Twenty-Four years ago, I had a bad car accident. My children and I were in our van, on the highway going 50 mph; a Suburban coming from the left ran a stop sign and hit our rear driver's side tire. It exploded and we began flipping and did so 5 times, 3 times horizontally and 2 times vertically. My daughter and her friend flew out the back doors, my 2 sons stayed inside the van and I went out the windshield, landing in a deep ditch. (At that time we had no seat-belts in the van). The last bounce that the van made landed on top of me and then flipped off again, landing in a foot and a half of water right beside me. Two cars were behind us when this happened and one woman said, "This looks like a scene out of a movie. No one can survive this!" Yet we all did!!
I was pressed to 3-4" in width, 3 vertebrates exploded - 2 between my shoulder blades and one at my waist, - my sternum was broken, I sustained a heart attack that the Lord healed instantly while I was still in intensive care. I went out the windshield the back of my head first and there's still glass in my head today; at that time I got 8 staples in my head and some in my left arm also. I also had a Traumatic Brain Injury from it that still affects me today, 24 years later (hence my short term memory problems ). I had seizures after I got out of the hospital and I never remembered having them. The doctors said "Your brain slammed around inside your head about 3 times" and said there was nothing they could do for it, I would just have to "heal naturally". But the Lord has brought me forward a great deal since then!
It took the ambulance over an hour to reach us as we lived in one of the Plains states and we were smack-dab in between 2 towns, with only fields in the middle. When they finally got there and were trying to put me on a wooden stretcher that was in 2 sections, they kept pinching my spine between the boards! Man, that hurt. I would go in and out of consciousness all the time. My 17 year old son was sitting right beside me in the ditch; he never left my side. My 14 year old son and my 12 year old daughter sat along the roadside, his arm around her shoulder comforting her. I never did find out who comforted my daughter's friend.
In the hospital it was discovered that I had massive internal bleeding, so I was air-flighted to another hospital and given 3 blood transfusions. Had not the vertebrates exploded causing the need for surgery, I was told I would still have to have it as my back muscles were so shredded that nothing was holding up my spine. I had the surgery and two 10" rods were put in, one on either side of my spine. I shrank 2 and 1/2" in height when they fused my spine together. One of the helicopter pilots watched the surgery and told my (now ex) husband, "Boy, Someone is sure watching out for your wife!" When asked what he meant he said, "Because her spine was pushed out as far as it could go - he put his fingers together in a > to demonstrate - and it was never severed! She would have been paralyzed from the shoulders down if it had been." (Remember the stretcher? Satan was again attempting to harm me but the Lord prevented it).
I was in a church service 6 years after the accident and went up for prayer - not even for my back - and went down from Holy Ghost's power and got stuck to the floor. Could not move a muscle. For over an hour I felt as if I was moving! I thought I was imagining it but weeks later when talking with my daughter she suddenly said, "Mom! You're taller!" The Lord had grown me back up to my original height when I was on that floor!!
I confessed daily that I was healed in the name of Jesus, no matter WHAT sort of pain I was in. I got shots in my right shoulder every once in a while for pain; it never took the pain away but I would fall asleep for a day, so did not feel the pain. For 8 years I was on many narcotics for the pain but the only thing they did was keep me mobile. From then until now I do not remember what a pain-free day feels like.
A week after surgery I had to learn how to walk all over again; I was 37 years old. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks, so filled with joy the entire time. The joy felt like a "force". It was amazing; in the worst pain of my entire life yet I was continually sustained with this joy.
Five weeks later, I found out that the rods had popped off the top of my spine and I would have to have a second surgery. The instant I heard that, the joy flew away from me for the first time. The thought of enduring that agony again was almost more than I could bear; the scar on my back is 19" long and I would have to be cut again! BUT, after I told the doctor to remove the rods if he could as "you are never touching me again!," in recovery I found out that the rods had been taken out! Praise God!
Twelve years later I had another huge fight for my life and overnight my right eye went completely blind. Five years after that my left eye started going blind. The doctor who examined them at that time said that the shots I'd had in my shoulder were - in the natural - the cause of the blindness. I knew it was an attack of the enemy. I had a 10 hour battle for my life and called my pastor and he prayed for me. He also had a second phone line and called another pastor and they both prayed for me. Paralysis came during this battle and the left side of my head was paralyzed for 8 months after the attack; I had to learn to write again too.
I was totally blind for 3 years. The doctor told me, "I'm very sorry to have to tell you this but you will be completely blind within 18 months and the pain in your eyes will be so severe, we will have to remove them." I told him that the Lord had brought me through so many things in my life and He would bring me through this as well.
Throughout the 3 years, sudden horrific pain would strike my eyes and I would cry out, "Oh, no you don't!! In the name of Jesus get OUT of here!" and the pain would slowly leave me. Any sunlight - even through sunglasses - caused severe pain.
When I was blind I felt completely vulnerable, but never afraid. It actually didn't bother me that much; I spent so much time with the Lord that it all was 'okay'. I knew His grace was on me greatly.
Eighteen years later after this all happened the doctor told me that "You died that night in the hospital." I did not "see" anything when that happened and have always wondered why not. The Lord's will, I believe.
The Lord began to heal my back and is still doing so today: He would work on my body for hours upon hours every day. Hours and hours and year upon year He has worked. He's still not finished but I have every confidence that He will perfect all that concerns me, in His timing.
I have so much more I could write but it would be too much. I will say one more thing about my daughter, though. At the accident site, she told me she thought I had died. She stood way up on the side of the highway and could hardly see me in the deep ditch and tall reeds. Said I was not moving. She said (she was 12 then), "I tried and tried to think of Jesus' name and I couldn't think of it. So I thought and thought and finally thought of it and I tried to say His name. I couldn't say it. I tried and tried and finally it came pouring out and I hollered, "You're healed in Jesus' name! You're healed in Jesus' name! Over and over and over. Finally your arm raised up and you wiggled your fingers so I knew you were alive."
Isn't that amazing? She was deeply traumatized by flying out of the van herself yet she was praying for me to live! Her life has been deeply hurt ever since and I'm still expecting any day now that the Lord will come to her personally and heal and deliver her completely. She is humanly alone in the world and needs prayer cover in the Spirit. She has lost everything, as I have, but gave her heart to Jesus when she was little, baptized in the Holy Ghost and when He flowed through her it was powerful and awesome to behold. He will NOT forget His "little gem of a girl, His diamond" as He described her to me; He will go to her and reveal His great, great love for her and use her mightily. She has a high and holy calling on her life.
I just had to share how big our God is, how lovely and faithful. Through all I've lived and been through with Him, I've learned that the way up in God is down. lol Following Jesus has never been easy but is SO worth it all! HE is worth is all! Love and blessings, Cynthia
My Testimony by Cynthia Beck
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