Lee P. (copiousreader) reviewed In Peril on the Sea: The Story of Ethel Bell and Her Children Mary and Robert (The Jaffray Collection of Missionary Portrails , Vol 14) on
It is 1942. Sights and sounds of war envelope the world. And in the arena of the southern Atlantic the infamous German submarine U-66 prowls the gray water.
Missionary widow Ethel Bell and her children - Mary, 14, and Robert, 11 - uprooted by the war from their West Africa station, find themselves on a small freighter bound for America.
Suddenly, on a peaceful August afternoon, a shrieking alarm pierces the stillness. Torpedoes explode. Fire engulfs the ship and within two minutes it disappears beneath the oil-slimy, shark-infested waters.
What follows is an almost unbelievable saga of death and despair as mother, daughter and son find themselves on an eight-by ten-foot raft along with two orphaned missionary children and fourteen male crew members.
For twenty days aboard the bobbing vessel, Ethel Bell becomes pastor, peacekeeper, teacher, mediator and caregiver.
But the story does not end with the surprising rescue. Years later, in a poignant moment, as Robert Bell meets his "enemies" fact to face, he realizes that the hostility of nations makes needless enemies of otherwise decent men.
But now the war was long lover. The men could at last bury their common catastrophe. God's love and forgiveness has triumphed.
Missionary widow Ethel Bell and her children - Mary, 14, and Robert, 11 - uprooted by the war from their West Africa station, find themselves on a small freighter bound for America.
Suddenly, on a peaceful August afternoon, a shrieking alarm pierces the stillness. Torpedoes explode. Fire engulfs the ship and within two minutes it disappears beneath the oil-slimy, shark-infested waters.
What follows is an almost unbelievable saga of death and despair as mother, daughter and son find themselves on an eight-by ten-foot raft along with two orphaned missionary children and fourteen male crew members.
For twenty days aboard the bobbing vessel, Ethel Bell becomes pastor, peacekeeper, teacher, mediator and caregiver.
But the story does not end with the surprising rescue. Years later, in a poignant moment, as Robert Bell meets his "enemies" fact to face, he realizes that the hostility of nations makes needless enemies of otherwise decent men.
But now the war was long lover. The men could at last bury their common catastrophe. God's love and forgiveness has triumphed.
