Shipwreck: Then What? 

     This story gets more interesting.

     Imagine 276 wet, hungry and tired men dropping on the beach of Malta. No JCPenney's store. Or Burger King. 

     Luke doesn't tell us how they managed. How would he know? Luke was on the ship with Paul. That's how. He wrote the gospel "Luke" and the amazing book of Acts, this story in chapter 27. A Gentile, Luke went where the action was, like any good reporter, and left for us much knowledge otherwise lost in time. 

     Where were we? Malta, a small nation of three inhabited islands. It is believed Paul's shipwreck occurred on the northeast shore of the island Melite in A.D. 60. A historical marker is located there. Did they ever find the four anchors?  

     We don't know what others did with their time. But Paul learned of Malta's "chief officer" and went to visit him. It happened that the officer's father was quite sick, and Paul healed him. 

     That opened the door to faith. Paul preached there for three months, and today more than 90 percent of citizens are Christian (mostly Catholic). Other faiths and Muslims are represented too. 

     So, was the event a near tragedy, or divine intervention?  

     If you want to visit Malta, go to Rome, then south where the boot of Italy becomes Sicily, and go 50 miles south from there. You will be east of North Africa, and Tunisa. Oh, you will need a ship, or a plane. They do have an airport.  

          Jimmy