Speaker 1: And I remember saying, look, if you'll just let me go,
Speaker 1: I won't tell anybody.
Speaker 2: The man ordered Chris to the back of the RV
Speaker 2: and told him to sit on the floor and stay still.
Speaker 1: And he gave me a stern warning and saying, look,
Speaker 1: you can't try to get anybody's attention. No screaming, oh,
Speaker 1: trying to escape. If you do anything like that, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to come back there and shoot you.
Speaker 2: Chris nodded and stayed where he was. He heard the
Speaker 2: engine roar to life again. This is the Miracle Files.
Speaker 3: I'm Emily Jones and I'm Holly Worthington. We're two sisters
Speaker 3: who love a captivating true story, but we're also seeking
Speaker 3: more light in our lives.
Speaker 2: So we're on a mission to find and share unforgettable,
Speaker 2: uplifting stories of God's miracles. We hope you'll join us
Speaker 2: on this journey. Welcome back to.
Speaker 3: The Miracle Files. We have such a powerful episode for
Speaker 3: you today, and it's one that I've just thought about
Speaker 3: over and over again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this one is intense and emotional and all the feels.
Speaker 2: But we also want to give parents a heads up.
Speaker 2: This is when you may want to listen to beforehand.
Speaker 2: There may be some graphic scary parts, but so good.
Speaker 3: So good. Please stick with us to the end because
Speaker 3: you will not be disappointed. Rarely has an episode affected
Speaker 3: me and literally changed me like this one has.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Same, And also, we want to give you a
Speaker 2: heads up that this episode is two parts. If you've
Speaker 2: listened to our other two part episodes, you know there's
Speaker 2: a reason why we do it. And yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: sometimes there's just two miracles that are so incredible we
Speaker 2: want to give them each their own episode. So this
Speaker 2: is one of those.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, let's get started.
Speaker 2: Let's go. It was the afternoon on December twentieth, nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy four. Scared man paced up and down the sidewalk
Speaker 2: on a quiet street in the sleepy town of Coral Gables, Florida.
Speaker 2: He flicked ashes from his cigarette, walking back and forth,
Speaker 2: pondering his options. As time passed, the man stopped and
Speaker 2: stared through dark sunglasses at a house. He walked to
Speaker 2: the front door, then hesitated. He walked back toward the
Speaker 2: street and began pacing up and down the sidewalk again.
Speaker 2: In the distance, he heard the roar of a school
Speaker 2: bus coming down the road. Ten year old Chris Carrier
Speaker 2: gazed out the window of his school bus, full of
Speaker 2: anticipation for Christmas. It was only five days away. As
Speaker 2: the brakes squealed, the bus eased to a stop, and
Speaker 2: the doors creaked open, it was his turn to get off.
Speaker 2: The bus dropped Chris off every weekday at the same corner,
Speaker 2: just six houses from his home. His parents had no
Speaker 2: reason to worry. The bus stop was close enough to
Speaker 2: be seen from their family's front porch. Chris started the
Speaker 2: short walk home carrying a couple of folders and an
Speaker 2: empty cupcake tray from a party they'd had at school
Speaker 2: that day. His attention began drifting toward what might be
Speaker 2: waiting for him in the packages under their family's Christmas tree.
Speaker 2: As his thoughts wandered, Chris paid little attention to the scruffy,
Speaker 2: overweight man in sunglasses who walked toward him silently. The
Speaker 2: man passed by on the sidewalk, but then Chris heard
Speaker 2: the man's footsteps stop.
Speaker 1: And then I heard him say, Hey, aren't you Hugh
Speaker 1: Carrier's son. That kind of startled me. I was like, yes, yes, sir.
Speaker 2: Chris turned around as the man stepped back toward him.
Speaker 2: His face completely unfamiliar.
Speaker 1: And he introduced himself by the name Chuck. He asked me,
Speaker 1: how's your mother they're doing, which was common because mom
Speaker 1: had multiple sclerosis and was just shifting into a wheelchair
Speaker 1: over the holidays, and he told me that he was
Speaker 1: a friend of my father's had done some work with dad,
Speaker 1: and then he just kind of had this uha moment
Speaker 1: where he said, Hey, you might be able to help me.
