductive men’s Bible study in our home. Later this month (May 14th, at 7 pm), New
Siloam will sponsor a “Faith and Food Forum” that will host an RN to talk about vaccinations and our need to rethink them. If you live in the area and would like to attend this, send me an email and I’ll send you details.
Please pray for us as we start this new venture of faith. And stay tuned for more. We’re also opening a new account with Joy to the World that will allow you who give financially to make a broader impact for Christ’s sake; this will eventually replace the current account “Our Little Market.”
Again, we cannot say it enough, thank you for all your support, both financially and prayerfully.
We could not do this without you.
Yours in Him,
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