A pair of teenagers who skipped school for a beach senior skip day found themselves in trouble when they got too far from shore and their adventure turned scary.Tyler Smith and Heather Brown, both 17, have been buddies since fourth grade and headed to Vilano Beach, Florida for some fun in the sun. But the tide dragged them out into the ocean and they were fighting to stay alive two miles from shore. After two hours of struggling, they didn’t think they were going to make it.
Heather and Tyler say they tried to hold each other up as much as they could, but they were cramping up and their strength was fading fast. They prayed and Tyler says he called out, “If you really do have a plan for us, like come on. Just bring something.” And that’s when a boat sailing from South Florida to New Jersey saw the teens in distress and started heading toward them.
The men in the boat had left about 2 hours before they had planned. Captain Eric Wagner and his crew had seen rough seas were forecast and decided to get going ASAP. Both Wagner and the teens were thankful for that decision. "Over all the wind, waves, and engines, we thought we heard a desperate scream," Wagner told the local station. "Exhausted and near the end, the boy told me he called out for God's help. Then we showed up." After the crew got them on the boat "I told them the name of the vessel, that's when they started to cry," Wagner said. The name of that boat? “The Amen.” "The young couple was gracious and grateful to us and to God. It was the latter all along." Tyler says, “There’s no other reason, no other explanation in the world than God.”