Speaker 1: There's a party that your father and I were going
Speaker 1: to be at for Christmas, and I would love to
Speaker 1: give him a gift, and I've got two or three,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure which gift he liked the most.
Speaker 1: Would you be willing to come help me to just
Speaker 1: pick out the one that you think he liked the most.
Speaker 2: Chris hesitated as a quiet sense of an ease settled
Speaker 2: over him, but he couldn't keep the man waiting.
Speaker 1: And of course, as a ten year old kid, I
Speaker 1: didn't want to, but those were different times, and you
Speaker 1: respected every adult, especially the ones that knew your family,
Speaker 1: and sol I said yes.
Speaker 2: The man led Chris to a nearby parking lot where
Speaker 2: a motor home was parked across several spaces.
Speaker 1: And I remember just walking with him, awkward conversation, small talk,
Speaker 1: and we got into the RV. I put my things down.
Speaker 1: He let me sit in the front seat, passenger seat,
Speaker 1: and he had told me, he said, yeah, it shouldn't
Speaker 1: take us more than thirty minutes or so to go
Speaker 1: do this.
Speaker 2: Chris didn't question the man's motives, but as they drove,
Speaker 2: he began to notice the man's demeanor shift to quiet nervousness.
Speaker 1: So we drove out, and of course the fact that
Speaker 1: he had referenced working with my dad led me to
Speaker 1: think we're going to be going downtown Miami, which I
Speaker 1: was accustomed to going there with Dad.
Speaker 2: But Chris had been to his father's office in Miami
Speaker 2: enough times to know the way there. This felt unfamiliar.
Speaker 2: The roads weren't the one he was used to taking
Speaker 2: with his father. When he saw a sign for Oba Laca,
Speaker 2: he knew they were heading north, away from where he
Speaker 2: had assumed they would go.
Speaker 1: And I just remember thinking, well, that's not normal, but
Speaker 1: I have to trust him. He knows where he's going,
Speaker 1: he's going to his office or wherever it is. He's
Speaker 1: got these things, and so I resigned myself to just realize,
Speaker 1: now I can trust him.
Speaker 2: The man continued driving, smoking one cigarette after another, the
Speaker 2: conversation fading until there wasn't much left to say.
Speaker 1: It quickly grew awkward, because you know, how many things
Speaker 1: do I have in common with a gentleman whose gray
Speaker 1: haired and weathered, heavy smoker, and I don't know him,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't know me, And so the small talk
Speaker 1: kind of ran out, probably thirty minutes or so in.
Speaker 2: After a while, the man noticed there was a Coastguard station.
Speaker 1: Up ahead, and so he asked me, He said, would
Speaker 1: you like to stop and see the big Coastguard helicopters.
Speaker 1: I'm a ten year old kid, got my attention. I
Speaker 1: was like, sure, and so we pulled up alongside the
Speaker 1: Coastguard station. I remember pulling in straight. There was a
Speaker 1: fence in front of us, and we just sat there,
Speaker 1: probably for a good ten minutes or so, just looking
Speaker 1: at those hoping that maybe one of those big, ginormous
Speaker 1: white helicopters would begin to take off or while we
Speaker 1: would be coming in. And I didn't realize, I didn't
Speaker 1: necessarily think, what's he doing? You know, why are we stalling?
Speaker 1: But we sat there for a few minutes and nothing happened.
Speaker 2: Finally, the man said it was time to move on.
Speaker 2: They continued down the road again until they pulled into
Speaker 2: a quiet, overgrown parking lot in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2: They continued down the road again until they pulled into
Speaker 2: a quiet, overgrown parking lot in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2: The man reached for a map, handed it to Chris
Speaker 2: and asked him to find a highway.
Speaker 1: And he told me, he said, I think I've missed
Speaker 1: my turn, but I need to get something in the
Speaker 1: back of the RV.
Speaker 2: This struck Chris as strange was this man lost.
Speaker 1: It made me wonder, you know, who forgets where they
Speaker 1: live or where they were? And so I just had
Speaker 1: to resign myself to saying, all adults in my life
Speaker 1: have been worthy of my trust, so go with what
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: As Chris puzzled over the map, the man walked through
Speaker 2: the galley of the motor home. That's when Chris experienced
Speaker 2: a strange sensation.
