Jesus, Take The Wheel
I have had miracles happen to me before, but I want to tell you about the most recent one that has happened to Tammie and me. As everyone knows, we moved our newly-wed daughter to Kansas this past weekend. Everything went as planned until around the time we were heading back home. It was around 4:30 pm, Tammie and I were both worn out from the unrelenting heat of 109 that day. In this heat we unloaded a van, a UHaul trailer, a truck and a car. Up a flight of stairs. So with a 10 hour drive ahead of us, we weren't looking forward to it. Right off the bat, I pressed the cruise control button once I got on the highway. And it didn't work. Something was wrong with it, it was broken. I was so upset, because I knew that my legs were going to be even more worn out because now I have to actually put my foot on the gas pedal. What I didn't know was that God was whispering to me, "Kevin, you don't need the cruise control today, trust me".
For those of you that have never been to Kansas. The two lane highways all have speed limits of 65 MPH. For the simple reason that the highways are super straight and you can see for miles and miles. Its nothing but flat land full of fields. Hardly any trees at all. Or at least this was the picture we had in the area of Kansas we were in.
Two hours from my daughters apartment we found ourselves on one of these highways headed eastbound. With a vehicle in front of us, and a Semi in front of that vehicle, and a Semi directly behind us, all four of us were pretty tight together in a formation traveling at about a speed of 67-70 MPH. When all of a sudden, I see the Semi slam on his brakes and then immediately following the vehicle in front of us slammed on their brakes. In order to avoid hitting the car in front of me, and the Semi behind me crashing into me, I took the ditch. Not all the way in the ditch, just on the slant going down to the ditch. Instantly another car out of nowhere, headed westbound, met me. She was traveling at a very high speed and straddling the ditch that I was in. I still believe that she missed us by inches. It took all of us it seemed a lifetime to get stopped and try to turn around. The road was very narrow and it was hard to turn around. The semi in front of me blew a tire when he slammed on his brakes. I found out later that after he changed his tire he had to travel a certain distance before he could find a place to turn around. Tammie and I thought at the moment that he had left the scene of the accident.
The car in front of me turned around first, and then we followed them. We drove up to the car where it finally decided to stop. It was destroyed, and you could hear a faint horn whining. I just knew that the occupants were dead. Tammie and I both jumped out of our van, and the lady that was driving the car in front of us was already at the crashed vehicle. She asked if we could get a signal on our cell phones, and of course, we couldn't, we were out in the middle of NOWHERE KANSAS.
So without knowing if anyone was still alive, I left Tammie there and drove to the nearest house to ask them to call 911. Once I returned, I found that both ladies in the wrecked car were alive and talking. They were both hurting though, as they should have been. I noticed that they had hit a big concrete culvert and then took out a solid fence, where they finally stopped moving just beyond the fence. The driver looked to be in her late 40's or early 50's, a heavy set lady. She was complaining of chest pains. The passenger was her daughter, probably in her late 20's or early 30's. She was complaining that she couldn't move her neck.
I stood over the wreckage and touched the car, and said a prayer out loud. Then I asked the driver if she had a church that she attends, and her reply was yes. I asked the passenger the same question, and she said ,"no, but I am going to go from now on !" I asked the driver if she knew Jesus Christ, and she said yes, as well as the passenger. To which my reply was, "Thank God, because he was looking out for all of us today".
Tammie and I stood in the 109 degree temp. that day for over 2 hours. We had to give our description of the wreck to the police report.
To sum up the first part of this story right now, all I know is that if my cruise control was working that day, I probably would have slammed into the vehicle in front of me. What was aggravating to me at first, turned out to be a blessing. This all reminds me of the song by Carrie Underwood, "Jesus, Take the Wheel". Because he had a hold of every steering wheel around us that day including ours.
incredibly, there is a second part to this story, so I will leave this as "TO BE CONTINUED"
For those of you that have never been to Kansas. The two lane highways all have speed limits of 65 MPH. For the simple reason that the highways are super straight and you can see for miles and miles. Its nothing but flat land full of fields. Hardly any trees at all. Or at least this was the picture we had in the area of Kansas we were in.
Two hours from my daughters apartment we found ourselves on one of these highways headed eastbound. With a vehicle in front of us, and a Semi in front of that vehicle, and a Semi directly behind us, all four of us were pretty tight together in a formation traveling at about a speed of 67-70 MPH. When all of a sudden, I see the Semi slam on his brakes and then immediately following the vehicle in front of us slammed on their brakes. In order to avoid hitting the car in front of me, and the Semi behind me crashing into me, I took the ditch. Not all the way in the ditch, just on the slant going down to the ditch. Instantly another car out of nowhere, headed westbound, met me. She was traveling at a very high speed and straddling the ditch that I was in. I still believe that she missed us by inches. It took all of us it seemed a lifetime to get stopped and try to turn around. The road was very narrow and it was hard to turn around. The semi in front of me blew a tire when he slammed on his brakes. I found out later that after he changed his tire he had to travel a certain distance before he could find a place to turn around. Tammie and I thought at the moment that he had left the scene of the accident.
The car in front of me turned around first, and then we followed them. We drove up to the car where it finally decided to stop. It was destroyed, and you could hear a faint horn whining. I just knew that the occupants were dead. Tammie and I both jumped out of our van, and the lady that was driving the car in front of us was already at the crashed vehicle. She asked if we could get a signal on our cell phones, and of course, we couldn't, we were out in the middle of NOWHERE KANSAS.
So without knowing if anyone was still alive, I left Tammie there and drove to the nearest house to ask them to call 911. Once I returned, I found that both ladies in the wrecked car were alive and talking. They were both hurting though, as they should have been. I noticed that they had hit a big concrete culvert and then took out a solid fence, where they finally stopped moving just beyond the fence. The driver looked to be in her late 40's or early 50's, a heavy set lady. She was complaining of chest pains. The passenger was her daughter, probably in her late 20's or early 30's. She was complaining that she couldn't move her neck.
I stood over the wreckage and touched the car, and said a prayer out loud. Then I asked the driver if she had a church that she attends, and her reply was yes. I asked the passenger the same question, and she said ,"no, but I am going to go from now on !" I asked the driver if she knew Jesus Christ, and she said yes, as well as the passenger. To which my reply was, "Thank God, because he was looking out for all of us today".
Tammie and I stood in the 109 degree temp. that day for over 2 hours. We had to give our description of the wreck to the police report.
To sum up the first part of this story right now, all I know is that if my cruise control was working that day, I probably would have slammed into the vehicle in front of me. What was aggravating to me at first, turned out to be a blessing. This all reminds me of the song by Carrie Underwood, "Jesus, Take the Wheel". Because he had a hold of every steering wheel around us that day including ours.
incredibly, there is a second part to this story, so I will leave this as "TO BE CONTINUED"
posted by Kevin Stoxe @ 8/09/2006 04:19:00 PM
3 Comments:
At 8/09/2006,
Tammie S. said…
WOW, Honey- that was like living it all over again. Just to add a note: the concrete culvert was up out of the ground where she hit it when we got back down there. That's how fast they were going- she must have fallen asleep at the wheel. You are such a great storyteller. I love to hear you tell your version of something that happens. I love you.
At 8/09/2006,
Mark W. said…
Sounds scary! I know just how easy it would be to fall asleep cruising across Kansas. I've driven the whole length of it from West to East without stopping. Luckily I wasn't tired out. The cuise control going out like that, though...indeed, God works in mysterious (sometimes freaky) ways.
At 8/09/2006,
Lou Arnold said…
That was an eventful story. I am glad everyone, including you are alive. God had everyone in his hands that day.
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