My Miracle Accident
I had been invited to go snowboarding Thursday (Feb, 15), but I decided to work instead (which is totally unlike me). I had already missed Mon & Tues. because of a snowboarding trade show & I thought 3 days in one week might be pushing it. The day started off really good. My friend called & invited me to go to Costa Rica with him. Brand new condo, on the beach, rental car, all paid for, I just needed a ticket. I asked my wonderful wife, Lois what she thought & she said go for it. So I have tickets to Costa Rica.
At 12, I was to meet Lois for lunch. But I had been held up by a few odds & ends and a phone call. About this same time, there are several 911 calls being made, reporting this car driving very fast & reckless on Hwy 64. I called Lois @ 12:05 to let her know that I was on my way as I turned towards town from Presnell St. onto Hwy 64. My shoulder had been hurting me & I did not put a seat belt on. Around this time there is a man, Jody, on the phone with 911…
Jody: “ There’s some lady that’s drunk or something and driving over 100 mph, somebody needs to stop her”
911: “ Sir, how do you know she is driving over 100 mph?”
Jody: “Because I’m doing 110 and can’t keep up!”
911:” Sir that is illegal, you need to stop driving that fast”
Jody: “You need stop her before she kills someone”
911:” Where are you now?”
Jody: “We are just passing Presnell St.”
911: “That’s not in our jurisdiction, let me transfer you”
On another 911 call, the caller has hung up to pray for someone to stop this car before it gets into town.
I was cruising along in the right lane of this 5 lane undivided highway about 50mph, I was impacted from the rear by a car traveling 110 mph! The car went under the back of my 1 ton Chevy dually. The impact was so hard that my seat bent back into the back seat, as I was catapulted forward. I knew that I had been hit by a semi truck.
The impact pushed my truck into the 70+ mph range. The back of my truck slid to the left as I started across some front yards. My truck was completely sideways as I went across a driveway. The driver’s side wheels caught the high place in the yard launching the truck into a counterclockwise roll. The passengers side/ roof area made the first impact with the ground, breaking all the windows and bouncing me back into the air to roll a little faster & higher. The next thing to hit the ground was the passenger’s front tire only as it continued rolling with the tail in the air. The next rotation was all in the air. The drivers rear fender struck a telephone pole about 8 ft in the air, which stopped the roll & threw the back of the truck to the right as it landed right side up on all 4 wheels.
911: “911, may I help you?”
Jody: “It’s too late now, send some ambulances”
At the truck…..
Jody: “Are you OK?”
Me: “yeah, I think so. Where’s my phone? I need to call my wife”
Jody: “Here, you can use mine. Man, I saw everything; she hit you at over 100 mph! You flipped 3 times & took out a telephone pole!”
Me: “Cool”
Just behind Jody were 2 nurses who saw everything & stopped to help.
My truck ended up in the front yard of a fortune teller’s house & she was NOT expecting us!!
I never felt why me, I never felt scared or in danger. When the truck stopped, I felt no worse than a hard fall behind the boat.
Whether you believe in God or not, there were prayers answered that day. There were people praying to stop that woman before she kills someone.
God sent a truck small enough not to kill her & big enough to protect the driver (me). She was stopped a half a mile before the Mall. If she had made it to the mall, it would have been on CNN.
People were praying that I was OK as they raced to my truck. And I was.
God kept me protected and sent me 2 nurses.
The driver of the other car was an 84 year old lady that had gone into some type of diabetic state that caused her to be in a stupor. She was protected, and maybe this was her sign to give up driving.
And Jody, Jody had been going through some hard times and his friends had been praying that something would happen in his life that he would know the true miracle of God’s love. He witnessed it first hand.
I believe that there is a God & God protected me as he placed me in the lives of all these people.
About 6 months prior to the accident:
I was at church listening to people giving their testimonies. The first person was a man in his late 50's. He had been a successful businessman, owned a big house, fancy cars, had lots of girlfriends and partied all the time. His life hit rock bottom, lost everything, found God & turned his life around. Hallelujah for him, not the way I want my kids to live.The second guy said he had grown up in a Christian home, never drank, never smoked, went to God in prayer for any big decisions. I thought that was awesome, he thought it was boring. That night I prayed to God for me to have an inspiring testimony.
A week or so later...
A friend of mine brought some kids to church from The Baptist Home. These girls were around the same age as my own girls. It made me think of all the things my kids take for granted that these never get to experience. I told my wife, “We should go by the Home and take a few out to the lake with us.” She said, “That wouldn’t be fair to the rest of them, if you take one you need to take them all.”
Well….. That wasn’t about to happen and nothing did.
God was showing me his plan, but I only wanted to do the bare minimum. I feel that God was speaking through my wife that day saying, "No, my plans are much bigger for you."
Sometimes God places challenges in your life to help you grow and prepare you for the next chapter of your life, one of my challenges was the accident.
Since the accident:
With the help of some really great friends and business owners we were able to found "Wake the World".
WTW is group of boat owners who get together each summer for two days in June to spend a day with more than 100 kids from local children’s homes. We have been blessed by many participants making WTW a “life experience” for so many people.
Our days consists of volleyball, hula hoop contests, lunch, wakeboarding, swimming, tubing, kneeboarding and end the day with a nice cook out of steak , potato and salad (a treat the kids don’t get too often).
All of this is put on by volunteers contributing their time, talents and treasures, businesses donating products and services and some people sharing financially.
Each Spring we have our FUNd raiser called “Wake N Flake”. Local boat dealers (the cool ones) bring their brand new boats out to pull wakeboarders then all the boarders head up to Appalachian Ski Mt. to snowboard on the same day.
In 2012 we started an adaptive program for handicapable people of all ages.
Each year WTW gets bigger, with more participants, volunteers and boats. We are scheduled to have 30+ events in 27 states plus Canada in 2015.
Our ultimate goal is to have a permanent camp on the water run mostly by volunteers. A place where we will be more successful in having a long term positive impact in people's lives. Sort of a Victory Junction on the water if you will. Our target beneficiaries will always be the residents of the Children’s Homes & foster care + the handicapable.