PRAISE: Thai Children’s Soccer Team Found Alive After Missing for 10 Days

Image credit: Facebook
Image credit: Facebook
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For 10 days, they were lost in a cave, out of sight and grasping at hope that most certainly felt distant. Then hope finally showed up — in the former of British divers — to rescue a team of 12 young soccer players and their coach, all of whom were alive.

As the piercing light peered into the dark and damp cave, the SEALs said they found the group of children. All of them were healthy and immediately began asking questions, chief among them how long they had been huddled in the cavernous belly.

“You have been here 10 days,” a British diver told the clan of athletes. “You are very strong.”

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In response, one of the boys inquired, “What time do we go outside?”

“No, not today, not today,” the rescue diver answered. “There’s two of us. You have to dive. We’re coming. It’s OK. Many people are coming. Many, many people. We’re the first. Many people come.”

When the kids began to ask where the divers were from, they told the young, brave players they were from the United Kingdom. “God bless you,” one of the rescued members said.

After 10 days of waiting — a span of time that surely felt like an eternity — words that felt like an increasingly distant possibility escaped the lips of a Thai military official back at a base camp near the cave’s entrance: he said the team had been found.

When the official made the announcement, loud cheers rang out from the searchers who had been earnestly praying and working for the miracle that just became a reality.

“He would love to eat a fried omelet,” the elated mother of 11-year-old Chanin Wiboonrungrueng told reporters.

Now begins the hard work of extracting the band of players. Ben Reymenants, a Belgian diver working with the rescue team, told ABC News they have to race against the clock to safely remove all 12 children before the next rainstorm descends.

Pat Moret, a rescue consultant, told CNN the team members will likely need a lot of medical attention before they can be removed from the cave.

“They’ll need fluids replacing [and] possibly feeding. They’re going to need reheating. They’ve possibly been lying still for days now. And sensory faculties won’t be what they should be,” the consultant said. “So I would think that they’re not really fit to move for maybe 12 hours or so really.”

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Moret went on to say the completion of the harrowing rescue will be, for both the children and the rescuers, “a truly terrifying experience,” noting they may need to be “fully immersed  in water” to escape from the labyrinth.

We are praising God these children and their coach have been found alive. Now please pray with us as these divers and other first responders from around the globe work to bring the team to safety.