Well, I realize it’s been a LONG time since I updated this. I have many great things to share about the rest of my U.S. trip, my YFC trip to Germany, and my time back in Botswana. But for this post, I will focus on another minor car accident that happened Friday October 5th here in Botswana. The story has many intriguing facets, so I hope you can take the time to read to the end.
To put you at ease, everyone is fine. That Friday morning on the drive to work, we were rear-ended by a guy who was speeding and evidently not paying good attention to the road. He was hoping to pass on the right (remember we drive on the left side of the road), but I was signaling to turn right. He didn't realize that till too late and slammed on the brakes. By the time I heard the loud screech from his brakes and looked in the rear view mirror, there was no time to even think which way I should go—a split-second later he just slammed right into the back of my car, crushing the trunk, to the point that the car might be totaled or written off (the frame is bent too and back door won't open). We spun around twice and ended up facing the opposite direction. (You can see in the picture—my car is the blue one).
Thankfully the three YFC housemates in my car and I are all fine--no cuts, no scrapes, nothing broken. The other driver is also fine. His airbag deployed, and he just had a sore forearm. The other driver and I went with the policeman to the police station, and the other driver signed the admission of guilt in causing the crash and was fined on the spot. It is no question that it was not my fault so my insurance will cover my car's damage (the other driver does not have insurance).
So...praise God we are all ok. Debora, a new German YFC volunteer, told me after the accident that as we left home to start that journey, she had been struggling to get her seat belt to click in at her seat in the back. The law in Botswana doesn’t require passengers in the back to wear seat belts, but the “law in Em’s car” is that everyone must wear a seatbelt! Debora tried 5 or 6 times without success to get her seatbelt to click into place. She had thought, "Ah, it's only a very short drive to the office, I'll just not wear my seatbelt," but something (the Holy Spirit, I believe!) urged her to try again. The next time, it clicked into place, which secured her in the accident just two or three minutes later when the other car hit directly behind her.
Another thing for which I'm grateful-- I had planned to take my guitar to work Friday morning and had set it out the night before so I wouldn't forget to take it. Friday morning, though, I changed my mind and decided I would get it when I went home for lunch. Since there were 3 passengers, I would've put the guitar in the trunk and it would've been destroyed. Finally, because of the passengers, I put my backpack (with my laptop in it) in the trunk of my car. Thankfully, I placed it precisely where I did in the trunk—despite the trunk being crushed, it was unscathed! Though the whole trunk was truncated (no pun intended), my backpack was not affected. The trunk and outside of the car was pressing it on all sides, yet it was not crushed. It reminded me of the scripture, “hard pressed on every side, but not crushed” (2 Corinthians 4:8). Others who’ve looked at the trunk are amazed that my bag survived intact.
Below is what my car used to look like, with some goats I chased featured as well for good measure :)
Or here's a clearer view of what my '99 Toyota Corolla looked like (I found this picture online of the same kind of car). So you can see that yes, my car did have a
trunk:
The police officer who arrived on the scene first asked if there were any injuries. When we replied that no one was hurt, he said, “Well then, the first thing we need to do is stop and thank God.” He drove both me and the other driver to the police station to take our statements. While filling out the forms, the police officer said to us that God allows things for reasons we don’t always understand at the time, but that we can trust that God will bring good out of this. When the cop discovered the young man who hit me is unemployed and not studying, he told him, “There are lots of programs and grants that can help you; even Youth for Christ. See, they come from the other side of the world to help people like you. You should go visit them at Youth for Christ.” Nothing like a preaching police officer!
So...how is my neck??
After this my third accident (the first fracturing the top two vertebrae in my neck), it's with proper concern that you might wonder how my neck fared. Physically, my neck feels almost back to normal. It’s still a bit tight, but it’s much better than it was the couple days after the accident when every movement (even swallowing) hurt. I was reminded again how much we use our neck muscles. My left arm started feeling numb-ish about 8 hours after the accident, so understandably it was a bit unnerving (ha, sorry couldn’t resist the pun again!). I went to the hospital to get X-rays of my neck. Thankfully, the doctor thinks my neck is fine structurally. He even said the discs look "perfectly aligned." The numbness subsided by the day after the accident.
