I descended to the [very] roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars closed behind me [bolting me in] forever, Yet You have brought up my life from the pit (death), O LORD my God. I do not have the right words to adequately express my appreciation to the entire staff of Naas Hospital and The Mater Hospital Dublin, particularly the staff of the Coronary Care Unit (CCU), and the intensive care unit who became family to me when the hospital was my home for months and I received the best care in the world. The memories of your loving care linger on in my mind. I also received highly specialised care from Midland Regional Portlaoise Hospital (the CCU unit). I am grateful to all the staff that took care of me there. I also appreciate the support of the staff of the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed upon me for ever: Yet hast thou brought up my life from the pit, O Jehovah my God.

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. Lieutenant (j.g.) Bulkeley was given command of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3, which consisted of PT-31, PT-32, PT-33, PT-34, PT-35, and Bulkeley’s flagship, PT-41. Squadron 3 boasted a compliment of 11 officers and 68 men. In general, each boat had a crew of two officers and 10 to 12 men. The PT-boats were of the latest design, 77-footers that came equipped with four 21-inch torpedo launchers and two pairs of 50-caliber machine guns in power turrets.

Anyways, this expression has existed for at least 400 years. It was used, for example, by William Shakespeare in the play Twelfth Night, written around 1601: God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee… While death is a solitary experience, it is followed by the communion of saints. We will be united to all those we have loved who have themselves been saved. Best of all, we will be united with Jesus Christ forever, an ecstasy that will be denied to those who have denied him and sought in every way to resist his love (Matthew 10:32). As Thomas Aquinas assures us in his hymn Adoro Te Devote:

Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer from them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death: Another kind of longing for death will be found among those who have lost a loved one, and therefore have lost the most precious thing that gave meaning to life. This will be especially common among the elderly. The feeling is developed that the only way to restore the loss of the loved one is to join the loved one in eternity. But here again we do not know whether being joined again to the loved one will happen. This is because we do not really know the shadowy land of the far country beyond death. That the soul will find supreme beatitude we are promised; and promised also that we will see God face to face. But, Hildebrand offers, “The place to which our soul goes cannot be reached by thought. Where is Heaven? Where is Purgatory? Where is Hell? Here we come up against an impenetrable mystery.” For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. Have mercy on me, O LORD! Consider my trouble from those who hate me, You who lift me up from the gates of death,Favour me, O Jehovah, See mine affliction by those hating me, Thou who liftest me up from the gates of death,

Thinking they might be spies, Bulkeley slipped into the ambassador’s cabin and secured the diplomat’s briefcase. Eventually he took the briefcase, which he imagined was full of secret intelligence, and slipped over the side with his ill-gotten “treasure.” When he proudly reported to naval headquarters, official reaction was less than complimentary. An ashen-faced official took the briefcase, and later Bulkeley was told to keep his mouth shut about the incident. The Boats That Captured Bulkeley’s Imagination I sank to the foundations of the mountains; the earth with its prison bars closed behind me forever! But You raised my life from the Pit, LORD my God! Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom… Meanwhile, Bulkeley was having his own troubles. He maneuvered PT-41 closer to shore in an effort to seek calmer waters. It was a calculated risk because there were uncharted reefs in the area, ready to gouge a hole into the hull of any unwary vessel. Yet danger lurked in another quarter, and when Bulkeley found out about it his rage knew no bounds. Rendezvous at Tagauayan

the jaws of ˈdeath, deˈfeat, etc.

Four PT-boats would be used in the breakout operation. They would all leave from different locations so as not to arouse the suspicion of any spies that might be lurking around. The four boats were supposed to rendezvous at 8 pm on the evening of March 11, 1942, off the turning buoy outside the minefields at the entrance to Manila Bay. Bolaji Lola Adebiyi is a woman with a humorous, youthful heart and a burning passion to share her miraculous story of God’s healing power with the entire world. To the cuttings of mountains I have come down, The earth, her bars are behind me to the age. And Thou bringest up from the pit my life, O Jehovah my God. When the TARDIS lands on a deserted volcanic island, the Doctor and his companions find themselves kidnapped by primitive sea-people.

I am grateful to God for giving me another opportunity—a second chance I call it—and an opportunity to love Him, to serve Him, to use my story to win souls for Christ in that God can do what Jesus did for me for you by reading this book. I also thank God for the grace to use my testimony to encourage those that are in Christ as well as to hold onto faith in our unquestionable God. Furthermore, I appreciate Jesus for granting me a special opportunity to fulfil my own very purpose in life. According to Psalm 57:2 I will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performeth all things for me.

piece of snatch

The most disturbing thing about death is that, other than what our faith reveals, we know nothing of what it is like to exist without a body. How does consciousness carry on divided from the only partner it has always known … the brain? We will not know until we shed our body and venture forth without it. Shedding the body is not losing something we love, for the body is not an object of love – at least, in the deepest sense of that sacred term ‘love’. You might be sorry to lose a leg, but you do not love your leg, so you are not losing something you love. You might reverently bury your leg, but you do not offer prayers for it because your leg has no meaning for you beyond the use of it, and the use of it can substituted by an artificial device. The great divide between soul and body was also stressed by Plato when he rightly described the body as a prison for the soul. Being liberated from the body at death, Hildebrand opines, “Our natural ignorance about the fate of the soul after death goes so far that we have no idea what knowledge about this world survives in the soul of someone who has died.” I sank to the roots of the mountains; the earth's prison bars closed around me forever. Yet you resurrect the dead from the Pit, LORD my God! Have mercy upon me, O Lord; look upon my affliction which I suffer of mine enemies, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death: to the clefts of the mountains; I went down into the earth, whose bars are the everlasting barriers: yet, O Lord my God, let my ruined life be restored.