Speaker 1: I felt a quick sting in my shoulder came and
Speaker 1: went them like a basting necessarily nothing lingering, But then
Speaker 1: it happened again, and I remember thinking, you know, that's
Speaker 1: kind of awkward. I don't know what that was. If
Speaker 1: it was something caught in my shirt, and I turned
Speaker 1: around and looked over my shoulder, and here he was
Speaker 1: standing behind me with an ice pick in his hand.
Speaker 2: Everything that followed happened quickly. The man grabbed Chris by
Speaker 2: the shirt, pulled him out of the passenger seat, and
Speaker 2: threw him down onto the floor in the middle of
Speaker 2: the RV.
Speaker 1: And next thing I knew, I was on my back
Speaker 1: on the floor, looking up at him as he got
Speaker 1: down on one knee and began to just continue to
Speaker 1: stab me in the chest with his ice pick. It's
Speaker 1: happening so fast. I didn't know what to think. And
Speaker 1: I remember just looking up at him, trying to block
Speaker 1: his hand, and he pulled my arm away and stab again.
Speaker 1: And I remember saying something to the effect of, look,
Speaker 1: I don't know who you are, I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're trying to do. I don't know why you're doing this,
Speaker 1: but I'm out of words. I think I fumbled through
Speaker 1: saying something to the effect of, look, if you'll just stop,
Speaker 1: if you'll let me go, I won't tell anybody.
Speaker 2: Chris struggled beneath the man's weight, staring into his cold eyes,
Speaker 2: wondering if it would ever stop, and then at last
Speaker 2: it did. The man straightened and stood over him. Chris
Speaker 2: lay there, shocked and bleeding, bracing for what was to come.
Speaker 2: But what happened next surprised.
Speaker 1: Him, and he said, son, I'm going to take you
Speaker 1: somewhere and I'm going to drop you off in a
Speaker 1: safe place. Then I will call your daddy so that
Speaker 1: he can come pick you up.
Speaker 2: Chris lay in shocked silence. Then relief washed over him.
Speaker 2: The promise that his father was coming was all he
Speaker 2: needed to hear. He couldn't wait for his dad to
Speaker 2: get there. He desperately wanted to go home.
Speaker 1: I knew my father would be wherever he needed to
Speaker 1: be as fast as he could. There was never a
Speaker 1: doubt of his love, never a doubt of his provision
Speaker 1: and care.
Speaker 2: The man ordered Chris to the back of the RV
Speaker 2: and told him to sit on the floor and stay still.
Speaker 2: The man then warned him not to make any noise.
Speaker 1: And he gave me a stern warning that saying, look,
Speaker 1: you can't jump up, you can't try to get anybody's attention.
Speaker 1: No screaming, no yelling, no trying to escape. If you
Speaker 1: do anything like that, I'm just going to come back
Speaker 1: there and shoot you.
Speaker 2: Chris nodded and stayed where he was. He heard the
Speaker 2: engine roar to life again as the RV began to move.
Speaker 2: Chris looked down at his dark green polo shirt, now
Speaker 2: speckled with blood. He could hardly believe what had just happened. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: back in Coral Gables, Chris's parents were growing frantic with
Speaker 2: war when their ten year old son still hadn't come
Speaker 2: home from school. Chris was not the type to run
Speaker 2: away or play pranks, and they knew it immediately something
Speaker 2: was wrong. They called the police without hesitation. Where was
Speaker 2: their precious boy? From where Chris sat in the back
Speaker 2: of the RV, he could see very little. He had
Speaker 2: no idea where this man was taking him.
Speaker 1: And as time would pass, I would try to kind
Speaker 1: of sneak up and look over the dashboard see where
Speaker 1: we were or what was going on. But of course
Speaker 1: all the windows were higher than where I was sitting.
Speaker 1: But when I'd look over the dashboard, I could only
Speaker 1: see a limited number of things, usually trees or lights.
Speaker 2: The RV rumbled along, passing through stretches of road with
Speaker 2: fewer sounds of traffic. The farther they went.
