By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
One of the men who played a key role in executing the amazing rescue of 33 trapped Chilean miners says prayer and faith led him to discover how to drill a hole large enough to free the men.
The Catholic News Agency (CNA) is reporting that Greg Hall, co-owner of Drillers Supply International, which has a branch in Chile, said he began working – and praying – about how to free the men in the early days of the incident. At the time, the miners were surviving on food rations lowered through a shaft that was too small to pull the men to safety.
“We’re prayerful people,” said Greg’s wife, Angelica Hall. “Prayer is a part of our daily life . . . and part of our community at Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church.”
She explained that her husband’s company, a drilling supply business, provides supplies for gold, copper and silver mines. In 25 years of business, this was the first time he was ever involved in a mine rescue.
“There was a crossover from Greg’s expertise and drilling in Chile, (and) what our parts and our drill pipe could do,” she told CNA. Thankfully, his engineering expertise “was able to cross over in making a shaft to get to the miners.”
The project was extremely risky because even the smallest miscalculation could have caused another cave-in, which might have left the miners trapped forever.
“He’s kind of a take-action guy,” Mrs. Hall told CNA. “We try to help if we have the skills and the talents to help.” Both faith and service to others, she said, “have been a part of our entire marriage.”
Amazed and grateful for being given an opportunity to save so many lives during the ordinary course of “our everyday walk” she said is proof that “God uses ordinary people in their ordinary lives.”
Greg Hall is currently in his last semester of formation for the permanent deaconate in the Diocese of Galveston-Houston and hopes to be ordained on February 12, 2011.
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