ONE OF OUR BROTHERS IS LOST AND FOUND!

  Hereafter we publish two accounts on the same terrible accident of one of our Dominican students, Korean brother Andreas Kim, OP. The first, from Fr. Javier Gonzalez, OP. Fr. Javier, the Prior Provincial, lived the nightmarish experience with the Community of St. Joseph’s House where the Brother was a member last summer. The other account comes from Brother Andreas himself entitled “When I was missing for Five Days.” Miracles can happen and do happen!

LATEST NEWS ABOUT OUR KOREAN BROTHER ANDREAS KIM

  Greetings! Good news! After several days searching for him, our Korean Brother Andreas Kim was found yesterday, August 27, by the Hong Kong police, with the help of two helicopters, and transferred to the nearby Eastern Hospital of Chai Wan (Hong Kong), where he is now recovering in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). He is in good physical condition, fully conscious and talkative. Everybody considers him being alive a real miracle. For the information of everyone, this is what happened:

1. Brother Andreas Kim, a second year Theology student, has been in Hong Kong for the summer months of July and August. As he normally did once a week, he went hiking on Thursday 23 of August. He left the house at 9:30 in the morning. The fact that he did not return in the afternoon of that day already worried us. But the alarm in the community came when he did not appear in the chapel the following morning for the Mass and then breakfast… It was the moment when we discovered that he was not in his room. We waited until lunch time for news about him. Since there was none, we started getting the feeling that something tragic might have happened to him. Thus we took the decision to inform the police about the incident. Immediately after my call that afternoon of 24 of August, the police came to our house in Kowloon and started gathering information from the members of the community and searching in his room for clues to locate him. Then I accompanied them to the police headquarters to file a detailed missing report of him. Since that very moment, and for the following days, the Hong Kong police started a frenetic activity searching for him: three different teams from the Regional Missing Person Unit kept coming to our house again and again to get any kind of information about him, working untiringly counter clock with great professionalism and dedication. As the days were passing without news about our Brother, no means were spared by them to search for him: helicopters, trained dogs, searching teams going around the mountains, etc. Even our Students Brothers and Novices joined them a couple of days… In the meantime, many people, both here at home and abroad, were praying hard for a happy ending of the whole story, hoping against hope even as the days passed without any result: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday…, and we tried in vain to lead a normal life. Our Calvary ended when on Monday 27 at around 4 in the afternoon I received a call from the police telling us that they had spotted our Brother Andreas from a helicopter, recovered him alive, and transferred to a hospital where he was being given emergency assistance… Jumping with joy, Fr Jose Luis and myself went immediately to see him and meet some of the police rescuers who were waiting for us at the emergency room. As we reached the place, we could see in their faces the same joy we had experienced upon knowing that our Brother was alive. They were the first ones to come toward us and embrace us while we expressed to them our sincerest appreciation for the extraordinary work that they had done and for having brought us back our Brother Andreas safe and sound. The rest is easy to imagine: while he remains still in the ICU, brethren and friends keep visiting him to share the same joy and emotions as well as the same need to thank the Lord for having listened to so many prayers…

2. What happened to our Brother Andreas during those five days? This is what now many people are asking us. For uniform and objective information I describe it here briefly, paraphrasing the chronicle of our house:

On 23 August, Thursday, Andreas Kim fell off the cliff while climbing and taking photos in the mountain ranges of Shek O. According to him, he fell backwards around 7 meters down a cliff. Fortunately his knapsack saved his backbone from greater injuries. He was unconscious for a couple of hours, broke some of his ribs and vomited blood. For two days he lied there in the wilderness of Shek O forest and could not move at all. On the third day, he could walk a little and reached a stream to drink some water. It was the water that saved his life. (He had only two oranges with him.) As those mountains face the sea, he made signals to the boats but to no avail. On the fifth day (Monday) he could walk a little more and make signals to the two helicopters from the Hong Kong police searching for him until they spotted and rescued him. It was a miracle because the police got only recently the information that he might be in the far away Shek O mountain ranges. Initially everyone thought that our Brother went to one of the nearby mountain ranges in Kowloon, where the police helicopters and our Brothers were searching for him.

3. Andreas is recovering very fast. He will remain at least for a few more days in the ICU unit of the Eastern Hospital. When we first saw him there he seemed fine, a little thinner, haggard, apologetic, happy and grateful. Many people had prayed for him; and as one of our fervent parishioners says, “Prayer work miracles.” Truly a miracle is how even some police officers describes the whole operation. Once more we have to mention the impressive work done by the Hong Kong Police Missing Person Unit. They worked round the clock for this rescue mission with absolute commitment, dedication and with a sense of service that has left us edified.

4. Andreas’ family was informed when he was missing and now they rejoice to hear the good news. We, too, rejoice with them and share this bit of information with all of you so that our joy may be also yours and together we may thank the Lord for all his goodness to us. Let us celebrate life! Thank you for your prayers.

Fr. Javier González, OP

August 28, 2012

St. Joseph’s House

Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

WHEN I WAS MISSING FOR FIVE DAYS

 

Someone said, “Hiking is a companion with one`s own self and provides thinking for one´s  own life”…

  During the last summer vacation, the Macao brothers stayed in Hong Kong to study the English language and liturgical music.  I was one of them, and availed of the opportunity to practice one of my favorite sports, hiking up in the mountains, 6-7 hours every Saturday.

