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WEST ALEXANDRIA, OH — Crocodiles aren’t found in nature in Ohio, or anywhere outside of tropical regions. Still, 16 children happily splashing in Bantas Fork Creek in a West Alexandria park Wednesday came close to tangling with one in what leaders of their church say is a memorable lesson on faith in action.

Rich Denius, who was with the first- through sixth-grade children on the outing, shared on Facebook what could have been a terrifying encounter with the 7 ½ -foot-long, 171-pound crocodile — the species with the strongest jaws of any creature on Earth.

As it happened, one of the teachers had just finished a lesson about how most fish can escape predators by staying together in the light. The analogy couldn’t have been more apt for a group of people who accept Jesus as their savior.

“It was wild that we’d had a lesson about predators lurking in the shadows,” Rick Turnbull, another of the church group’s leaders, told CNN, explaining that the kids play go to the park a couple of times a year to study nature as part of their religious lessons.

One of the other leaders saw the crocodile coming down a sandbar toward the playing children, Denius wrote in his social media post.

“Something dark was coming toward us,” he wrote. “I was closest to the shady threat. I could see the bumps on its back above the surface, then under the water. I knew it was more than a fish. It was big. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

But, he continued, “God kept me calm.”

He called to the kids to get out of the water and onto the bridge.

“Most of them had no idea what was going on but they all quickly obeyed,” he wrote.

Safe, the group watched the crocodile swim under the bridge, about 20 feet from the area where the children had been playing.

The crocodile was fearless, Turnbull told CNN.

“He wasn’t afraid of us,” he said. “He swam under it, popped his head up and looked at us.”

One of the adults in the group called Brad Turner, Preble County’s Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ wildlife officer.

All things considered, the crocodile seemed to be cooperative.

“Then, as if to assist us, it swam to the same gravel slope on the side of the bridge where the kids had been,” Denius wrote.

There’s likely a good explanation for why the crocodile — found in the wild in tropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas, and, occasionally, around the south Florida coast — was swimming in the Ohio creek. The crocodile was probably a pet that grew too large to handle and the owner probably dumped it, Dr. Tony Forshey, Ohio’s state veterinarian, told CNN.

“This was the first sighting,” Forshey said, “so he probably hadn’t been there very long.”

Once the kids were safely out of view, Turner shot the crocodile, which didn’t play well with some people on Facebook who commented the reptile was a nice pet that wouldn’t have hurt anyone.

Denius wrote in a subsequent post that he’s “just glad the kids are safe and give Jesus all the credit for that. Jesus is the only safe place to hide your life and He mercifully allowed us to see and evade the threat.”

He added “the game warden … did what needed to be done — what he is trained and authorized to do for public safety, with the resources he had.”

“He is the authority on the matter (not some activist throwing stones from the safety of their iPhone) and we are thankful he came so quickly,” he wrote. “It is truly sad when one of God’s animals is destroyed, but I blame that death on the selfish, careless person (identity yet unknown) who released the animal to harm and be harmed.

“People are made in the image of God and our lives come first.”

Turnbull told CNN the experience has been a springboard for other lessons on human predators. West Alexandria is located about 20 miles from Dayton, where nine people were killed and more than two dozen others were killed in an Aug. 4 mass shooting.

Turnbull said the kids’ close encounter with a crocodile also reinforced the importance of obeying people in authority.

“It’s a lesson that these kids will never forget,” he told CNN.

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