Chapter 2
The Rollover Accident
July 16, 1995
The Accident
It was cloudy that day, with scattered showers that had left the road slick. As I came around a long curve, I could see far ahead of me. I usually drove down the middle of that road, but I decided to stay in my lane.
What I didn’t know was that the road was in bad condition.
I hit a spot that caused the truck to bounce, and I began hydroplaning backward. I couldn’t regain control. I slid down in the seat and said, “Lord, please help me.”
The truck struck an H-post with such force that it bent the post down. You can see where the truck hit it in the photos of the wreck.
Sometime during the rollover, I was thrown from the truck. Earlier that morning, the farmer had plowed the field, leaving the ground freshly turned and much softer than it otherwise would have been.
My dad later told me that I was found lying between the places where the truck’s tires had dug into the dirt. We don’t know whether I was thrown there after the truck had rolled or whether I was thrown first and the bed of the truck rolled over me.
Looking Back
God was so good to save me that day.
If I had died in that accident, I know that I would have been in hell. I had family members who said God saved me for a reason.
At the time, I believed it.
Now I know it—because I am walking it out.
The Aftermath
My brother had to move the drill bit lying beside my head so EMS could place me on a scoop stretcher and get me out.
I spent a little more than three weeks in the hospital. I had fractured my L4 and L5 vertebrae, broken three ribs, broken my clavicle, injured my knee, and suffered severe injuries to my upper left arm and temporary short-term memory loss.
For months, I had to use my fingers to physically move my arms where I wanted them to go.
For many years, I knew God had spared my life that day, but I didn’t understand why. My family told me He must have saved me for a reason, and I believed them. I just couldn’t see that reason yet.
Looking back now, I can see God’s hand in places I couldn’t recognize at the time. I cried out, “Lord, please help me,” and He did. Even when I was unconscious, injured, and unable to help myself, He was there.
Sometimes we don’t understand the purpose behind what God brings us through until much later. I didn’t know where my life was headed that day—but God did.
And today, I am walking in the purpose I could not yet see.
Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him:
I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
–Psalm 91:14–16 (KJV)
July 16, 1995
The day after my 22nd birthday, and the day before my grandfather’s funeral, I was in a rollover accident. It would be 16 years before I could remember what happened.
There were many times throughout those 16 years when I desperately wanted to remember. Eventually, I went to the Lord in prayer and asked Him to give me back the details of what had happened that day. It was only after that prayer that the memories of the accident began to return.
Even then, only a small part of those weeks came back to me. I still don’t remember being rescued, being taken to the hospital, or most of the three and a half weeks I spent there. I have only a few scattered memories from that time.
I had gone to pick up groceries and food for my grandfather’s funeral. My parents were in the oil field business, so there were drill bits weighing anywhere from 75 to 300 pounds in the bed of the truck along with the groceries.
One of the photographs from the accident shows everything that was in the truck with me during the accident—including the heavy drill bits my parents used in the oil field.
Reflection
A Light in the Wreckage
As I began to regain consciousness, I thought for a moment that it had all been a bad dream. Then I felt the dirt beneath my hands. Realizing it was real, I began crying out, “Lord, please help me!”
When I opened my eyes, they were flooded with a bright light. I raised my arm to shield my eyes.
One of the heavy drill bits had landed near the top of my head. At some point during the accident, my left arm had also been caught in the teeth of one of the drill bits. I still bear the scars and had a chunk of flesh missing from that arm, although I don’t remember when during the accident the injury occurred.
At that very moment, a truck that had just passed by turned around.
The passenger had looked back at the wreckage and told his wife, “Somebody was out there.”
That was remarkable in itself. We lived in a very remote area, where we might see only ten cars pass our house in an entire day.
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