Thankful for God’s Protection

I have seen many scary auto accidents and have told myself that I don’t ever want to be in one of those kind of accidents. But God’s ways and plans are not always our ways and plans. We may not understand now why He allowed the accident to happen, but we can trust in Him that He knows what He is doing.

Monday, was a normal day, doing another hospital run to Maesot like I have done many times. Maesot is about two hours away from our school, and I usually take someone else with me who can help me drive, translate, and to help with shopping. But this day, all my driving helpers were gone. Also, on this day other people were using our car and the Meyers’ truck, so I was using the Adams’ new truck. To make a long story short, on my way back home, I fell asleep at the wheel about 15 minutes from home. As I was sleeping, my translator saw me cross the road and head for a big tree. He tried to wake me up but couldn’t.  The next thing we knew was that we were upside down in the truck and wondering what had just happened. We were a little groggy but totally relaxed as if nothing happened. We had felt no impact and received no trauma at all, and neither of us could remember anything that happened once the truck went off the road. We received only a mild whip lash, mild impact from the seat belts and mild scratches–and we had a few sore muscles for a few days. Our angels were working overtime! Praise the Lord!

We crawled out of the truck with ease. I felt like the angels just pulled us out. After that, we assessed what had just happened. We looked at the truck and saw that we hit the big tree. My translator said that I was going fast. Then we looked at the big tree and saw where we hit the side of the tree. You could see big chunks of tree bark missing. Anyway, with that kind of impact, it flipped the truck upside down. I asked my translator if he saw the truck hit the tree. He said, No! One of the miracles was that, in His mercy, God did not allow any of us to see or feel the whole accident as it was happening. Shortly after the accident, a motorcyclist showed up, saw what had just happened and turned around to get some help. A few minutes later, a couple of policemen showed up on their motorcycle. They assessed the scene and asked some questions. Soon they stopped a truck going in the direction of our home, and we were quickly loaded into his truck. After the driver got us home, he told us that he had called his friend to go and pull the truck out and tow it to a wrecking yard/auto repair place.

Two days later, I needed to make another hospital run, but to a much closer hospital. In the accident I had lost my cell phone, and so my plan was that after I was finished at the hospital, I would stop by the wrecking yard/auto repair place and go over to the truck and have Harvey call my cell phone to see if it was in the truck or not. So he called the cell phone, and sure enough, my phone rang. So my translator crawled into the truck and found the hidden phone. Praise the Lord!

But here is the exciting part of this story. As we were busy looking for and calling my cell phone, the Thai owner came out and tried to speak to us in his limited English. He did a lot of hand motions, trying to explain something to us. He pointed to me and said, “Driver no die”, and then made his fingers into a cross and pointed up to the sky trying to imply that our God is big. Then he pointed to his Buddha necklace and waved his hand as if saying, “No.” He pointed to several other damaged trucks and said, “Driver die, driver die, driver die”, and so on. Then he pointed to my translator and me and then made his fingers into a cross again and pointed to the sky. This is a Buddhist man making these comments about the accident! God does turn bad things into good things. Later we visited the man again and gave him a Thai Steps to Christ (by Ellen G. White). When things happen like this, we never know how it will impact people’s lives. Many people saw the accident, and our students and many other people heard our story and saw pictures of the accident, but only God knows how many people this will positively impact. All I can say is, “Glory be to God.” May many people be brought into His kingdom by this accident. And God is not finished with my translator and me. He has a work for us to do. Praise the Lord!

Here are some pictures:

This is how the truck came to its rest.

At the auto-wrecking yard, looking at the driver’s side.

Here is the passenger’s side.
You can see that we hit the truck on the front-left corner.

With this testimony of mine, I would like to make an appeal to our donors to help raise funds for another new truck for the Adams family. As God wills, we would like to see the Adams receive at least US$15,000. (These funds should be donated through Jesus for Asia, noting it is for the “Adams’ Truck.”) Their truck along with the other vehicles, is so vital for the children’s home and school here. We use them for many things, such as hospital runs, school needs–which are many, and personal needs. Without sufficient vehicles, we are crippled. May God put a burden upon those who should give, and we also covet your prayers!

Last but not least, we are very thankful to God that we are alive to still work for Him!