A seventeen-year-old boy rescued a man who was drifting in the ocean after his boat went down off East Oahu, Hawaii.
We all have some kind of unique abilities. Some of us know how to swim. Some know how to drive. Some know first aid. We learn these skills and go about our lives. But we never really expect that one day we might use them to actually save someone’s life. That’s exactly what happened to Spencer Allen.
Spencer Allen is a senior at Mid-Pacific Institute. He and his friend Akahi Hudgens were taking their jet ski out for a foiling session that Saturday afternoon.
They were going from Spitting Caves to Hanauma Bay. But then they heard people shouting. Someone was lost at sea.
Two men had been riding a twelve-foot boat. A large wave hit the boat and it sank. The younger man swam back to shore. But the older man, who was in his fifties, got swept away by the current.
Spencer started searching right away. “I was looking around for like 10 minutes and then still nothing, so I went super close to the wall, so I could hear what they were yelling,” he said.
The people on shore pointed in a direction. Spencer went that way and saw a tiny black spot far out in the water. “It was so tiny. It could have been anything, and it was him,” he said.
The man was a whole mile from the coast by then. The wind made the conditions dangerous. The tide and current had pulled him far out.
Spencer pulled the man onto his jet ski. He took him to a Honolulu Fire Department rescue boat that was nearby.
“I was scared,” Spencer said. “I was tearing up a little bit when he was on the jet ski. I’ve never experienced something that scary before.”
Spencer’s father Tom works as a jet ski instructor for Honolulu Ocean Safety. He trained Spencer well. “Just like all the things my dad taught me, it really worked when it needed to,” Spencer said.
“If I didn’t know that, it could have gone a completely opposite way. It would have been horrible, but knowing how to get him on the ski safely and where to go was really helpful.”
The city honored Spencer and Akahi at Honolulu Hale. They received certificates for their heroic actions.
Spencer has big dreams too. He’s on the U.S. Olympic development team right now. “I want to continue with that, and see where I can go with that,” he said. “Hopefully, the Olympics one day.”
God gives us skills for a purpose. We might think there is no use in learning something. But when the time comes, He can use it in amazing ways. He can even use it to save a person’s life like this.
This story also reminds us about the protection of God. He put Spencer at the right place and at the right time. He equipped him with the right skills to save that man’s life.
WATCH: 17-Year-Old Saves Man Being Swept Out to Sea
