The elder feels that God saved him personally, that otherwise he wouldn't be alive? I'd ask him if he thought it was down to prayer that God acted in his behalf. If so, then does he think the 26 witnesses that were sheltering IN A KINGDOM HALL in the Philippines when the tsunami hit, were praying? Cos they all perished. Why would God answer his prayer but not theirs?
And according to witness theology god has handed the world over to satan to see if he can do a better job and to answer the question raised in job's time about serving only cos God has put a hedge around his worshippers.
So how COULD God Possibly act in ANY way without scuppering that arrangement?