Wednesday, January 7, 2009

God's hand - fo real!

Well, what an interesting afternoon to say the least. So here it is play by play....
Driving to St. Vincents Hospital to see 2 church members its pouring so I am not driving fast, I am in the far right lane. Get to the bridge right before the hospital and exit to the hospital, I see the car in the middle lane hit the brakes and start sliding into the car in front of me, she hits her brakes. Then I see the Jeep Cherokee start spinning and it spins all the way to the right and hits the cement guard rail - bust it open and the Jeep starting to fall off the bridge- I could not believe that I was seeing this and then as I was watching I saw God's hand grab that car as it was going over and flip it back onto the bridge. The car then flipped over several times and landed up on its side in the middle of the bridge! Cars were sliding everywhere to miss each other. I then jumped out of my car and ran to the vehicle flipped up on its side, as the car was thrown back onto the bridge and coming down I saw sparks coming out from under the hood. As I ran toward the car, I smelled gas! Not a good combination I was thinking in my head. I get to the car first and there is a lady trapped in there, she is yelling help someone get me out! I said hey my name is Sherri, I am going to stay with you and we are going to get you out. She appeared to be in her mid 40's. I asked her what her name was and she told me Von. By this time another guy behind me gets there, he was already on his cell phone calling 911. We were trying to see how we could get her out, but it wasn't looking good. While I was asking her where she was hurting or thought she was injured another man came running up, get back! get away! - there is gas coming out! I was like I am not leaving her! So I asked her if she could reach the ignition and she said yes, I told her that I needed her to turn the car off and she did. I then asked her if she believed in Jesus and she said yes, I told her that He had just saved her and that I saw His hand push her car back onto the bridge. She said, "I am on the bridge, the last thing I remember was falling off the bridge and seeing the ground coming at me!" I assured her that she was indeed on the bridge and asked her if I could pray with her and give thanks to God for what had just happened. She said yes, so I prayed and thanked Him for what we knew He had just done and asked that He give her a peace right then that no one else could and that we knew that He was in control and everything was going to be ok. We decided that we didn't want to rock the vehicle back up in fear that it would explode or do more damage to her, but we couldn't get to her door to get her out, it was laying on her side. So the only way was to finish breaking the front windshield and pulling her out. I told her to keep her eyes closed and cover her face if she could so the flying glass would not cut her, by this time I had 2 cuts on my arm as well as the others. Several other people had come up at this point and most of them were trying to hold umbrellas over us as we tried and tried to get her out. I just kept talking to her and asking her questions. I finally just got down on my knees and put my face as far in so she could see me and kept talking to her, I kept asking her - "Von, who is in control?" And she would yell Jesus! and I would say that's right! We called her husband for her, and told him. Finally an off duty fireman got there and finished helping us kick in the windshield, we then had to pull it out toward us to get her out. It was sharp and cutting us all, the next thing I know this young man is pulling off his shirt and said here use my undershirt to grab it, so the firefighter took it and finished pulling it out and getting in there and checking her before he pulled her out. So we carried her to another car that was sitting there and put her in it.
See because all the lanes were blocked the police and firetrucks had a hard and long time getting to us. So by the time they got there we had her out. She just kept saying that her head hurt. I think she is going to be ok, I am not certain of the extent of her injuries but by what I saw - I am thinking that God has a plan for her life and intends on using her!
As I was gathering all her belongings off of the bridge and trying to put them in her purse I think she is a teacher at Greenwood Elementary. I think that is what her badge said, I am praying that I will have a chance to check on her. I know her husband's name is James and she had an unusual last name. But God knows who she is and I would appreciate it if you would pray for her tonight for a fast recovery.
After about an hour of being on the bridge, I then gave an account of what I had seen, let the fireman look at my cuts and clean them up - I then tramped on to St. Vincents - needless to say I was ringing wet and freezing. They were like, "what happened to you?" Well I have been doing ministry, just in a different way! And I was able to share what I had just seen God do and praise His name some more. It might have been a rainy nasty day, but God was good and at work and I feel blessed to have been a part of it!

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