and Paul was moved to the University of California Hospital in San Francisco as his final court of medical appeal. Three weeks of daily treatment brought a conclusive prognosis for the young patient: he would die very soon, or spend the rest of his time in a "living death” of blindness and complete physical helplessness. “ Beyond the miseries of those moments God convict ed me of my spiritual blindness and death without Jesus Christ,” Paul testifies. “ In the privacy of my mind I promised God that I would seek out and serve the Christ I had heard about, if I ever got out of this fix.” In the next three months, the expectations of those who had been praying, and the remotest hopes of those who had not, began to lift. Miraculously, Paul was on his way to “ impossible” recovery. His eyesight began to return. Coordinated body movement was increasingly possible. With new physical life virtually assured, Paul was released from the hospital for further therapy and development of co-ordination at home in Watsonville. “ God had certainly answered prayer,” he says happily. Another eight months passed before Paul could re turn to work. Without clear understanding of all that was involved, he simply accounted for his “ resurrec tion” as some kind of spiritual providence. He felt that now he would have to do things for God. His search through several religious groups showed him that work for salvation was readily available, though deeply unsatisfactory. He compared what he was seeing to the change of life in his two former drinking companions who had been “ preachy” with him. Paul became convinced that they had the real thing because of what they believed, not because of what they might have tried to do for Jesus Christ. Attending a Sunday service at the First Baptist Church in nearby Salinas, Paul heard the pastor speak of man’s relationship to God in the statement that “ the Lord will supply your needs, not your greeds.” He gave his heart and life to God. This drove the wedge of conviction deeper into Paul’s selfish heart. He knew, more than ever before, that while physical recovery had come, he was still buried alive in the sands of his own sinfulness and helplessness. “ Lloyd and Dick Adams had really been rescued from sin,” Paul recounts, “ and I was still in its grip. I had to know what to do to be right with God. The night came when the Lord somehow sent Dick to our home to let us know more about salvation. In the moments that followed Dick introduced my wife Char lotte and me to Jesus Christ.” After four years of spiritual rescue work as a church league basketball coach, deacon, and Sunday school teacher at the First Baptist Church in Watson ville, Paul Turley moved his family to Southern Cali fornia and enrolled in Biola College. “ The Lord willing, we’re going to give ourselves to the work of winning lost lives to Jesus Christ,” Paul says. “ This is the pleasure He has given us in this new life. Charlotte and I are looking forward to more years of usefulness wherever we can get to young people and adults whom Christ will rescue.”
With unsuspected swiftness, Paul’s body weight loosened an air pocket below the surface. With muted force, the cave-in sucked him down into the drifting mass. Desperate efforts to free himself, even his frantic cry for help, only triggered an irresistible clutch from the liquid-like dryness that had enclosed everything but his head and arms. The feeble attempts of a fellow workman to rescue him failed when a weak grip between the two men gave in to an unrelenting trickle of dust from the top of the dune. Paul was plunged downward under tons of granite dust to a depth of twenty feet. Horrified, other workmen flagged the machinery to a halt. Every available man pitched into a feverish at tempt to shovel into the pit. Minutes ticked by rapidly. City emergency units with shrieking sirens converged on the burial scene. Human hands, and what seemed very small shovels, dug down into the deep grave. Heavy earth-moving equip ment stood nearby in expensive uselessness, their great grappling teeth posing a threat to life where otherwise they would penetrate with ease. “ I had no thoughts that I can recollect,” Paul re lates, “ but what thought out of my pleasure-filled life would have given me security then?” Ten minutes passed. Hope was sinking. Then, after thirteen minutes, the rescue group reached Paul in the bin’s crushing depths. Uncovering his head and apply ing the oxygen, workmen labored to release his body from every inch of compacted dust which seemed in the grip of a giant. The first three days in the hospital gave the uncon scious victim no hope for survival. A pint of dust was removed from his lungs. Paralysis set in, followed by “ conscious blindness and headaches beyond description.” Paul’s “ preachy” friends prayed for his recovery. “ They really believed that God wanted to do something with my life in the coming years,” he later recalled. A few days later an attack of pneumonia followed
Paul Turley has been a student at Biola Col lege. He is serving in the Beatty Avenue Baptist Church of Whittier, California.
15
JULY, 1966
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