GOD IS IN THE BUSINESS OF ANSWERING PRAYERS
Surviving a head-on crash with a double transport semi truck

By Nicki Kelley

James 4:2 says, “You have not because you ask not.”
Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
Mark 11:24 says, “For this reason I tell you, when you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it and you will be given whatever you ask for.”

There is no doubt that I am still alive because of a miracle.  But why?  I believe that it was simply the answer to prayer—not one prayer but several  prayers over the course of time.  My wreck happened on November 5, 2007.  My prayer covering happened many years  and many times before that.

My grandparents are praying people.  When they were both alive, every morning they prayed for each of their grandchildren by name.  That fact was not lost on each of us 14 grandchildren.  On February 21, 2001, this was grandpa’s prayer at our gathering:

Our Father in heaven, as we gather here in this room, we thank Thee for the many blessings that Thou has showered forth.  We think of the great Psalm, the first Psalm; its like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth fruit in its season and that’s the way our families have done.  We’ve strayed out many different ways but we come from all parts of the country here tonight.  We think about You and think about all the traveling and no wrecks; all safely came.  We pray that all will safely return.  We pray that we’ll think about that as we drive on the highway and that we’ll be protected through the drive for thee.  We pray for the little ones and we pray for the big ones and we pray especially that Thou will be with us and guide us in the coming days as we bow our heads and we ask it in Jesus name.  Amen.

Sometime after that, both my sister and my aunt were involved in car wrecks but neither was seriously hurt.  My aunt exclaimed after my wreck that grandpa always prayed for us on the road and those prayers were always answered.

The morning of the wreck, like we always do, my husband and I prayed for each other before we went to work.  He has always traveled with his job and I had an administration job for several years that put me in a stressful position.  He always prays that I won’t come under attack and I always pray that he’ll be protected on the highway.  I’ve said since that we should have switched our prayer covering that morning!  We always pray for our children as well.  I was told after that there is a good friend in town who prays for me every morning as well.

The Bible says in Matthew 7:11, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”  For those who ask him.

I understand that the first two days I was pretty high on morphine and my siblings did a roast of the things I said at Thanksgiving but the day of my wreck, my neck brace was annoying me and I asked Mike to read Psalm 91 to me.  To this day, I know it was diving intervention that I asked for Psalm 91.  Psalm 1 and Psalm 23 are my favorite Psalms but before my wreck, I couldn’t have told you what Psalm 91 said.  However, this Psalm kept popping up.  First of all, my sister in Texas was distraught when she heard the news.  She called her neighbor and her neighbor told her to read Psalm 91 and put my name in it and then her neighbor stayed with her all day.  The day after my wreck was my dad’s birthday and my dad’s friend prayed the 91st Psalm over me at a prayer meeting my dad attends.  And I remembered something the Lord had taught me years before.  I was lamenting that I hadn’t prayed more for my grandfather before he died, and God told me, “pray now!”And I thought, “What the heck!  It’s too late.”  And I kept hearing that voice, “pray now!”  And finally I realized, God knows the future.  Psalm 139:16 says, “All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.”  God knew at the time of my wreck that my husband, my sister, and my father’s friend would be praying the 91st Psalm over me.  Read the 91st Psalm if you aren’t familiar with it.  For me, this was a modern day cobra.  It doesn’t say there will be no cobras or pestilence, but that He will deliver us out of these troubles.

Another miracle that happened was that no one else was hurt in this wreck.  There were three vehicles totaled:  a 2007 double transport semi (which actually may have been fixed, according to insurance), an SUV, and my jeep.  I am very grateful no one else was hurt.

There were so many blessings that happened at this time.  Two vehicles behind me was a friend in her vehicle.  She raced out of her car and got in the jumbled heap and held my head steady.  She said she wasn’t there 30 seconds and emergency vehicles were on the scene.  They asked her if she was wearing plastic gloves and she answered that she knew me and I could bleed all over her.

Two days after my wreck, my mom sent my brother to get me a robe.  I was worried that he would have to spend his own money and my mother told me that he would want to do this for me, but I was still concerned.  When he came, he had the cutest little light weight robe in my favorite color but he had the funniest look on his face.  He said when he got to the checkout stand, the cashier said, “Oh, that was on the 10 cent table.”  He argued with her but it rang up 10 cents and he brought us the 11-cent receipt because he knew we wouldn’t believe him.

That same day I was switched from one room and put in another.  I never was in ICU.  I went from the emergency room to the step-down floor—which I guess means a step down from ICU—I don’t know.  Anyway, my injuries were a broken talis bone in my ankle, broken ribs, and vertebrae C2 and C5 were broken.  A damaged nerve in my pointer finger showed up on day three so after two days of saying I had no pain, I cried about my finger hurting and realized the irony of being hit by a semi and crying about my finger hurting.  Anyway, on day number three, I was switched to a regular room. 

This lead to the dill pickle blessing.  I switched rooms right at lunch time and my lunch got lost.  My mom called ad ordered me a grilled cheese sandwich from the little café in the hospital because that sounded good to me.  Well, we waited and waited and mom called several times.  Finally, at 2:30 here comes my grilled cheese and hot tea.  It was the first meal since the accident that tasted good to me and I really savored it but I told my mom, “The only thing that would make this meal better would be some dill pickles!”  About the time she told me to forget it, here comes the hospital meal they had forgotten and guess what was on the side?  Dill pickles!  We laughed and laughed at God’s provisions.

On Thursday, we discovered that my purse was not locked up in the hospital with my rings.  Mike had already been to the jeep to get our CDs and papers from the glove box but he did not see my purse and thought it was locked up with my rings.  Mike tried to call the man who owned the wrecker, Roedel, but he could not get an answer.  We mentioned it to two friends and they went by Roedel’s at 10:30 that night and there he was outside.  He told them the first responder was his neighbor and he had just gone to bed so Roedel went and got him.  The first responder told them that he had told the highway patrolman that my purse was on the passenger side floorboard.  So they dug through the rubble and found it.  Here was another provision:  Roedelhad meant to take it to K.C. the day before, but his wrecker broke down.  The first responder told them that when he slid me out of the jeep, he didn’t know how in the world my legs survived or where they could have fit in that wreckage.  The next morning, my husband and son went to get the purse, not knowing it had already been taken care of the night before.  When they got there, the jeep was gone, towed to Kansas City.

I repeat.  Pray.  Isaiah 40:30 and 31 says, “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.  The will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

I will be saying this verse when I am an old woman.  During this time, I walked and grew faint.  But my hope is in the Lord.  Now I run.  And after 48 years of living a pretty calm, safe, life devoid of taking risks, God gave me an awesome testimony.

Famous pastor, Joel Osteen said one time:
“God stopped the sun for Joshua.
God closed the lion’s mouths for Daniel.
God parted the Red Sea for the Israelites.”
And now I can say that God bubble wrapped an angel around me and protected me from an 18-wheeler head-on hit.

We serve an awesome God!