Speaker 1: I think we went through a toll booth. At one
Speaker 1: point we stopped at a gas station, and he again reiterated,
Speaker 1: don't say anything, don't do anything. And of course that
Speaker 1: was back in the day when there were gas station
Speaker 1: attendants who would pump your guess.
Speaker 2: Chris could hear the gas station attendant's voice outside the RV.
Speaker 2: If he could hear the gas station attendant, the attendant
Speaker 2: could likely hear him too. Chris wondered what would happen
Speaker 2: if he called out for help, but he remembered his
Speaker 2: captor's warning. He was too scared to make a sound.
Speaker 1: He ordered what he needed out the side window, paid
Speaker 1: for it with cash, and we were back on the road.
Speaker 2: As the next half hour passed, Chris considered his options.
Speaker 1: I remember sitting in the back and even as a
Speaker 1: ten year old boy, looking at my environment, looking at
Speaker 1: the situation I was in, and thinking, how do I escape?
Speaker 1: How do I get out? Who can rescue me? What
Speaker 1: are my options here? Can I overpower him? I'm a
Speaker 1: ten year old boy who's undersized, still waiting on my
Speaker 1: latest growth spurt that's passed me by, So no, I
Speaker 1: can't overpower him. He's a full adult. Can I out
Speaker 1: smart him?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: Can I pull some kind of macguiver tactic?
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: I looked around and there wasn't anything within reach that
Speaker 1: I could grab to hit him with. But even if
Speaker 1: I did, are we going to go off the road
Speaker 1: and into a canal? The odds of me surviving any
Speaker 1: one of those options was not good. There was a
Speaker 1: realization that even though I'd been raised in church, and
Speaker 1: even though I knew the stories of the Bible and
Speaker 1: knew who Jesus was, that was a moment in which
Speaker 1: I had to shift from saying I trust what my
Speaker 1: parents believe and I rely on their faith, to realizing
Speaker 1: I need to step up and do something myself.
Speaker 2: In that instant, Chris stopped trying to find a way
Speaker 2: to escape. Instead, he reached for every ounce of faith
Speaker 2: that lay deep within him, and he prayed.
Speaker 1: There wasn't anything profound about my prayer. They weren't great words.
Speaker 1: In fact, it was as simple as simply looking at
Speaker 1: the inside of that RV and praying Father.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, as a ten year old boy, this
Speaker 2: was all Chris could do, and somehow it felt like enough.
Speaker 2: The RV continued down the road, which eventually changed beneath them.
Speaker 2: The smooth pavement gave way to a bumpy surface as
Speaker 2: Chris felt the RV turn onto a different road. Gravel
Speaker 2: crunched under the tires and dust rose behind them as
Speaker 2: they moved farther away from civilization. After a short distance,
Speaker 2: the RV stopped. The man opened the door and motioned
Speaker 2: for Chris to step out. Chris had no idea where
Speaker 2: he was. In reality, the man had driven him out
Speaker 2: to the northern part of the Florida Everglades, and.
Speaker 1: He led me out and it was just a beautiful environment,
Speaker 1: nothing but small palms and wonderful, beautiful trees. There were
Speaker 1: no homes, there was nothing out there, just a country road.
Speaker 1: And I thought, okay, this is safe. It's fine. There's
Speaker 1: nobody around. I'm not worried about traffic or anything. And
Speaker 1: I remember him looked in both ways, making sure it
Speaker 1: was safe, and then we walked out. He must have
Speaker 1: walked me, probably forty or so feet into this tall
Speaker 1: marshy sawgrass, the kind that when you step on it
Speaker 1: it breaks, and some of the grass was well over
Speaker 1: my hips in terms of height. And we walked out
Speaker 1: to the edge where a few trees were and he said,
Speaker 1: why don't you just sit down right here and this
Speaker 1: will be where I'll call your dad and let him
Speaker 1: know where you are.
Speaker 2: Chris sat down, looking briefly at the ground around him,
Speaker 2: noticing small details without thinking much about them. He began
Speaker 2: trying to estimate how far they had driven and how
Speaker 2: long it might take his father to reach him. Once
Speaker 2: he got the call behind him, the man reached into
Speaker 2: his pocket. Chris, trusting young naive, had no idea what
Speaker 2: was coming.