When I got home, I compared my neck X-rays this time with those taken after the rollover accident in Botswana last year July, and to my eyes, they look the same (which is good). Minutes later, I finally got around to reading the passages in my Bible reading plan for the day of the accident, October 5th. It included this verse in Hosea 10:11 (God speaking): “I spared her fair neck.” ☺ I know it’s taken out of context, but hey, it fits! Could you imagine a more fitting verse in all of the Bible?! It’s like last year when I returned from the x-rays that showed that my tendons/ligaments had held my neck stable after that rollover (if you recall, the big issue after the rollover in 2008 was that, according to the neurosurgeon, the tendons/ligaments between my top two vertebrae were destroyed/ “ripped to shreds”…though later he acknowledged they must have healed). After the x-rays last year, I read my bible reading plan and it included (again out of context) God saying: “The sinews of your neck were iron” (Isaiah 48:4) ☺. God has a sense of humor for sure…and is just plain amazing.
Prayers for Protection
Another interesting thing is that last Thursday when I was at a missions conference, I was explaining the accident to the young woman from Gaborone who was co-leading intercession prayer with me. She came on the YFC camp Youth Week last year and is currently studying theology. When I told her about the loud screeching tires as the other driver slammed on the brakes and then about how our car spun twice, she got an awestruck look on her face and asked me, “When was your accident??” I told her it happened Friday morning. “NO way!” she exclaimed. Then she started to explain how early Friday morning around 4 am, she had felt, as she described, the Holy Spirit wake her up to pray. She said this happens from time to time and she usually just prays while still lying down, then rolls over back to sleep. But this time, she felt it was much more serious so she actually sat up and prayed for about 10-15 minutes as she felt the Holy Spirit led.
Then she tried to go back to sleep, and in a semi-sleep state, she felt a strong heaviness and heard what sounded like car tires screeching and wicked laughter, like of demons or witches, then she felt like she was spinning. The spinning woke her up fully, and she told me it had felt even like her bed was spinning. She believes the Holy Spirit revealed to her that the Enemy was planning a car accident. At first, she prayed for protection for her family, but then felt led to pray against whatever is being planned against any child of God. She fell asleep again, and woke up sometime between 8 and 9am (she doesn’t recall the time). When she woke up, she felt the Holy Spirit remind her again that “the Devil’s actually planning an accident for somebody,” and she prayed again for protection. Our accident occurred in that same hour between 8 and 9 (8:25am).
This young woman spent several weeks a few months ago ministering and interceding at the Senior Secondary School in Mochudi (just near the accident site—the other driver probably decided to pass us while he was driving in front of that school), and her mother is from Mochudi. So she has spent hours praying for Mochudi and is familiar with the accident site. She marveled at how we are one big network or family of believers, that we are never alone. She found it so amazing that God can raise up other believers to pray for someone in danger even if they don’t know for whom they are praying. Is that what happened here? Seems like it. It seems too perfectly timed and perfectly suited (screeching, car accident, spinning, in Mochudi) to be a coincidence.
Also, after the accident was announced in my home church in Michigan, my mom told me that a woman came up to her after the service and said that I’d been on her heart all that week and she’d been praying for my protection. It reminded me of how just hours after my first rollover in Colorado (while I was in emergency neck surgery yet none of my friends or family was yet aware), a friend from Bethany College of Missions felt led to pray for me. She started praying for my upcoming departure to Botswana, but then clearly felt the Lord lead her to pray instead for my protection. I don't claim to know how that all works with regard to people praying for protection because sometimes I know people don’t survive accidents. In Scripture, we see that sometimes the apostles were miraculously delivered, and other times they were hurt or killed. In Peter’s case, he was miraculously delivered due, in large part it seems, to the simultaneous prayers of the other believers (see Acts 12), but later he was martyred. So it’s hard to understand why sometimes we are spared and other times not. God’s ways are mysterious. God is sovereign and yet somehow our prayers do factor in. How that works exactly, I still have yet to grasp. What I do know for sure is that prayer is effective and that I am grateful for every prayer for my protection. I know many of you pray for me, and I am so thankful. Truly we are one big family.
Grateful again,
Em
P.S. I’m also grateful that an American missionary family who were in our bible study group donated their vehicle to YFC when they left the mission field in Botswana earlier this year. That is what I’m driving for my ministry in the meantime while my car either gets fixed or replaced.
