Texas pastor hit by tornado with 138 mph winds, capsizing his fishing boat. Yet he says, 'God can see you through the storm.'

A Texas pastor shared a stirring New Year’s Day message on YouTube after a tornado with winds of 138 miles per hour — an EF-3 — capsized his fishing boat last weekend.

“God can see you through the storm,” Brian Johnson of First Baptist Church Winnie said in the video. “You can trust him. You can count on him.”

‘Many of you are in a storm, or maybe you’re just coming out of one or maybe there’s one on the horizon.’

The harrowing ordeal commenced while Johnson, his dog, and a friend of Johnson’s named Tony were fishing in the Stanolind Reservoir on Dec. 28, KTRK-TV reported. The reservoir is about 10 minutes south of Winnie, and Winnie is about an hour east of Houston.

Johnson said in his video that the barometric pressure was changing and the thought was that it would provide “good fishing” — plus, the storm appeared to be headed north.

But neither assumption came to pass, and the tornado soon engulfed the fishing boat — and Johnson’s YouTube video captures how quickly things became life-threatening.

KTRK said Johnson and his friend tried to anchor the boat in the reeds and ride out the storm — but the boat soon capsized.

“I’m holding on to the boat ’cause I’m holding onto it from the bottom now, ’cause the wind is just ripping,” Johnson later explained to the station. “And I’m like, ‘It’s gonna pick me up out of this water any second.’ So I’m trying to hold on, but I can’t find Tony. So I’m hollering for Tony, and now I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, my friend is dead. He’s drowned under this boat or something.’ So I’m pulling on the boat, trying to lift it up. I’m hollering for him, beating on the boat, and nothing.”

Turns out that Johnson’s friend was hiding under the boat, and he and Johnson and Johnson’s dog were unharmed, KTRK reported.

You can view the station’s video report here about Johnson’s ordeal.

And now for ‘the rest of the story’

Johnson titled his YouTube video, “Tornado in my boat… the rest of the story” — and in it he’s seen on a sunny day with his fishing pole in hand and right back at the reservoir where all the action happened.

Image source: YouTube video screenshot, used by permission

But he also acknowledged to viewers that he didn’t make a good choice that Saturday: “I made a poor decision that put me in the middle of a storm.”

However, Johnson added that God showed him a much greater spiritual truth.

“Let me tell you something, my friends: In life, we all make poor decisions,” Johnson said. “And in life, we all go through some storms. But I want you to know that even though this was my fault that I was out here, God was with me in the middle of the storm.”

He added, “Many of you are in a storm, or maybe you’re just coming out of one or maybe there’s one on the horizon. I want you to know, whether it’s your fault or not, God can see you through the storm. You can trust him. You can count on him. He loves you so much that he sent his son to die on a cross for you. If you trust in him, he’ll give you everlasting life.”

Johnson also said he believes this particular storm was God-ordained and that now it’s “all about me being able to give you the testimony and [being] able to share with you that God saw me through a storm.”

“It’s not about me. It’s about God,” he also said. “The God that I serve is amazing, and he loves you, my friends …”

Johnson couldn’t resist a little bit of practical advice to close things out: “On a side note, don’t go fishing in tornadoes.”