“It is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.” ~ Ephesians 2:8-9
Vincent Ardolino watched the Twin Towers explode from his little tugboat in the New York Harbor on 9/11. Minutes later, as the towers fell, people swarmed the pier, desperate to vacate the island. Roads, subways, trains, bridges--everything was shut down. The only escape from Manhattan Island? The water. Many of them leaped in, fearing for their lives.
Vincent urgently turned the prow of his boat toward the island as his wife exclaimed, “What if there’s another attack?!” His response was, “If I only rescue one person, that’s one less person who will suffer and die.”
Joined by every boat on the water, Vincent became involved with the greatest sea evacuation since World War II, when 339,000 soldiers were rescued over the span of 9 days in Dunkirk. On 9/11 500,000 civilians were rescued in less than 9 hours through the grace gift of these captains. Each person jumping into a boat accepted the gracious gift of a rescue, putting their faith in the boat and in its captain.