Speaker 1: What I didn't anticipate was that that gentleman pulled a
Speaker 1: small pistol from his pocket, and I think waited for
Speaker 1: me to not be looking at him, and pulled the
Speaker 1: gun right up to the temple of my head and
Speaker 1: pulled the trigger.
Speaker 2: In Coral Gables, hours passed with no sign of Chris anywhere.
Speaker 2: Police canvassed the neighborhood and interviewed classmates, friends, neighbors, and
Speaker 2: the bus driver. Chris's church sent out a citywide prayer request.
Speaker 2: Family and friends searched everywhere they could think of, spreading
Speaker 2: out for miles. Vacant homes and abandoned buildings were combed
Speaker 2: through with the help of the department's canine unit, but
Speaker 2: it was as if Chris had simply vanished. With each
Speaker 2: passing hour, their hope dimmed. Deep in the Everglades, young
Speaker 2: Chris lay unconscious in the thick, swampy wilderness with a
Speaker 2: single gunsh wound through his head. For a time, everything
Speaker 2: was still, only the sound of insects buzzing and wind
Speaker 2: blowing through the reeds. Then Chris stirred. He blinked his
Speaker 2: eyes open. He sat up slowly. The light had changed,
Speaker 2: the sun was lower, filtered through trees, and the air
Speaker 2: had the feel of late afternoon.
Speaker 1: In my mind, completely unaware of what had happened in
Speaker 1: terms of the shooting, it was still Friday, December twentieth,
Speaker 1: and I remember waking up thinking, I wonder how long
Speaker 1: I was asleep. I wonder where Dad is. And I
Speaker 1: wasn't worried, I wasn't hungry. I was still coming off
Speaker 1: of my sugar rush from all those cupcakes and cookies.
Speaker 1: Christmas was five days away. I felt all right, and
Speaker 1: I sat there.
Speaker 2: Finally Chris stood up and wondered if he should find
Speaker 2: a better spot to wait.
Speaker 1: And I remember thinking, if Dad's going to be close,
Speaker 1: I better get out to the edge of that road.
Speaker 1: So I walked through that tall grass and got on
Speaker 1: the edge of that road, found a large rock that
Speaker 1: was probably the size of a basketball that was kind
Speaker 1: of shaped that way. And so I sat down on
Speaker 1: the edge of that dusty country road, figuring I'll wait
Speaker 1: for dead. And of course my father, my mother, and
Speaker 1: everybody in Miami had no clue where I had been
Speaker 1: for the last six days, because when I woke up
Speaker 1: it was December twenty sixth.
Speaker 2: December twenty sixth, six whole days had gone. By six days,
Speaker 2: Chris had lain on the floor of the Everglades alone,
Speaker 2: exposed and unconscious. There had been no food, no water.
Speaker 2: The area around him was known for wildlife, alligators along
Speaker 2: the canals, panthers and pythons moving through the brush. It
Speaker 2: was the kind of environment where a bleeding body normally
Speaker 2: wouldn't last the night, And yet here this young boy
Speaker 2: sat on a rock in the middle of nowhere, covered
Speaker 2: in dry blood, a gunshot wound to his head and
Speaker 2: stab wounds in his chest, but alive, waiting as the
Speaker 2: sun dipped behind the horizon for his daddy. But what
Speaker 2: Chris didn't know was that his daddy had never been called.
Speaker 2: So he sat waiting and waiting.
Speaker 1: The sun as it went down. I remember thinking, well,
Speaker 1: Dad'll have a hard time seeing me, but he'll have
Speaker 1: his lights on.
Speaker 3: And that's where we have to leave Chris's story until
Speaker 3: sorry next week. But truly, this story is far from
Speaker 3: over and it deserves a whole second episode because you
Speaker 3: will not believe what happens next.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but for now, let's talk about this episode and
Speaker 2: the amazing miracle that we just heard about. I mean,
Speaker 2: how shocked were you when you found out that he
Speaker 2: had been lying on the floor of the Everglades for
Speaker 2: six days?
