guest post by Larry Dinkins 

In 2018 the world was captivated by the young Thai soccer team and their coach who were lost in a flooded cave in northern Thailand and then found and rescued. I wrote three blogs concerning those harrowing 18 days: Thai Soccer Team Lost, Found! ... and Rescued?“, “Lessons from the Rescue of the Thai Soccer Team”  and here: “Cave Rescue: Adun Samon.” In those three blogs I tried to draw out spiritual lessons from that rescue and eventually those articles received the most hits of any blogs I’ve ever written.  I find myself writing again about a similar incident in Laos where a group of seven men entered a cave to search for gold.  The men understood the danger and yet pressed ahead in their quest for gold, yet were met with torential rains that flooded the cave and stranded the men. Once again, a rescue team was formed, including divers from the 2018 rescue and they were able to navigate over 900 feet of narrow, muddy tunnels as well as strong currents to locate the five survivors (two more are still missing). The next step was the dangerous task of extracting the five over the same hazzardous route. In comparing the two rescues I was struck by the contrast of a young soccer team simply wanting to celebrate a winning season with a cave adventure and seven grown men risking life and limb to find elusive treasure. In both cases the bravery and courage of the rescuers is most impressive as they risked their lives to not only find the lost spelunkers but to strategize on how to safely extract them from the jaws of a watery death.  Both of these incidents reminds us of the courage and strategies that are needed for the spiritual rescue mission of saving lost souls caught in the dark cave of sin and extracting them through the power of the gospel as expressed in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”