The average teenager probably couldn’t think their way out of a paper bag without the help of an iPhone, and 10 of their closest Facebook friends.

Which is why this story about an Indonesian teenager is so impressive.

Armed only with a Bible and a fishing hut, 19-year-old Aldi Novel Adilang survived seven weeks adrift on the Pacific Ocean after his boat came loose during a storm in July, reports The Daily Beast.

Aldi Novel Adilang told officials that, with the help of cooking utensils, a gas stove, and a generator, he ate fish and prayed every day of the 1,600-mile journey, The Jakarta Post reported. Adilang even made himself a shower using sticks of bamboo.

Adilang was a contract worker hired for six months to work as a lamp keeper on the hut (also called a rompong), which is a kind of boathouse. Once a week, someone from his company came by to harvest fish from his traps and to bring him food, water and fuel.

But a storm on July 14 snapped off the rope that kept his vessel in place about 80 miles off the northeast coast of Indonesia, a diplomat at the country’s consulate in Osaka told the Post.

And you thought your contract job came with risks. Forget about that contract renewal anxiety – a rompong doesn’t have paddles or an engine, which means that the adrift vessel couldn’t be steered.

Adilang had to wait to be rescued.

“After he ran out of the cooking gas, he burned the rompong’s wooden fences to make a fire for cooking,” a consular official told the newspaper. “He drank by sipping water from his clothes that had been wetted by sea water.”

Adilang only had a few days worth of supplies when he was set adrift, officials have said.

At least 10 ships passed by without noticing the distressed teenager, who waved clothes to try and get their attention. Finally, on August 13, he was rescued by a bulk freighter that was headed to Japan, according to a press release from the consulate.

Once rescued, he was given clothes, food and a haircut. When the ship reached land he was flown back to his family in Indonesia.

He told local news site TribunManado that he thought he “was going to die out there,” especially when his rompong was circled by a shark. But it was his faith—and his Bible—that kept him alive, Adilang told reporters.

Yeah, I’m not sure that that Bible would have been much help if he’d fallen into the water with that shark. They’re not known for their godliness.

Also, is anyone else getting Life of Pi vibes? No tiger in sight, but surviving was no mean feat.

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t have lasted five minutes out there.

[source:dailybeast]