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Jellyfish adventures

1:00am Sunday, 8th August 2010

Tez Brooks on how a near death experience brought an eternal perspective

The ocean looked inviting and the beach was a bit deserted. It was the perfect spot for Ben to enjoy the weekend away from teaching. Taking a year as a volunteer to teach English in Malaysia before starting uni was a great decision. The last few years finishing school had been emotionally difficult on him, so getting away from it all to teach kids was wonderful. He recalled a man back at his home church in Australia telling him, “You are going to have a one-on-one unique experience with God” but Ben had not given it much thought. There were no churches in this area so Ben had not attended a place of worship in quite awhile. The break from the normal church routine was a bit refreshing and he rarely thought about his walk with God.
Ben swam out a few hundred metres and felt the sun on his skin. Sometimes he just needed to be alone to recharge. Today was perfect for that. Unfamiliar with these waters, he turned and decided to get a bit closer to shore. Bang! Suddenly Ben felt like he was hit by a bus. An electric shock travelled through his body and he gasped. A red Malaysian jellyfish--similar to the Box or Bluebottle jellyfish of Australia wrapped itself around Ben’s arm like a glove.
Somehow he was able to stumble ashore, already feeling the poison moving up his arm towards his chest. “I thought this is bad, this is really serious.”
Ben ran to a taxi driver asking him to take him to the hospital right away. But the Malaysian driver began arguing with Ben about the price of petrol until Ben finally yelled “I’ll pay you, just take me to the hospital now!” In a flash they were speeding down the road. Ben noticed cars swerving around them honking their horns. “What are you doing? You’re driving on the wrong side of the road.” With the numbing poison running up his shoulder Ben tried to calm the driver down.
During the 20 minutes it took to get to the emergency room Ben closed his eyes to avoid seeing the oncoming traffic. It was then God began flashing pictures of Ben’s life before his eyes. As he watched, he realised he had hardly influenced others to follow God. “I had not really been a blessing to other people.”
Upon arrival at the emergency room, the driver threw Ben at the staff and drove away. Ben sat there in the foreign hospital unable to communicate to the staff. He looked down at the bed. It was covered in butcher’s paper instead of sheets. Bloodstains were in the paper from a previous patient. An angry nurse came in from time to time and yelled something at Ben in Malay. Soon another person came in and began sticking needles in his arm. One doctor spoke English to him saying he’d be okay and then walked away. Ben tried to be still but he could feel the toxins spreading into his respiratory system. He was finding it hard to breath and his immune system was losing the battle. All the while waves of pain flowed from his head to his feet causing Ben to twitch uncontrollably.
What happened next can only be described as an out of body experience. Ben felt detached from his body and was floating just above it. “I was thinking so this is where it ends? It’s been a very good life. I have been really blessed; went to a great private school, had a good family, but I haven’t really invested in people. I remember thinking there’s got to be more. I told God I wanted to invest in people, if He’d let me live. I woke up the next morning and although the toxins were still fighting for my body, I was alive. The next day I was flown to a private hospital. After some proper blood tests the doctors were amazed I was alive. God was doing some incredible things and I realised He really wanted me to invest in people.”
Life soon returned to normal for Ben and he finished his year of teaching and returned to Australia. He started uni and got involved with a college-based Christian organization called Student Life. Because real estate had a lucrative income, Ben’s parents wanted him to pursue an education in property and real estate. He was happy with that. However as he looked at Student Life’s mission and how they were investing in the spiritual lives of people he remembered his promise to God and thought “Hang on, why on earth am I doing this? Buildings can be knocked down, destroyed in a few years….why not invest in eternal things?”
Today Ben is finishing his property degree in order to begin his teaching degree. Recently Student Life missionaries have asked him to take some leadership courses. Ben recalls, “It all happened because of a swim in the ocean. I often think about that year in Malaysia and that little jellyfish God used to give me a wake up call…it was worth it.”