  On Thursday, August 23, after 5due permission was given, I left the convent at around 9:30 a.m., and boarded the bus, destination Shek O, in Hong Kong island, place of my adventure.  I got off the bus at 11: 00 o´ clock, and then walked for half an hour and I entered into a thorn-bushy forest, and after 30 minutes arrived at the stone coast and climbed up the rock. I found place to rest, ate a couple of oranges and drank water. Around 12:45 I moved to Shek O beach. After walking approximately 15 minutes, I came to a very rocky place, with a great amount of stones gathered together, which seemed to me quite slippery. As I stepped on them they moved, I lost my stability, and in a moment I was slipping down, without anything within reach to grasp with my hands.  I was afraid, because previously I had seen the profile of the rock, and it was by no means small, and of a considerable height. As I was falling, I instinctively buried my head in my arms. That was all.

  When I regained consciousness, I had difficulty in breathing and blood was flowing from my throat; I felt a very intensive pain all over, but particularly in my left lung. Soon I realized that I could not move. Immediately I asked myself about my name, the date and the place I was in, etc. My head was all right, no problem. I was still alive! After uttering a prayer of thanksgiving to God, I thought:  if my lungs are torn, or I have broken my ribs, that can be overcome. But if my spine or leg bones are broken, maybe I will not be able to move.  I tried to move. However, I was unable to do so.  I checked the time on my watch, 3:20 p.m. Then, I told myself: by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow I will be able to move and escape from this place…

   My first night, I passed it thinking about all things of my life from childhood to the present. It had been a happy life...On the Second day, still early morning, I tried to move, but I failed. I had to wait until afternoon, when I tried again and could move my legs and seat down. Thanks be to God, my legs, spine, and other bones are not broken, I thought. Then I tried to stand up.  However, I felt a very sharp pain all over, so I just kept that position and checked my bag:  many things were broken and there was no more water left. The night was cold. I prayed to God: “Lord, grant me, please, the strength so that I can escape from here tomorrow”.

  On the early morning of the third day I tried several times to stand, until finally, I did it. Immediately, I moved very, very slowly to find water, for I was extremely thirsty. I had noticed before, that the birds had built their nests on the branches of the nearby trees. That was surely a good signal for me, for they do it near to a place where water can be found. After several attempts, there it was: water from the mountain! I drank like a person out of his mind… Then I washed my whole body and kept some more water for the future.

  That day was Saturday.  I was in a hurry to go back home. So I started climbing up, at times crawling, in the direction of the hill of thorn-bushes. However, after a few hours I stopped, due to very intensive pain and also to the state of my physical condition: I was already exhausted, and by this time, with no more water. The hill seemed to me much too far to be reached.

  I had to change my plan and went back to the previous place, near the water; built “my nest” with an umbrella and plenty of little branches which I wrapped around my body as an extra clothe, and took muscle pain medicine for the night, to keep my physical strength. I thought of taking a different way, which would mean a shorter distance and avoiding  to go back by the same way I had taken before, when I felt down, which now  seemed impossible for me to cross. I thought, “if I fall again, that will be the end of my life”. At that moment, my prayer went to my Community and our brotherhood.

  The fourth day I could move only a little and sideways through the thorn-bushed forest, advancing slowly, and with great difficulty. When the place became too difficult, I just lay down on the bushes, rolling my body and moved again.  It took me the whole day, but I could not reach the place I was going to, for I felt extremely tired, my “extra clothe” was by now torn, and my skin was, because of the thorns, badly hurt all over and bleeding. So I leaned my body against the “thorn-filled-bushes”, praying God to help me find water tomorrow….

  Fifth day:  August 27.  I thought I had to escape from there, at any cost, because my body was becoming noticeably weaker and the speed of my pace slower. I moved away, but at noontime I had not yet been able to find any water. After I rested for a very little while, I moved on again and found water. I shouted with all my (now little) strength: “Alleluia”!  Fortunately that place connects to the rock. I was nervous, because that was a very dangerous rocky place. It took me a long time to cross it. Finally I got through to the other side, and there I sat for rest.

   Around 4:00 p.m. I heard the sound of a helicopter. Then I saw the helicopter coming in the direction where I was. But I thought that it would be just one of the Hong Kong Military Police´s Helicopters which was practicing and I did not make any signal. However, after a few minutes the helicopter overflew just over my head. Immediately I signed with my umbrella and the helicopter approached me, signaling that they had seen me and that I should wait there, meaning that they would be coming back. Some five minutes later, the rescue helicopter arrived. One man jumped down with a long wire, to where I was. Only some minutes later, I was moved to the Eastern Hospital.

  I had a CTScan, and fortunately my left lung was only slightly damaged, but not crushed, two ribs were disjointed; and only some little parts of my bones were cracked or swollen. When I was brought to my room, I was met by Fr Javier, our Provincial, and Fr José Luis de Miguel. At that moment I was thinking and feeling about our fraternal life. And then I heard from them, that other brothers were looking for me up in the mountains and praying for me.  After one week I was discharged from the hospital. Fr Solis and Fr Raymond brought me to Rosaryhill, where I stayed for 10 days. Then, I came back to Macau where all the members of the Community welcomed me with fraternal embraces, including Fr Alejandro, our beloved prior.