Testimonies

THE NULLABOUR INCIDENT By Roger On the Western Australian border, 300 feet beneath the Nullabour Desert, lies the largest underground lake in the southern hemisphere. I was SCUBA diving about 150 meters from shore, in an underwater canyon when suddenly the right hand wall just disappeared. It was replaced by a large black void. This was the entrance to the underwater cabin, which is where the cave continued underwater. The roof of the cabin measured 45 feet underwater, while the floor of the cabin was 75 feet in depth. Its length, approximately 500 feet. This was the first of several underwater cabins, as the cave continues for some 3-4 kilometres. I was carrying two glow sticks, tied to a couple of rocks. These became my markers. As I entered the underwater cabin, I placed a marker on the cabin floor, as a reference point to return to. In dropping the marker I stirred up a large quantity of silt, from the approximately 6 inches of silt that covered the cave floor. This stirred up silt is commonly called a blackout, since enough stirred up silt will blockout all light, even the light from your flash light, at which point the diver won't know up from down, in from out. Blackouts were responsible for 14 deaths in 12 months in Mount Gambier. This cabin was too large for a blackout to form, but seeing the silt stirred up, scared me. It also left me with the risk of a silt particleblocking my regulator, at which time I would of been breathing water, not air. I continued into the cabin, and placed the second marker towards the back of the cabin, not far from the entrance to the second underwater cabin.Here the cave floor descended into deeper water. Now I'd entered the first cabin with only 0.25 of a tank of air. Since I'd used so much just looking for the entrance to the cabin. I decided it would be unwise to attempt the second cabin, and besides, I was all out of glow sticks. Looking up at the roof of the cabin, I could see an opening that looked like a huge above water cabin. But I was deceived by the water, and when I swam up into it, it turned out to be only 8 feet across and 2.5 feet high. Naturally I was curious to see if the air was breathable, so I took my regulator out of my mouth, and tried to breath. The air was stale, and barely breathable. Placing my regulator back into my mouth, I began to swim back the way I had come. On about my second breath of air, my regulator became dislodged and I received a lung full of water. This induced convulsions, since that is the bodies natural way of clearing the lungs once fluid has gone down the wrong way. I took my regulator out of my mouth to see if it helped to clear the lungs, but with no effect. Starting to get starved of oxygen I swam for the surface, and found nothing but rock. By now panic had beganto set in and I began to hyperventilate. My lungs were going in and out but nothing was happening. It was about this time I remembered that I only had 0.25 of a tank of air when I entered the cabin. This led me to the conclusion that I'd ran out of air. That thought only increased my panicking. The more I panicked the more I used up what precious little air I really had. At this point my body was crossed between convulsing and holding my breath. I started swim for the air pocket, but remembered how little oxygen I found there before. I then had a vision of two divers pulling my body out of the water. Convinced that this was the end, I began to call on the only Name, that could get me out of this much trouble; Jesus. I simply said the Name Jesus over and over in my mind, and began swimming, convulsing as I went.Looking around I couldn't see the glow stick at the entrance to the cabin. I'd swam along and up to get to the air pocket, so the first glow stick was out of sight. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, I swam down towards the floor of the cave, the glow stick appeared. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, swimming and convulsing as I went. Now I'd been SCUBA diving alone, a big no-no. And by a miracle of God an unsaved friend of mine, sensed there was something wrong and was already in the water swimming towards me when I surfaced. Good thing he was, as my buoyancy vest had ripped on the roof of the cave, and instead of keeping me buoyant it was dragging me down. By the time I reached shore, my lungs had cleared. It's not for nothing that Cave Diving is the most dangerous sport in the world. A short time later I realised the lesson in all of this - If I had died there and then, it would have been just like I had never been born, for all the impact I'd been on society. If you live your life unto yourself, you make zero impact on society.If you live your life unto God, you make a difference to society. While there's air in your lungs, you can make a difference. Yours in Christ