I first became a Christian back in  October of ’76.  Not at the altar but out in front of the church.  You see, I couldn't find anywhere in the Bible where it says you have to go to the altar to get saved.  Besides I had and still have a problem with stage fright.  But when God really comes down and touches me I will go to the altar, and have several times since.  I just don't go just because the preacher thinks I should.   I was really turned on.  I witnessed to almost everybody I came into contact with.  I thought that since I was turned on, everybody I came in contact with should get turned on too but I soon found out that wasn’t the case.  In fact I turned some of them off.  I even thought that since I’m a Christian everybody would like me but found out that wasn’t so either.  I didn’t expect my sinner friends to like me anymore but I found out that not all Christians liked me either.  That was kind of confusing for me.  I was more Christ-like than I’ve ever been in my life and still there were some Christians that didn’t care to be around me.  Maybe because I believed in speaking in tongues and healing.  Plus a lot of other things that was in the Bible.  I don’t know.

   I must say that I got scared into getting saved.  I had a couple life threatening events and figured maybe the third time was the charm that was going to get me.  Needless to say it worked.  Little did I know that the third life threatening event was just around the corner. 

   I must say that God helped me land a good job doing what I liked to do.  That was drive a fork lift.  I was good at it and was considered one of the best in my department.  God was really blessing me in many areas, especially on my job.  He helped me get promotions and pay raises that I don’t think I would have gotten otherwise. 

   Bear in mind, I was still on cloud 9 with God.  I was still witnessing to just about everybody I came into contact with and was really excited about God.  Well, what I didn’t know was that the devil didn’t like me witnessing for God and he laid a trap for me.  "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:  (John 10:10)

   On the job one night another guy and I just unloaded a boxcar and was preparing to move another boxcar down to the loading dock.  This is hard to explain without drawing you a picture, kind of like you have to be there to see what I’m talking about.  Anyway, the loading dock was the kind that was hydraulic and you lowered it down into the doorway of the boxcar when you got ready to unload the car.  When it was lowered you then had to slide these rails from the dock into the opening of the boxcar.  But in order to move the boxcar we had to hook a log chain onto the other end of the boxcar that you were moving into the dock opening.  And we had to lower the dock but don’t slide the rails out. Just lower the dock.  That created a bottle neck between the boxcar and the dock.  We hooked the log chain onto the next car to pull it to where the dock is.  We used a log chained hooked onto a forklift that was parked inside the warehouse.  One guy was sitting on top of the boxcar next to the brake so he could stop it when we got it in place.  Another guy was operating the forklift and my job was to unhook the chain when the boxcar got to a certain spot. 

   Well it was winter and I had several layers of clothes on, including a hooded sweat shirt and an army field jacket.  As the boxcar rolled to the certain spot, I stepped in close to unhook the chain but it was jammed.  I was fighting to get it unhooked when all at once something was sticking out on the side of the boxcar that snagged my field jacket, causing me to be pulled into the bottle neck.  It rolled me around as it pulled me into the trap.  Breaking ribs and penning my arms to my side.  Breaking one of my arms and cracking my other elbow.  I not only felt the bones break but I heard them snap. Then they got the boxcar stopped.  There I was, trapped with my arms penned to my side.  I had heard some cracking noises as I was rolled into the bottle neck.  As I was standing there trying to figure out how to get out.  I noticed a bone was sticking out of my field jacket sleeve.  And what was worse I was barely able to breathe.  The boxcar and loading dock had me crushed in a 4 inch gap just below my arm pits and just above my hips.  I knew I was in a world of hurt.  I had never experienced so much pain in my life. 

   Even tho I knew that if I died right now I would go to Heaven, panic was still starting to set in.  By being held in a vise like I was, I couldn’t get enough oxygen.  My diaphragm was crushed, so even though the medics came with their oxygen mask I couldn’t breathe.  As they were working to take the loading dock apart I was starting to die.  Really!  Even though my eyes were wide open everything was starting to turn black.  I heard later that was a sign you were about gone. 

   Thank God they finally got me released from the vise and laid me on a back board.  I naturally was unable to stand.  I had never had a broken bone in my life, never rode in an ambulance and never been a patient in a hospital.  Now I am experiencing it all.

   I never lost consciousness during the whole ordeal.  When I seen they were taking me to the local hospital I told them not to but they insisted that they had to, since it was the closest. 

Just so happened my wife was at a meeting at the health department next door so my boss contacted her.  When she came over I told her to contact my pastor.

   I started having flash backs of an incident where my cousin was hit by the train and they took him here and they never did get a doctor to look at him, none were around so they took him to Joplin.  And he died on the way. 

   They did give me a pain shot and X-rayed me at the local hospital then they send me on to Joplin.  I didn’t really think I would make it.  Little did I know that the ambulance attendant was a pastor of a local church and he was praying for me all the way down there.  Plus my wife contacted several other people to be praying for me, along with her.

   Well we finally made it to Joplin, the most painful trip I have ever experienced, even though people were praying for me. 

   After getting into the ER and lying in the waiting area, I closed my eyes and tried to relax the best I could.  I then overheard one of the ER workers comment that he didn’t think I was going to make it, and the other one commented that if I did make it I would never walk again.  And that I would be paralyzed from the waist down. 

   That really caused me to panic.  I prayed to God that if I wasn’t going to be able to walk again I would just soon die.  About that time my pastor came in and started laying hands on me and praying for me.  He told me not to accept any of my injuries and that I was healed.  He said just start confessing that I was healed. 

   Well here I was a new convert and he wanted me to confess that there was nothing wrong with me and that I was healed?   I looked at him then I looked at my arm bone sticking out of my field jacket.  I still could barely breathe because of the broken ribs and he wanted me to claim a healing?  I admitted to him that my faith just wasn’t that strong yet.  Little did I know then that not only was my right arm broke, my left arm cracked, had several broken ribs but my back was also broke. 

   After moving me from the stretcher to the X-ray table then back to the stretcher and then back out in the hall, I was in such pain that I felt like I would feel better if I did die.  Well they left me out in the hall for quite a while because they had no room for me. But the thought that crossed my mind was that they didn’t want to dirty up a bed since I was about to die anyway. 

   After what seemed like several hours they finally put me into a room, which meant they had to lift me from the stretcher to the bed.  More big time pain.  I thought I was tough but that kind of pain was something else.

   I was in the hospital for 7 days then they dismissed me.  I was still unable to walk without a lot of pain.  I felt like a red hot poker was sticking in my lower back and my ribs still hurt real bad just to breathe, let alone walk.  They gave me a pain shot to get me out of their hair and for the trip home.  It sure didn’t seem to ever kick in.

   I made it home and took forever to get out of the car and walk into the house.  They had a hospital bed set up for me with a monkey bar fastened to it.  I wasn’t allowed to lay flat for 6 weeks.  I had to sit up in bed at a 90 degree angle so that the hanging cast on my arm would pull the bone back in alignment. 

   After 6 weeks the bone was still not healed.