Mount Fuji, a “fall to grace” and a miracle

I would like to share my testimony of my “fall to grace,” as the Lord performed a miracle that brought me back from death.

Richard RayIn 1989, I was stationed at Yokota Air Base in Japan while serving in the U.S. Air Force. In August of that year, my friends and I decided we would climb Mount Fuji. It rises 12,388 feet and is the 35th most prominent mountain in the world.

Our climb started late in the evening so we could arrive at the summit before sunrise. It took us about seven hours to reach the summit, where I stood above the clouds watching the most beautiful sunrise I ever have seen. I stood there, reflecting on God’s amazing beauty.

We soon began our descent. My friends headed out in front of me, while I stayed longer to video record the amazing view. When my time came to descend from the mountaintop, little did I know a miracle was about to take place in my life.

As I started my descent, still very close to the summit, the ground moved beneath me and threw me forward, causing me to be cast over the side of the mountain. I fell several hundred feet, grasping at anything to stop my fall. As I slid, I finally came to a stop by hanging onto a large rock. Then I realized my shoulder and both legs were broken. My head also was injured, and the skin on my face and arm were scraped by lava rock. The only thing I could think of was how mad my wife was going to be. She told me not to climb this mountain, because I would fall.

An hour or so passed before other climbers were able to reach me. They created a makeshift stretcher out of their coats and took me to a mountain station at an elevation of about 10,000 feet. I knew I was going to die. Climbers wrapped my head and did what they could to make me comfortable, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I would pass away, so I began to pray.

My prayer was not for forgiveness or salvation, since I knew I was bound for heaven. My prayers were for my wife, who was expecting our third child in October of that year, that she would not be too mad at me and that she would receive the insurance money without any problems. As I prayed, I died. Those in the station covered my face and radioed down that I had passed away.

However, God had another plan. I awoke and removed the sheet from my face, and you can imagine the surprise of those in the room. Immediately, I begin to pray again for my family. After slipping in and out of consciousness several times due to the lack of blood, I realized I was not going to die.

With blood leaking through the bandages wrapped around my head, my shoulder broken along with both legs, I begin to pray again, but a different prayer. I prayed for healing, starting with my toes and then my feet, ankles and legs. I prayed for hours, knowing if I had any hope of being brought down the mountain alive, I would have to be able to walk.

As I prayed for my toes, they began to move. As I prayed for my ankles, I felt them strengthen. And as I prayed for my legs, I could feel the broken bones restored to their proper place. Then I had the strength to sit up. Everyone in that station was amazed and scared, but I was ready to go home and see my wife and children.

They put me inside a bulldozer and drove me down to where people were waiting to take me to a helicopter to transport me back to the Air Force base. When I arrived, the men who were to transport me were in shock. At first, I did not know why, until I got into the vehicle and saw the body bag that was meant for me. I calmly said to them, “I don’t think you’ll need that.”

My “fall to grace” is not about coming back to God or the assurance of my salvation. It is about how only by the grace of God do we live at all. Romans 14:8 says: “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”

Use the time the Lord has granted you and live for him and him alone, for it is only by his grace we live at all.

Richard Ray is executive director of the Bivocational/Small Church Association and director of missions for Tri-Rivers Baptist Area.