Here’s how God has shown up in St. Augustine, Florida 32080.
It was a perfect spring day on Florida’s east coast — sunshine, calm waves, and Senior Skip Day for the graduating class of Christ’s Church Academy.
Friends Tyler Smith and Heather Brown, both student athletes and strong swimmers, decided to swim across the St. Augustine Inlet from Vilano Point to Anastasia Island — about 500 yards away.
“We just saw like, ‘It’s not that far. Let’s just go swim over there,’” Heather said.
Halfway across, the tide began to pull them out.
“We saw a red buoy and thought, ‘Let’s swim to that and rest,’ but it just kept getting farther and farther,” Tyler recalled.
Soon, they realized they were caught in a powerful outgoing current — and being dragged miles away from shore.
⚡ Lost at Sea
“My heart was beating faster after I stopped seeing the red buoy,” said Tyler. “All we could see was ocean.”
As the hours passed, exhaustion set in. The two teenagers stopped swimming and focused on staying afloat.
“That’s when I was actually scared,” Heather said. “We were like, just keep swimming, keep yourself afloat — we can hold out till rescue.”
Back on shore, their classmates finally noticed they were missing.
A 911 call was made, and parents were notified.
Heather’s mom, BJ, received the call while serving at her church.
“It’s your worst nightmare,” she said. “They told me Heather and Tyler were missing. I just started to cry — a deep panic that my child had drowned.”
Church members surrounded BJ in prayer.
“‘Lord, please don’t take her from me. Keep them afloat. Give them both the strength.’ When there’s nothing you can do, you have to pray.”
Meanwhile, out in the open ocean, Tyler and Heather prayed desperately for their lives.
“I was screaming, ‘God, please help! Please save us!’” Heather said.
“We both prayed, ‘God, please send something — we can’t do this alone.’”
🙏 The Miracle Named “Amen”
After nearly two hours in the ocean, they heard the faint sound of a boat engine.
“I saw this big yacht coming toward us,” Tyler said. “It made a sharp turn — right toward us. But we didn’t know if they could see us.”
Onboard was Eric Wagner and his three-man crew. They hadn’t planned to go out to sea that day — but decided, at the last minute, to take their 53-foot yacht for a run in the open ocean.
“The engines were loud and the waves were high,” Eric said. “We almost didn’t hear them.”
Then one of the crew shouted, “Wait — there are people back there!”
“When we saw them wave, we just started crying,” Heather recalled. “We knew God had sent that boat for us.”
As the yacht approached, the teens clung to hope.
“The first thing I said when I got on the boat was, ‘God is real.’”
Eric looked at her and smiled.
“That’s amazing,” he said. “Do you know the name of our boat?”
“It’s called the Amen.”
The teens broke down in tears.
“We just hugged each other and cried,” Tyler said. “We knew — this was God.”
From Desperation to Deliverance
By the time the Amen crew pulled them aboard, the teens had drifted two miles out to sea. They were exhausted, dehydrated, and overwhelmed with gratitude.
“It was straight out of a movie,” Heather said. “There’s no other explanation — God saved us.”
Back on land, BJ got the call she had been praying for.
“When I heard Heather’s voice, I just thanked God out loud,” she said. “It was pure joy.”
Both teens went on to graduate and move forward with their lives — forever changed by what happened that day.
“It brought me closer to God,” Heather shared. “It showed me that when you’re hopeless, He’s right there.”
“It built my faith,” Tyler added. “When you call out to Him, He really does rescue you.”
Have you ever experienced God’s rescue in your moment of need? Share your story and remind others that prayer still moves heaven.
📖 Originally shared via CBN.com. Reformatted here to strengthen faith within our community.