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Inspirational Story of Faith, Hope and Second Chances

by Heather Smith

August 30, 2012

@calluna79

I don't recall hearing about the lost and rescued fishermen in 2006. Articles on Christian Today and MSNBC tell the news at the time -- three Mexican fishermen rescued after 10 months at sea. The Christian Today articles site the survivors' faith in God as what sustained them and gave them hope during this hopeless time. But former television executive Joe Kissack heard and saw something more. He saw an amazing story of faith and survival and second chances, and he was drawn to tell it.

Kissack writes in The Fourth Fisherman about the fishermen's story -- how they started as a crew of five, how the ship got lost, how the other crewmen died and how the three survivors survived. But interwoven in the story is Kissack's own story of faith and second chances. Not from a boat tossed in the stormy sea but from his own life tossed about by Kissack's own poor choices. The stories are woven together because while vastily different in physical happenings, the stories mirror each other in matters of faith and hope.

The Fourth Fisherman is an interesting story of survival with details about the on-sea ordeal, including catching sharks and drinking turtles' blood, but more than that are the themes of extreme faith and God's sovereignty and His ability and desire to use anything and everything to the glory of Him.

Kissack never did get the fisherman's story turned into a movie, although he's still trying. But the journey of them and him has resulted in changed lives, which may have just been the point all along.