A few days ago our good friend and Deborah’s teacher/mentor in midwifery, Vicki Penwell, was on a ferry that sunk between the islands of Luzon and Mindoro. The boat was designed for 80 people and there were 104 on board. The seas were high from the last typhoon, and their craft was literally smashed apart by the waves.

This is the day after the typhoon, and even though the coast guard was allowing crossings, the seas were still very rough. This became apparent when we began hitting pretty big waves within minutes of leaving shore, and the boatload of people began screaming with each rise and fall of the boat over the rough seas. Then people around me began to throw up…waves were washing up into the boat and drenching people.

Thankfully, everyone on the boat was rescued and Vicky says she’s okay. ‘Just a few cuts and bruises.’ I’m going to excerpt at length from Vicki’s letter describing the incident. If you are interested in learning more about what she and her family are doing here please look at their web site: http://www.mercyinaction.org/.

About 45 minutes into the trip I heard a very loud sharp crack, like wood splintering. Five minutes later there was another loud crack like a gunshot, and the boat engine cut out. What had happened was the outrigger had snapped and the second crack was the sound of the fractured bamboo pole puncturing through the hull of the boat.
Everyone stood up and began to panic, grabbing life vests from the racks above. I was in the front; all the racks with life vests were in the middle and back section. All around me were people standing up screaming to be passed a life vest, or pushing and shoving to get to where they could get one.

Vicki is an extraordinary midwife and trainer of missionary midwives. It is her passion to train midwives to respond to what the World Health Organization recognizes as the most critical need in health care with Christian compassion. She decided, heroically, not to fight for a lifejacket and to be the last person off the sinking boat.

Within 10 minutes the inside of the boat was full of water and sinking fast. It was absolute chaos. I decided to wait to get a life vest after all the other passengers had theirs, or until someone handed me one. It didn't happen; the boat was overloaded and there turned out to be enough life vests for every passenger except the three crew members, and me.

I had time to take my phone out and try to call Scott [her husband], the connection was bad and he could not hear me, so I sent off a quick text message; it said, "sinking, I love you". I knew it would freak him out, but I didn't know what else to do! If I died I wanted him to know my last thoughts were ones of love toward him.

I was the last one off the boat and had to swim out through the opening in the side. Once outside everyone was clinging to the outriggers, I thought the boat would sink all the way, but because the outriggers were bamboo, it only sunk to the roof, and we could still hold on while we waited to be rescued.

At this point the real danger became the heavy swells that beat down upon us and smashed us over and over again into the submerged boat. I am pretty bruised up from that. And waves would wash over me and swamp me with diesel water and I would sputter back up, all the while trying to keep my grip.

We treaded water for over an hour before boats got there to rescue us. As people were pushing to get in position to get rescued, I heard the first honorable thing, when a man yelled at the men to stop trying to get in, and he said "babaes!", which means women first!

[After she was rescued] A group of young adult Filipinos realized I was alone and came over and were very kind to me, asking if I was okay and was I traveling alone (something Filipinos never do is travel anywhere alone!) I had my eyes closed trying hard not to throw up, and one of the young men sat by me and held my hand! It was really so sweet, I felt like I was without my sons there with me at that time, so God sent someone to be kind and take care of me like a son would. When I began to shiver he brought me a sheet and even got me water to drink.

My new friends shared a candy bar with me. I was loving the fact that after 15 years of me giving out food and clothing to poor Filipinos, now I was the one in need and Filipinos were giving me food and clothing!

Scott and Ian and Rose [her son and daughter-in-law] and the rest of my dear friends here did not known if I was dead or alive for 7 hours! We are all back together today, appreciating each other more than ever, and thankful for life itself. I did however lose my waist pack full of money…the waves ripped it off my waist as I fought to stay afloat in the rough seas. I was carrying money for team expenses to Manila, and lost over $3,000 of Mercy In Action's money. Now that I have survived I feel pretty bad about losing all that money.