Speaker 3: And I think my jaw literally dropped my two Just amazing,
Speaker 3: arad I've been to the Florida Everyblades a few times,
Speaker 3: and in fact, I think I may have been near
Speaker 3: the exact spot that this happened when I was talking
Speaker 3: to Chris about it and describing where I had been before.
Speaker 3: There is a back road that goes along a canal
Speaker 3: that someone had recommended to us to go down because
Speaker 3: there were so many alligators there. They said, you are
Speaker 3: guaranteed to see alligators there, and I'm telling you, we
Speaker 3: saw so many alligators and it is so incredible that
Speaker 3: Chris survived this.
Speaker 2: I know Chris said that they estimate there's an alligator
Speaker 2: every sixty to seventy yards in this area. Alligators can
Speaker 2: smell blood, like, here's this young boy bleeding unconscious, Like, honestly,
Speaker 2: it feels like Daniel in the Lions, And that's like
Speaker 2: what it reminds me of.
Speaker 3: It really does. In fact, Chris said something kind of
Speaker 3: similar to that that I thought was really interesting. So
Speaker 3: let's listen to that.
Speaker 1: The northern part of the Everglades is familiarly called alligator alley.
Speaker 1: Here if a deer or a wild pig gets hit
Speaker 1: their dinner. The idea that I could have a head
Speaker 1: injury and be lying there not much bigger than a
Speaker 1: baby deer doesn't make sense other than the fact that
Speaker 1: I trust that there were angels on guard.
Speaker 3: I mean, angels had to be guarding him. How else
Speaker 3: do you explain that? But God, that's how you explain it.
Speaker 3: That's the only way as possible I know. And it's
Speaker 3: not even just the alligators. I mean, here's a kid,
Speaker 3: there's no food, there's no water. He shot in the head,
Speaker 3: he stabbed in the chest. Yes, like the fact that
Speaker 3: he survived any of that is just incredible. Yeah, he
Speaker 3: went through some horrific things that it's just amazing he
Speaker 3: survived those things.
Speaker 2: But poor kid.
Speaker 3: Also the faith of that little boy, yeah, oh, it
Speaker 3: gets me emotional just thinking about that little that sweet
Speaker 3: little mustard seed. I know, a faith that he had,
Speaker 3: and his prayer is something that I will never forget.
Speaker 3: When he just said father, well you know, and I
Speaker 3: think that's just like the most sincere prayer. Like I
Speaker 3: think sometimes we have to say that ourselves, you know,
Speaker 3: and it's just like you don't have the words.
Speaker 2: That was so sweet and so innocent, and I mean
Speaker 2: just like thinking about innocence, like this is the just
Speaker 2: a little kid. Yeah, he's this sweet little boy who's
Speaker 2: so loving and so trusting. I mean he grew up
Speaker 2: in a home where I'm sure his parents were very
Speaker 2: good to him. Like he had no reason to doubt
Speaker 2: this man. Yeah, I mean those were different times. Like nowadays,
Speaker 2: I talk to my kids all the time about stranger danger,
Speaker 2: but like that wasn't really a thing back then. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was definitely a different world back then. And parents,
Speaker 3: by the way, if you haven't talked to your kids
Speaker 3: lately about this kind of stuff, I think it is
Speaker 3: such a good reminder to just tell your kids, like,
Speaker 3: it's okay to say no to an adult if things
Speaker 3: don't feel right, if something's off, it's okay to say
Speaker 3: no to an adult.
Speaker 2: I cannot I can't imagine going through this. I can't
Speaker 2: imagine what those parents went through.
Speaker 3: Oh, I know his parents, His poor parents had so
Speaker 3: sick with worry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it reminds me of an experience that I had recently.
Speaker 2: My daughter came home one day from school and she
Speaker 2: asked if she could go play at this friend from
Speaker 2: school's house. And I hadn't met this family before, but
Speaker 2: I just decided it was okay. So she walked with
Speaker 2: this other girl to their house after school. I got
Speaker 2: the mom's phone number, and then a few hours later,
Speaker 2: I texted the mom and said, hey, like, can you
Speaker 2: send Sadie home now? And the mom responded, oh, she
Speaker 2: left two hours ago. And I was like, nikes, where
Speaker 2: is she? And so I searched my entire house. There's
Speaker 2: no Sadie. I asked my kids, I asked my husband,
Speaker 2: has anyone seen her? And no one has seen her.
