Cheryl Steele Tinsley
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First Person is produced in cooperation with the Far East Broadcasting Company, who rejoice in the stories of changed lives through the power of Jesus Christ. Learn more at febc.org. All of us have a story. I can see why people get so low that they might think that this is the end, I can no longer go. But when they get there, I'm going to tell your listeners, please know that God is there. ♪

As a young woman, she faced death when a freak storm capsized her canoe and three of her companions died. Coming up now on First Person, you'll hear the full story as we meet Cheryl Steele Tinsley. Stay tuned for our conversation. And welcome to this week's edition of First Person. I'm Wayne Shepherd, inviting you to visit FirstPersonInterview.com for an archive of past interviews.

There's much value in learning from each other's stories, and we enjoy bringing them to you. So go online to FirstPersonInterview.com and browse the personal testimonies you'll find there that always honor the author of life. In the 1980s, Cheryl Steele Tinsley was a wilderness guide surveying for an upcoming trip to

She and three colleagues were on Michigan's Lake Huron when a sudden storm caused the death of everyone but Cheryl. The fact that she survived in extreme conditions is seen by many as a medical miracle. She's the author of Wave by Wave, which tells the story, and I've asked Cheryl to tell it to us here on First Person. It's a story where of survival.

of God's protection. And sometimes we don't even know he's there. It's a story of how God uses things that aren't the best in our lives. It can be awful times, whether you might have a child that died in a car accident and you're burying your child.

or you might have been in the war and you watched your buddies. And it's one of, we have waves in our lives. Mine obviously was physical to survive, but everyone has waves throughout their lives where there's high points and low points. But all through that wave, whether it crests and goes into a downspout, God is always with us and we got to ride it out. And we can choose to be bitter

Or we can choose to say, Lord, I'm going to trust, and I decided to do the second way. Well, there are so many lessons from this story. Let's go back to the summer of 1980 and tell us what happened that summer, who you were, what you were doing, and what this dramatic story is all about. In 1980, I had worked at the camp the year before, and

And it was a summer job. And at that time in Lake Anne, Lake Anne is about 13 miles, Lake Anne Camp is 13 miles south of Traverse City. It's a beautiful camp if you're- In Michigan, yes. Yes, Traverse City, Michigan. And you can look it up online, lakeannecamp.com. And so what happened is Eldon Brock, who was our director, asked me to come back.

So there were three of us that did wilderness programs like that. But it was so different, Wayne. We did not stay on camp. So if you and your youth group or your community came and you said, hey, we've got kids that are coming out of Chicago and we want to give them the experience of being out in nature. So what we would do is we would take your youth group on Monday morning. We get them all settled. We'd head out Monday afternoon at lunch. And then we would, if you told me, hey, I want to raft on the Pine River with my group,

for the week, or I would like to do biking. We can do that right around that area. Or look, I've got a lot of young people who we really want to go up to Drummond Island. Now, Drummond Island, for your listeners, is just up over the bridge on the Upper Peninsula, about two hours from camp. Yeah, pretty remote place, isn't it? Yes, very remote. It's a little non-remote now as much as it was, but it's a beautiful island. So you kind of turn right as soon as you go across the bridge and

It was a beautiful island and we would take like canoes and we were cool before you even freeze dried. We freeze dried back then. Now it's a big thing you can buy. But I have found out that when young people get out in nature and you get away, and obviously when I speak now, we did not have phones and all the things back in 1980. So we would take them out and you would just see young people transform just by the fact of

They're out in nature, and I think sometimes just getting away from their circumstances allows the Lord to speak to them. And so anyways, that's what we did. So you were with three others, and you were kind of on a scouting trip together, weren't you, to prepare for one of these outings to take teens on. So you were scouting Drummond Island. So it was the week of 4th of July in 1980, and there's a couple people that you'll meet. Dwight Hershberger was the head of the wilderness program. I was his assistant, and Dwight brought...

a young man from Jackson that he taught at the school there. He was an English teacher, and his name was Mark. And Mark Tabe went with us. He was about 18. And then another young lady that was on camp as a counselor, she joined me that week, and her name was Sally Kuhn, and she was from Gaylord, Michigan. So we went up that week, left on Monday, had two canoes, and what we were going to do on the island that week was

Mm-hmm.

So they're very small lakes. And so we had it planned out. And at that time, you had to register. And I think it's the same way now. You had to register with the park service there, the Forest Service. And you would register when you were going, what your campsites were and when you would be out because we didn't have phones at that time. And we checked the weather, Wayne. It was going to be a beautiful week.

