My good friend Zoe posted this note on her facebook regarding a testimony from one of the 33 miners trapped in Chile. All, I can say is, thank you. This is exactly what I needed. Take a look:

"Jose Henriquez, an evangelical preacher who was one of the 33 miners trapped deep underground in Chile was at the heart of keeping morale high during their 69 day ordeal. He was invited to share his testimony in my church on Sunday evening. Along with him came his wife and the Chilean pastor to the prime minister of Chile.

Jose is about 50 years old plus and was working 700 metres below ground level in San José copper-gold mine in the Atacama Desert near Copiapó, Chile. I will now relate his account as I heard it.

“I was working in one of the chambers in the mine down below when suddenly there was dust all around me. More and more dust filled the area and for 4 hours there was dust everywhere. I coud not see anything but dust. After that I could see about 1 metre ahead of me and I started moving and searching for others.

Soon the dust settled and we all regrouped into a big chamber. There were 33 of us. We started organising ourselves. Some were electricians and were in charge of the lighting and others had to fix the pipes so that we could still have fresh air. The food had to be rationed. We had some fish and we rationed it to one teaspoon per day per person. Among other things were biscuits.

The others gave me the task of praying for guidance. I was the only Christian there. I said to them, “I pray to the Living God. If you ask me to pray, I will pray to him. Or you can ask someone else to pray to a dead person – but I pray to the Living God.” They wanted me to pray to the Living God. I gathered the men twice a day in a big circle and made them hold hands while I prayed. I even taught each one of them to pray. Some back-slider Christians came on the scene and repented. We prayed and prayed and sang Christian songs. I prophesied that the box of food we had would never go empty.

Once we heard the drill coming and we were very excited. But we were horrified when we realised that it missed us. It would be very difficult for the drill to find us by just mere chance. We were disappointed for a while and prayer went down but it was important that we kept going. So we prayed harder and harder and finally, on the 17th day, the drill found us! We were so excited. Some of us banged on the drill, others hugged it. We painted it to show that we were alive and then we attached messages to it. I wrote, “We are alive and there are 33 of us”.  The box of food never did go empty; when we reached the last tin of fish, new supplies dropped in from above (drill hole).

After this we did not pray much anymore because we thought that our prayers were answered already. But before long we realised that we were wrong. Although we had been located, there was still the question of how to bring us out.  So we had to humble ourselves, really really humble ourselves and pray harder. I requested for 33 Bibles to be sent down. I started teaching them the basics of the Bible. We had frequent Bible studies everyday. Those boys really sang with all their hearts whenever we worshipped God.

Those many weeks underground was an opportunity for us to grow deeper in the Lord. There were of course tensions at some points and two or three points. But I made sure that both parties recon ciliated later because no one should harbour bitterness or resentment. We requested for special T-shirts to be made for us that said “Thank you God” because we want the World to see and know that our God was with us down there. Jesus the Living God was down there with us. When all this began, I was the only Christian down there. At the end of it, there were 33 Christians with their lives fully dedicated to God.

Finally on the 69th day, the missle-like capsule was sent down to pick us up one by one. The first went in and then came out. We wanted to pray first. We prayed and thanked God and blessed the capsule for safe journey mercies. One by one up we went. I was the 24th person to reach the top.

We were told by geologists that it is a miracle that the drill found us as it did. There had been a large solid rock in the way but for some strange reason the drill went at an angle and found our chamber. We praise God for what He has done.

If you have any problems, pray to the Living God because He will HEAR you. When you are in your pit of alcoholism, depression, addiction, guilt... humble yourself, go on your knees and pray and He will answer you.”

His wife said that all the while she and family had been praying and fasting. The Prime Minister of Chile himself asked the pastor to get a prayer chain going. And today many people in Chile have turned back to the Living God."