We called our farm Fullmeasure Farm, with excellent reason. Here is a true story of how the Lord has blessed us in an emergency situation. I'll quote an e-mail sent out the day it happened, Wednesday, September 23, 1998 - a day neither my handsome hubby nor I will soon forget:
Praise the Lord, all ye His saints!! Let me tell you what He has done for us this day, because assisting neighbours and the fire department, police constable, tow-truck driver, ambulance crew, doctors and nurses are all in agreement that a miracle has taken place in this place today. Thank You, most precious Lord Jesus!!!
It all began on Monday when I forgot to turn the lights off in our new car, and ignored the warning buzzer when I turned off the ignition. Arch went to drive the car this morning and the battery was dead. :-( Since we have our little truck, he decided to take it instead and boost the car's battery when he got back.
Little car was sitting on a bit of a rise behind our house where we always park it, minding its own business like a good little vehicle, nursing its flat battery.
Archie went down towards the drive shed where the truck was parked and started to drive it back up the driveway. Just after he passed the lane the car was parked on, he remembered that he had a bit of tissue stuck on his chin because he had cut himself shaving. He decided to get some fresh tissues from the back seat of the car, rather than come back into the house.
The box of tissues was on the passenger-side rear seat. Archie opened the rear door on that side, grabbed a handful, pushed the door shut and started back to the truck.
Then he noticed the car was rolling backwards towards him. :-( He started to run to get out of its way...
... and tripped and fell in its path.
The next thing he heard was a crunching sound as the car came to rest against a massive boulder in the ditch across the driveway from the rising lane where the car had been parked. He was pinned under the car, his left leg twisted into a totally unnatural position, trapped beneath the chassis. No feeling in the leg. No circulation. He could reach over and touch the rear wheel of the car and turn it by hand, so he knew the car had hit the boulder violently enough that it was now suspended off the ground, but he himself was pinned beneath it.
He yelled as loudly as he could, but I was in the house and he was in a ditch under a car. Sound travels in strange patterns but there *are* limits!
Fortunately our dogs - notably Molly the Mouth, Jen *G* - *could* hear him, and wouldn't stop sounding the alarm until I went out to see what the problem was. It came as quite a shock when Archie yelled, "Get help! I'm trapped under the car!!"
I phoned our next-door neighbour to come with his tractor, then went out to look more closely at the situation. Here's poor Archie lying on his back on an acute downhill angle, only his torso projecting from beneath the vehicle, legs disappearing underneath, a huge rock only inches from his body. Whew! Took me about two seconds to figure out it was going to take more than a tractor to get him out of there.
(The fact that Archie TOLD me it was going to take more than a tractor to get him out may have helped me figure it out a little faster than normal. *G*)
I went back into the house and phoned a tow-truck, our volunteer fire department, and our pastor. Then I called the ambulance. (Hey, no sense in the ambulance being there before Archie was freed from under the car, eh?)
Pastors Marc and Cairn, bless them, immediately contacted the strongest prayer warriors available; and those precious saints prayed through for close to an hour, interceding for Archie and praying peace for me. (So THAT is why I didn't panic ... until later... Thanks, People!!)
It took our volunteer fire department quite a while to jack up the car enough to get a good look at the situation. Once they could see how badly the leg was twisted, they checked to see if it was broken. It wasn't! Thank You, Jesus!!! Might be fractured; might be other injuries, but the leg isn't broken. Excellent! :-)
They had to bend a rod under the car to free Archie's ankle. (His leg had been getting lifted up along with the vehicle as they jacked up the car.) Once the rod was bent and the leg freed, the firemen brought over a backboard and Archie was able to pull himself downhill a bit to get away from the car. His neck by this point had been put in a protective collar. With help from the firemen, the ambulance crew (who had barely arrived on the scene) got Archie onto the backboard and then onto a stretcher and into the back of the ambulance. He was conscious but very cold, so they put a blanket over him before they left to take him to the hospital.
Once the fire trucks (two of 'em) and ambulance had left, two neighbours and the tow-truck driver got the car off the boulder and boosted it to a start. Then they left, after offering me whatever assistance I needed if I would only call them to ask. Thank You, Jesus, for "friends in need!!"
Now I was on my own again. Finished up a few chores in the barn (and of course there was somewhat more rebellion in the ranks than usual cuz it wasn't Archie looking after them) and came back up to the house. Phoned the hospital to see how Archie was.
"He's fine. Want to talk to him?"
"He's WHAT???"
"Hi! I'm just waiting for X-rays to be taken, then I'll be out of here. There's nothing broken; maybe a slight fracture, but they won't know until they see the X-rays. I'll phone you when I'm ready to come home. Don't forget to bring my shoes." (The firemen had removed them in order to free his trapped foot.)
Within three hours of being hit by a car, dragged behind/under it for thirty or more feet, trapped under it for close to an hour if not more ... Archie WALKED back out of the hospital under his own steam!!! He has abrasions on both forearms, a huge great lump on the outside of his left shin, and by tomorrow his left leg will be multi-coloured from ankle to almost knee judging by the impression of the undercarriage of the car that is still visible in the flesh... but what a different picture it could have been, *should* have been, had it not been for the grace of God and the power of prayer!
That rock we have so often cursed, saved his life today. I have kissed and blessed that boulder, and next year it shall have its own little flower-garden and perhaps a little white fence, because it is the symbol of the Rock Who saved my man; indeed, the Rock Who died to save us all, if only we have the sense to claim His victory.
Thank you, too, to all those who have prayed the shed blood of Jesus and the cross of Calvary on Archie and I. Please know that this day your prayers have been answered in a mighty, MIGHTY manner.
And thank You, Jesus!
Richest blessings to you all, in His most wonderful Name!!
Doris
Note: By 10 p.m. the night of the accident, Archie's leg was 100% healed. No bruising, no limp, no swelling, no bleeding, no soreness, no stiffness, no trace of the trauma of that morning -- yet during the ambulance ride the gouge left by the steel rod around which his leg had been pinned for over an hour was so deep that the ambulance attendant could run his forefinger up and down inside it, marvelling that the leg had not suffered breaks in multiple places. The text the Lord gave me to explain His prompt response to my prayer (remember, I prayed even before calling the ambulance) was this:
"They were helped...because they cried out to (God) DURING the battle. He answered their prayers, because they TRUSTED in Him." ---1 Chronicles 5:20 (NIV)
Doris E. Howie
Note: Many loads of white gravel were poured onto the side driveway in the last few years since we moved, so you can no longer see the tree roots that gave the car its momentum and tripped Archie - but it *does* help you see where the side driveway meets the main one, just across from the hydro pole next to the rock. I've circled the rock in the pix, which show it from various angles to try to help you visualize the car's trajectory with Archie clinging to its trunk-lid. :-))
Click 'thumbnail' print for full-size pix
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Updated February 21, 2008
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