wfn.org | Faith, prayer helped trapped miners survive

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Aug. 7, 2002 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{347}

NOTE: For related coverage, see UMNS story #332.

By United Methodist News Service

Trapped 240 feet underground, Mark Popernack and eight other coal miners
drew on their faith to help them survive.

Though at times they thought death might be imminent, they never gave up
hope, says Popernack, who attends Grace United Methodist Church in Somerset,
Pa. 

In an interview with United Methodist Communications' UMTV, he and his wife,
Sandy, discussed how prayer and faith helped them endure the 77-hour ordeal
that ended in the July 28 rescue of the miners. The television segment,
"Keeping Hope Alive," can be seen at www.umtv.org. 

The nine miners had been trapped since the evening of July 24, when they
accidentally drilled into an abandoned, water-filled mine. The water flooded
the area in which they were working, forcing them to flee, but they were
unable to escape from the mine.

"Thursday (July 25), around dinner time, the water came up to our section,"
Mark, 41, recalls. "It reached us and ... that was the biggest low of all
because we thought that's possibly when we were going to die. That's when we
all got a piece of cardboard and wrote our last words on. We were all ready
to die."

However, the miners held on to hope. "There was hope the whole time,"
Popernack says. "We never lost hope then. We went to the highest point there
was and figured there's still hope that someone will get a hold of us."

The men "prayed and prayed and prayed," he says.

"All we had left at this time when that water reached us, all we had left
was God and hope," he says. "It was really quiet, no one was talking. You
could hear whispering to ourselves praying, but nobody was talking."

Nearly 300 feet above, rescuers were drilling into the mine, working to get
warm air down to the trapped men and to drain some of the water out, while
efforts proceeded on creating a shaft through which the men could be pulled
to safety.

Meanwhile, family members of the miners clung to their faith.

"I think there's hope in prayer," says Sandy Popernack. "I think that's the
bottom line.  That's where our hope all came from."

Along with the hope, there were also moments of doubt.

"The first day I thought, he's coming out alive," Sandy says. "Then I
thought, there's no way he can come out of there alive.

"I sometimes felt I was being selfish, but I think I just prayed," she says.
"I just didn't think I could go on by myself.  I mean, I just said there's
no way I can live and raise my kids by myself." The Popernacks have two
sons.

The Rev. Barry Ritenour, pastor of Bethany and St. John's United Methodist
churches in Somerset, was among the ministers who tried to comfort the
family members. The Popernacks' pastor, the Rev. Charles Olson, also was on
hand.

Even for the ministers, the drama was a test of faith. Ritenour remembers
thinking: "What if I'm telling these people the wrong things? What if ...
this goes sour, am I going to destroy their faith?"

However, he says, "there were too many positives not to be hopeful." For
example, rescue workers got pumps into place quickly and began lowering the
water in the mine, he says. And the weather cooperated. "Friday and Saturday
here they were calling for heavy thunderstorms and rain," he says. "It never
stormed; the sun shined."

Early that Sunday morning, the rescuers finally broke through to the miners
and pulled the men out, one by one.

Popernack was treated for hypothermia and dehydration and released from
Somerset Hospital later that morning. 

"You just never give up hope," he says. "I mean, this is proof for
everybody. You know, I believe that the whole world never gave up hope, and
I think what happened is proof."

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United Methodist News Service
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