Need A Miracle

Lesson 3

We have been talking about trauma, and how trauma can damage us. It wounds our soul, and can damage us for generations if we let it. Last week we talked about the woman with the issue of blood, and how Jesus healed her, not only from the illness, but from the trauma of the illness.

I have had some trauma of my own. I know, you’re shocked! You are all thinking, no way, but truly, it’s been an adventure. I am going to be sharing some very personal experiences, because I want you to be encouraged in your own walk, and I want your faith to be built up. Our God is an amazing God, and when He shows up, WOW, amazing things happen. That doesn’t mean He always stops or prevents things from happening though! You all know it’s true.

So here we go….A while back I was in Tennessee with one of my staff members for a conference. Before the conference we were invited to visit good friends of ours, the Van Koovering’s, so we took some time to make that side trip. That part of the trip was wonderful, but I was surprised at the way the roads were laid out there. The Alcoa Highway, we found out later, is called the “All-Killer Highway” by locals, because of all the deadly accidents on it. Wonderful.

Honestly, it was the craziest thing. Businesses line the highway on either side, so cars have to cross the highway at odd intervals, because there are very few stop lights. The traffic on the highway is moving at about 60 miles per hour, and then cars just dart out in-between to cross over.

We were in our host’s driver’s car and I was in the back seat. We were driving down the Alcoa Highway for less than 3 minutes, and had just reached highway speed when the accident happened. We were traveling alongside another car, who began to slow down to turn off the highway. A car was waiting to cross the highway, and only saw the car that was turning. He did not see us, and pulled out onto the highway. We saw him at the same time he saw us! He punched it, trying to get in front of us, but we were moving too fast. We swerved to take the median, and that might have worked if the other car had not accelerated into us.

The impact was the most violent thing I have ever experienced. We were belted in, and we still became projectiles inside the car. The airbags deployed, shattering the windows, and the front passenger was slammed against the roof of the car damaging her head and neck. The driver looked over, and saw that her leg was twisted at an odd angle, obviously broken. He was injured badly as well, with three broken ribs, and a punctured lung (as we found out later). I didn’t have an airbag, or a shoulder strap, just a lap band, so when we hit, I just sort of folded in half. The impact was so violent that I began to bleed internally almost instantly. I was bleeding inside my chest wall, that is called a hemothorax, and it puts pressure on your lungs, pushing all the air out. Then my lungs began to fill with fluid, so it felt like I was drowning, and someone was choking me at the same time. I would learn later that I also had two broken ribs from the impact.

So there we were. I was gasping for air, and choking; the driver was also having difficulty breathing, and my staff member was screaming in pain and crying. My mind began to race with all kinds of thoughts, like, Any minute I’m going to be able to breathe, because I just got the wind knocked out of me, and then I had the realization that I was not able to breath, and it was getting worse. Then panic began to set in. I now have a much better understanding of what people with respiratory problems go through.

Then two men came running across the street to where we were. They were trying to get the front passenger door open, but it was stuck closed, so they came around to my door. It too was jammed closed. They eventually got the driver out of the car, and then the three of them got the passenger side door open. They pulled me out of the car, over our luggage, and put me down on the ground next to the car to wait for the ambulance.

I am probably going to trigger my hubby by writing about this today. He has to read this, then post it to the website. It was traumatic. Not just for me, but for those I love, because as you will hear next week, my hubby was listening to the rescue mission as it was happening! There is much more to this story, and believe me when I say, God is good. He showed up in a major way.

I’m going to have to leave you hanging though… I’m on the pavement, unable to breath, and I can hear sirens. Help is on the way…until next week.

Have you been blessed by this blog? If so, you might enjoy this wonderful resource! Get more information by clicking here. Love, K.S.