Speaker 2: And she's not the kind of kid to just like
Speaker 2: go somewhere without asking. So I start to panic, like
Speaker 2: where is she, and I thought maybe I could check
Speaker 2: her other friend's house. And so as I'm running there,
Speaker 2: I'm literally out loud crying to God, Please, God, please
Speaker 2: have her be there, Please have her be there. And
Speaker 2: I got there and fortunately she was, And it turns
Speaker 2: out she had seen her friend on the way home
Speaker 2: and she asked her friend's mom to text me, and
Speaker 2: her mom forgot and so, you know, innocent mistake. But
Speaker 2: I just remember that relief that I felt. But I
Speaker 2: also was shaking for like two hours. I couldn't stop
Speaker 2: thinking about that. We just interviewed Chris, and I couldn't
Speaker 2: stop thinking about the parents who have to go through that.
Speaker 2: They go looking for their child and can't find them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so heartbreaking, those little children that have to go
Speaker 3: through horrible things. Like we have people comment sometimes on
Speaker 3: social media or videos or whatever, just saying like, how
Speaker 3: does God love his children when he lets them suffer?
Speaker 3: And you know, it's interesting to me, like we do
Speaker 3: believe God is with those children, and we do believe
Speaker 3: he comforts them when they go through really awful things.
Speaker 2: And he was with Chris for sure.
Speaker 3: He was for sure with Chris when he woke up
Speaker 3: and went to the road. He had no idea that
Speaker 3: six days had passed. Yeah, he didn't even realize that
Speaker 3: he'd been shot.
Speaker 2: I know he had no pain.
Speaker 3: Yeah he was shot in the temple and it's blind
Speaker 3: in one eye from the shot, and yet he still
Speaker 3: didn't know what it even happened to him.
Speaker 2: It's just incredible and God is so merciful that even
Speaker 2: in our really hard moments, he shows up for us.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Doesn't mean they're not hard, no, but he's there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And Chris shared something else about miracles that I thought
Speaker 3: was so powerful.
Speaker 1: I believe that miracles are a wonderful way of God
Speaker 1: reaching in to circumstances in real life in which we
Speaker 1: feel powerless. You know, I can't overpower, I can't outdo,
Speaker 1: and I can't save myself. I have to rely on
Speaker 1: Him who is going to be there with a smile
Speaker 1: and bring me through, bring us all through. I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of miracles we just don't see. I
Speaker 1: think we need to train our eyes to understand He's
Speaker 1: been doing and will continue to be doing a lot
Speaker 1: behind the scenes to build us up and to hopefully
Speaker 1: deepen our affection for His presence and love in our lives.
Speaker 2: I love that I know, such a beautiful perspective. And y'all,
Speaker 2: this is not the end of the story. No, surviving
Speaker 2: six days in the Florida Everglades is already an unbelievable miracle,
Speaker 2: but there is so much more to his story, so
Speaker 2: make sure you come back before we end. Here's a
Speaker 2: quick preview of part two. Chris's father and uncle suspected
Speaker 2: a man named David McAllister.
Speaker 1: His alcoholism had gotten in the way in the work
Speaker 1: he was performing, and so my father was the one
Speaker 1: who had terminated him.
Speaker 2: They informed the police and officers went to David McAllister's
Speaker 2: home to investigate.
Speaker 1: There was no fingerprint evidence, no blood samples, hair samples,
Speaker 1: no evidence he'd had a full week effectively to clean
Speaker 1: his vehicle.
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining us. If you have a miracle
Speaker 3: to share, contact us at the Miracle files dot com
Speaker 3: or find us on social media. We release new episodes
Speaker 3: each Monday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so don't forget Miracle Mondays. Subscribe on your favorite
Speaker 2: podcast platform and YouTube for amazing video content as well.
Speaker 3: Join us next time as we discover more of God's miracles,
Speaker 3: and don't forget to look for His light in your
Speaker 3: own lives.