Monday through, not a cloud in the sky, mid 80s. And there was supposed to be a storm that came in between Saturday night and Sunday morning. So we don't have like weather.com 24, you know, 24 hour service. So we did do our homework. We did everything. We're very well prepared. And we set out to do that because we had another group coming a week after that, that was going to Drummond. Yeah.

But you found yourself in the midst of a sudden storm. You were actually out on the open water of Lake Huron, right?

What happened is when you look at it, if your radio folks look at it, you're going to find Drummond Island has a beautiful place called Marblehead. So if they look at the images there, we had scouted around and realized that the lakes did not connect. So we were at Marblehead on Thursday morning. We had breakfast. We did some cleanup and anyways. And so what we were going to do is the way that that bay is, it sets in.

right around Marblehead, and we were just going to go into the bay. And when I talk to people about this, I always say we were only 50, 60 yards, half of a football field from the shore. So we were cutting through that bay, and it would be, I think at that time it was about 10 miles. We were going 10, 11 miles. And we would be next to our next campsite, which was really close to where our van was to take off.

So we were going across the bay, and we were very, very close to Drummond Island, and we were on Lake Huron. And this freak storm came up. Yes, very much freak storm. What happened is, if you can imagine this right now, Wayne, and I know you're from the Lake Michigan, Chicago area. So for readers that have no idea what the Great Lakes are at, let me just say, in the middle summer, if you go to Lake Michigan today,

And you jump in and you swim. The average temperature of the lakes goes between 50 and 54 degrees every summer. So if it's sunny and you're doing good, you're going to swim a little bit and then your body's going to get out because you're going to start to feel the effects of hypothermia. And so the lake at that time in Lake Huron that day was 50 degrees.

And we were just going side by side. And later on, I had a friend that was a meteorologist and had some scientists later on, and I studied it. But anyways, if you can just imagine, it is a storm that came up in that channel. And I did not realize, Wayne, but the North Channel comes through there. And Lake Huron is the fifth largest freshwater lake in the world.

So it's a huge lake. And we didn't realize that, but you have three different winds. That storm is the perfect storm, and usually it happens every 10 to 12 years in that area. So about every 10 years. And it blew up so suddenly on you. So there are four of you in two canoes. Yes. And the storm comes. Yes. And you had to know you were in...

Yeah. What had happened is Mark and I were in one canoe and Sally and Dwight were in another canoe. And we were very close to each other going side by side. And when I tell you when we took off that morning at about 1130, we were in another canoe.

There was not a cloud in the sky. It was beautiful. It was going to be 84 to 85 that day. We were just coming along, and Wayne, I've never seen anything like it in my life. I can tell you that within that storm come flying in. And I don't know if you've ever been out in a storm or even on a boat, even on a regular lake. This storm was so violent, and the winds, it came in and there were sheets, sheets,

that it would come in sideways on you. And those canoes filled up pretty fast. And we tried to, as we turned, the boys tried to row us back in. And Sally and I had buckets, you know, trying to pull it. But it was just, we had, I'm not kidding when I tell you this. And if you understand the Great Lakes, it's like you being on an ocean. Mm-hmm.

We had three to five foot waves that were capping over those aluminum canoes. So the water was coming in too fast for Sally and I. And I can just remember the wind and the waves. It capsized our canoes.

And, Wayne, to this day, I can still see this in my mind. Imagine if I took a big toothpick and I flipped it towards you. That 10-foot aluminum canoe that was about 60 pounds, we tried to run it up and flip one and, you know, get in it and paddle way back. It broke our paddles.

It took our backpacks right into that storm. And I can remember when we lifted as much as we could because, I mean, you got the waves hitting you. It took that aluminum canoe, and it was just like you flipped a piece of wood, and it went up into the sky probably 20 feet and just went right into that storm. So the four of you are in this really cold water. Yes.

Yes, sir. And the wind is blowing. The rain is coming. You're down to one canoe, but it's partially submerged, right? It is. Yes, it is submerged. Aluminum canoes, what they're made of, is when they submerge, they're only about six to eight inches under the water. They're not going to sink. Yeah. All right. So we were hanging on, two of us up front, two in the back, and we were dog paddling back to Drummond. Well, pick up the story. How long did this last? This storm, this is...

This is unreal, I know, but you can go back and look at it in the books, in the nautical books. This storm that day in July the 3rd, late July 3rd, into the 4th that morning, that storm stayed in that channel between 8 to 9 1⁄2 hours. Wow. But tragically then, some of you didn't survive.

