Bisinta and her friends had been gathering coconuts and crabs off the Micronesian island of Chuuk when the engine on their boat ran out of gas. The boat drifted further into the Pacific until they could no longer see the lagoon islands. The five women and their 12-year-old boat operator crafted a sail from rice sacks and tried to steer the boat using the engine as a rudder.
Bisinta wasn’t sure whether or not she would live or die. She didn’t know God or how to pray to Him. As she watched the waves reach above their heads, she decided that God must be very great and powerful to make such a mighty thing as the ocean that surrounded her.
The women rationed the coconuts and tried to catch the fish that swam near their boat. During the cold night hours, they spotted a cluster of stars in the shape of a cross and decided to follow it.
The following morning they spotted land but failed to get the attention of the people fishing on the beach. That night Bisinta prayed, “God, if you want us to live, please help us now. If you want us to die, then I guess we will just die out here on this ocean. It’s up to you.”
The next morning, their ninth day at sea, two U.S. Coast Guard planes spotted them. One of the pilots dropped emergency supplies and flare bottles around the tiny ship. Within several hours, rescue crews brought the ship to shore.
Bisinta was moved by the loving care of God during the ordeal and was struck with the necessity of answering God’s call in her life. She began studying the Bible through correspondence courses provided by missionaries Jody and Terry Colson. Three years after the boating incident, Bisinta came to know the love of God in an even greater way when she accepted God’s gift of Christ as payment for her sins.