AN ANGELIC ENCOUNTER
FEBRUARY 29TH, 2008
In February 2008, my father, mother and I were at the Entrance on holiday, a place we frequent regularly. My family and I stay in a waterfront villa situated on Tuggerah lakes, located behind the Entrance beach. One evening, dad and I were on our boat fishing. It was sunset, around 7, 7:30pm. It was a balmy night. The air was cool and the water was still. There was a calming peace in the air. I could hear the distant traffic and the birds singing from afar. I was fishing with my arm draped over the motor, looking out at a beautiful sunset, almost mesmerized by the spectrum of yellows, oranges, reds and purples. As I looked, I saw an angel descend from heaven and walk towards me on the water. I was stunned. I gazed upon the angel with open eyes. The angel was male in appearance, tall, slim and elegant. He had a beautiful, youthful face and looked as though he was only 20 years of age. His face was white and shone brightly with the glory of God. He wore a white robe, a gold sash and had black, wavy, shoulder length hair. He did not have wings and was barefoot. He did not say a word. The angel walked towards us on the water then suddenly, disappeared.
A short time later, dad and I heard the buzzing of a fishing reel. We looked to see dad's fishing rod flying into the water. He spun around and caught the rod just in time and almost went in with it. When he did, the rod curled over so far that it was touching the water. Whatever he had on the rod was heavy. He began to reel it in but each time he did, whatever was on the end of the line pulled back with a powerful jerk. At first I thought that it may have been a piece of sea weed but I could clearly see the line moving towards, away from and around the boat. There was definitely something alive on the end of the line. Dad continued pulling up and reeling in, pulling up and reeling in but the reel was slipping. I looked at the reel to see that all of the line had been taken. Dad looked like he was struggling. I called out, "Hey Dad! Give me the rod! Let me help you pull it in!" He turned his back and exclaimed; "It's ok, don't worry about it!" Dad's arms were outstretched in front of him and it looked like if he had one more hit, he would end up in the water. I called out again "Dad! Let me help you!" Again he replied, "No, It's ok!" I went over to him and said, "Let me help you, give me that!" and took the rod off him. When I did, I felt the weight of the rod and looked at him with raised eyebrows. I began to reel in but it was too heavy. By this time it was a lot darker so we couldn't really see the water too well. We turned on a prawning light and put it into the water. Dad took the rod back off me but this time I held onto it and helped him reel in. We were standing to one side of the boat and we knew; one wrong move and the boat would tip over and at one point, it almost did. It got to the point where I took the line and had to pull it in like a hand line with dad at the reel tightening the slack. This went on for about half an hour to an hour. After half an hour we managed to reel the line in closer to the boat. We almost had it. As we were bringing it in, I saw the form of something in the light and yelled, "I can see something!" But it wasn't clear. We were getting ready to bring it into the boat. Dad took a knife and was preparing to cut the line incase it was a sting ray or baby shark. all of a sudden the line snapped! After half an hour to an hour of struggling and fighting, dad and I were left gazing at one another, stunned and silent.
We returned to the villa. It was about 9pm. As we brought the boat onto shore, mum came out to meet us and asked, "What happened?" We told her the story but I had not yet told her about the angel. She stopped, stunned she said, "While you were out on the boat, I felt that I had to pray for your protection. When I did, I saw a legion of angels descend upon the boat. They surrounded the boat, facing outwards with their backs to you. They spread their wings until they were touching tip to tip and they used their wings to protect the boat." As mum was explaining this, I remembered the angel I saw and told her about it. She was amazed. The amazing thing about this is that she did not know what I saw and I did not know what she saw yet we both saw angels coming to the boat and although we both saw something a little different, I believe that the angel I saw may have been the head angel who led the others to us. I realized that this was a true angelic encounter. As for what was on my dad's line, some whom we told, said that it was either a sting ray, a baby shark or a 3-4 foot long flat head. Whatever it was, we believe that the angel broke the line to protect us from a situation that had the potential to be disasterous.
"The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them" (Ps 34:7)
- Richard Pace