No, we did not. When you read the book, you're going to find out that there's a thing called hypothermia. We, some of us went into the late stages of hypothermia, but I was the only lone survivor, Wayne. You're watching your friends slip away. All three of your companions died that day.

Yes, they did. Yeah. And when you get into the late stages of hypothermia, sometimes in their mind, like I'll be honest with you, Wayne, it's called the silent killer. And so what happens is your body literally freezes. And when you go in from freeze,

stage one, two, and then three, they start to hallucinate. So you might be talking to me, but in your mind, you think you're on a beach in Myrtle Beach. You know what I'm saying? You're not seeing it. And then the fourth stage, your body literally shuts down and you pretty much snore. You go to sleep. So when I speak to young people and a lot of people, they're like, what did you do? I said, we kept moving and we prayed and

and we wanted to see our families, and we talked, and we sang songs. When you get so close to death that all of us did, there's no pretending.

And a lot of times Christians pretend or they put on a face, and there's no faces with God. You know, God is a compassionate God, but you have to come to him. And Wayne, we were smart enough to know that if we did not get some help, you know, we would meet Jesus by the morning when that sun came up, yes. We'll hear how Cheryl survived this ordeal, and that's coming up on this edition of First Person.

Here's Ed Cannon on the Vision for FEBC's weekly podcast. The primary purpose of Until All Have Heard, of course, is to share the experience that FEBC has because we have staff on the ground in so many oppressive places. But in addition to that, we're trying to speak to you in a way that only the kind of testimonies you'll hear from around the globe can do. Discover how the gospel is making a difference around the world.

Search for Until All Have Heard on your favorite podcast platform or hear it online at febc.org. My guest is Cheryl Steele Tinsley. She's the author of Wave by Wave, a memoir of survival, faith, and how God works. Cheryl, you survived that day.

But it had to be very difficult. I mean, you were in the same hypothermic condition as your friends. Why did you survive? How did you survive? Well, when I talk to people, I always say, I should not have survived. I went and documented this for some doctors and scientists. And if you look in scientific books, you will find out there will be question marks behind my name. Because in human...

All of our human scientific, there's no way anybody makes 15 hours. The average life expectancy in 50 degree water like that without a storm is three to five hours. And I outlived that three times. It is only by the grace of God. And my life verse is Romans 8, 28.

I'll kind of paraphrase that. So there is a point, I think, in all of our lives where we have all these questions. And of course, I had survivor's guilt. I had to go through

a lot of different things. I had a good pastor. I had a Christian counselor. And I want to say, I work with young people. There is no shame in getting good quality Christian, I would say with a Christian, a counselor to help you because so many people do suffer from anxiety and depression and it's real. And what I want to say though, is that

But when you read the book, there's a moment about six weeks later where I woke up and I could not handle it. And I believe in the power of prayer. And I also believe, you know, you have people that have nightmares or they've gone through some tremendous things, whether it's a military person or anything that way. And there'll come a time in your life that you're going to have to surrender that and

And you're going to, I believe in my opinion, it's God. It's a higher power than you. And that night, the Lord met me in that small bedroom. And I can just tell you from that night, the power of God is real. So I was, I did suffer. A lot of times people think, well, was that overnight? No, it did take some time. And you do have to run through the highs and lows. But I'll be honest with you. I have no idea, Wayne. There was a verse in Matthew that says with man,

things are impossible. But with God, all things are possible. And so, I give the glory to God. I trust Him. I don't know all the answers, but I do know that after this life, I'm

You're going to live whether it's with God or not. And I just want to tell you that there is life after this life. So when I leave this earth, I told my husband, make it a celebration party because when I enter heaven, I've got some questions for three young people and ask them what they saw on their side. Yeah.

Cheryl, I do want to mention that, of course, you did eventually reach the shore, but you walked five and a half hours in a state of, I would say, a state of shock. Yes. Only to find out you'd only made a circle. But how were you rescued?

Well, let me just say that was rocky shore. It's an island called Cockburn Island. And I walked up there and actually thought I heard some cars and went up and it was quite a wilderness area. And actually what I heard was an airport several miles away. So I walked up the shore and that morning, I want to say this way, and there's no way I'd be here today because that morning the sun was up, not a cloud in the sky. And so I needed an external source to warm me.

