LOUISVILLE, Ky. (KT) — In the midst of a life-or-death situation, Kentucky Pastor Rick Lauterbach experienced both the providence as well as the goodness of God.

Lauterbach, pastor of Little Mount Baptist Church in Taylorsville, was eating dinner with his wife for her birthday Aug. 22 at a Chinese restaurant in Jeffersontown when he choked on a piece of food. As he struggled to breathe, he stood up, looked around and realized there was only one person in the building who was able to help him.

“I’m 6-foot-1, 300 pounds,” Lauterbach said, aware that not everyone would have the ability to wrap their arms around him to perform the Heimlich maneuver.

But in walked Robert Sawyer Jr., a firefighter in Jeffersontown who quickly helped the stranger.

“I was breathing in but couldn’t breathe out,” Lauterbach said. “He was tall enough and long-armed enough to reach around and did the Heimlich on me twice. I walked around a table twice and it became clear.”

The two men are now friends on Facebook, where Lauterbach wrote, “Thank you for being the kind of man who does what men are called to do. The sovereignty and grace of God on display.”

Sawyer’s arrival at just the right time illustrates that sovereignty. He had just walked into the restaurant with his 3-year-old daughter to pick up a carryout order. “That is the moment I got choked. The concept of an accident is nowhere in this,” Lauterbach said. “The cool part is God put all these things together — if it went the other way, I would be dead.”

Lauterbach, who added he doesn’t even like Chinese food, said he looks at the experience as God’s “providence and grace and mercy. There’s nothing good about choking to death, no fun in it — but actual good came from it. I’m happy that in our moment of distress the Lord provides. He (Sawyer) had no trouble — he had been trained, and he did the thing that needed to be done.”

Lauterbach used his Facebook page to tell the story of the encounter, sparking numerous comments but also establishing both men’s acknowledgement of God’s presence in the situation.

“I’m blessed that the Lord was able to place me in that restaurant and help you in a time of need while also supplying me with the skills to do so,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer’s mother, Voletta Burroughs, joined in the Facebook conversation by saying, “Thank God he could help, and I am so grateful to call him my son.”

Lauterbach replied, “You have a good son. The Lord put us together in that moment. Our connection is first together in Christ and then a union gathered around my need and his willingness to step up and be the man when one was needed.”

Sawyer told WDRB-TV, “You say you’re off, but when you’re a fireman, certain situations, you’re not really ever off. Afterwards on my ride home I kind of was like ‘Wow, I kind of just saved someone’s life.’”

Lauterbach added: “It turned into something great. I made a friend out of it who is half my age.”

Lauterbach has pastored Little Mount since February of this year. After pastoring for a decade in Indiana, he pastored Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Breckinridge County, Ky., for 12 years.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — This article originally appeared in Kentucky Today.)