I walked and actually almost did a 180 through, that was pretty thick. It's, I mean, this was, you know, these were woods and thick and I went up and walked and came down. And then actually there was a,

Several minutes after that, once I got to shore again, there was a boat that came around part of Cockburn and it was a yacht and these people were from Flint, Michigan and they saw the canoe and stopped and then I was rescued. All right.

A big part of your book, Cheryl, is honoring the memory of your friends who died that day. You've had close contact with their families through the years. We won't go into all the details because it's in the book and it's quite moving, actually. I'm so glad that you included that in your story. But give us a little glimpse of how the families are doing, how they dealt with the death of their loved ones.

Well, the amazing thing is the Taube's and the Kuhn's and the Hershberger's. I obviously had contact with them and I would never do anything that would cause them any more grief. But they were very strong Christians, Wayne. Mark's parents were from the New Tribe Missions.

And they were missionaries. In Jackson, they'd been around, so they had a strong faith. Dwight's parents were from Bay City, and they were just sweet, sweet people. And then the Coons were from Gaylord, and all of them had a strong faith in God. Can you imagine that happening today and there'll be no lawsuits?

but they said to God be the glory. And I do want to mention this. Dwight's parents have passed and gone on to heaven. Mrs. Taube has gone on and Dan is still alive, Dan Taube, Mark's dad, and then Jim and Donna Kuhn. And Donna passed about a year and a half ago. And Jim is amazing. And I want to tell you this for your people that are listening. I

I went to each one of the families and I said, I know the Lord wants me to write this. And I said, I want to ask your permission if I can. And I want you to do a chapter in the book on how your family was affected. Because if Romans 8, 28 works for me, I know it works for you. And so Jim Kuhn at 91 said,

He wrote a book that's on Barnes & Noble, and I think it's, mine's on Amazon, and I don't think his is yet, but I'll have to check. He's an amazing fella, and he wrote a book at 91, started it at 90 while his wife was in an Alzheimer's facility. And I just want to tell your listeners, just because you retire, it's not over. That's just the time you can use for God. And he wrote, it's called What's the Purpose?,

And so it's amazing to me. And when you read the book, you will see amazing things. I call them GMC, God made coincidence, even though we know there's no coincidence, and how each family gave the glory to the Lord. And about a year and a half ago, I got to speak at Mark and Dwight's school in Jackson. It's Jackson Christian Schools, and I got to speak to the student bodies. That was just amazing to walk the halls that my friends had.

And I told the students that, you know what, you're here not by any... There's a purpose. Your life...

God knew you before the wound, and I was going to tell you that God knows, and all you have to do is just look to Him for direction. And so, I can't tell you all the specifics. I would tell you readers, read the book. When I wrote it, of course, you read it a hundred times, you know, for that. But I just remember reading it and thinking, wow, what a story. And then it hit me. I was like, oh, that's you, girl. So, Wayne, in the last 10 years,

God has just really used that. And I've had time to speak more. And I spoke in our community last two weeks ago to the Nazarene Church. It's an outreach community and it is not church folks. It's people from all walks of life. It was amazing. And the stories that I heard from them. And so my story can touch anybody because all of us have those human emotions that

And all of us have different settings that they're in, whether it be a death, a divorce, just terrible things that can happen in your life that you can't control. And so God has used this, and it's just been amazing to me. I've done ladies' conferences. I've spoke to many young people around, whether it be in doctors, too, like a heart foundation. That was pretty much a hoot here. Yeah.

for all these cardiologists. And every one of them, whether they're the most educated surgeon to a lady that was the one that I got to talk to that cleaned my room, is all of us have a story. I can see why people get so low that they might think that this is the end. I can no longer go. But when they get there, I'm going to tell your listeners, please know that God is there.

You've got to reach out to them. And so what I was going to say is I chose to surrender and let God have it because it was much bigger than me. Although the tragic circumstances of the story just told to us by Cheryl Steele Tinsley happened many years ago, it still resonates with lessons for us today. Her book is titled Wave by Wave, A Memoir of Survival, Faith, and How God Works.

You'll find a link to it at FirstPersonInterview.com. One thing about the book is that it also tells more of the story of how the deaths of those three young people affected their Christian families. Again, go to FirstPersonInterview.com. Thank you for listening. This program is made possible in part by the Far East Broadcasting Company because stories of lives changed by God are at the heart of FEBC's ministry. Learn more at FEBC.org.

Now, with thanks to my friend and producer, Joe Carlson, I'm Wayne Shepherd. Join us next time for First Persons.