May 16, 2008, Praises Along the Way- Bumped by the Canadians!

"It's my friend's birthday and she's done so much for me, I want to give her a gift," Danni said to me. So, after the nurse left we loaded up in the van with what we needed and away we went. "I want to give her food," Danni's beautiful heart had replied. Now, we all know that food is a very valuable thing to a college student!

We had a good time eating at IHOP and after we were down the road a bit, we came on some road construction. Two lanes down to one. Slowly we moved along following the long line of cars ahead of us, we approached an intersection and the car ahead of me stopped sudden because the next light had turned red.

I barely got the van stopped and thought that we were in the clear when all the sudden WHAM! A little red car bumped us from behind. Immediately, I called 911. I knew better than to get out into heavy traffic. "911, what's your emergency?" a voice said to me. "I've just been in an accident and I'm not sure what road I am on," was my reply. By this time there was a huge line of cars behind me and I was shaking like a leaf. "What do I do?" I asked my mom. A man came to Danni's window and said, "Is anyone hurt?" I said we weren't and I asked him what the name of the road was. As I relayed the information, the voice on the other end of the phone asked if there were any shopping malls around. "Mike's Car Wash, Grease Monkey, ahhh, I'm not sure," I said "Is there a Market Fresh, is there a Market Fresh?" She had to ask me about three times before my brain could function. "Yes," was the answer I gave her finally as I began to pull into Mike's.

That was the end of the phone call and I knew help was on the way. After I had checked to see if everyone was okay in our van, I got out to see about the other people. "I'm so sorry," she said in her lovely accent, "I was distracted by my baby screaming in the backseat." I told her it was okay and I asked if they were alright. She said they were and I noticed that they were from Canada. They said they were on their way home. I felt bad for them. Amazingly, the baby was now fast asleep, kids, who can figure them out?

Anyways, we went back to our own vehicles to wait for the police and then the man brought his other small child to see us, I guess he wanted to meet us. He had a very sweet smile and I said to him, "Hey buddy, that was a scary accident wasn't it?" He smiled some more and nodded his head, his dad said to him, "We will get to meet a real live American policeman."

After curiosities had been met the police finally arrived. With no one hurt and practically no damage whatsoever we were instructed to exchange names, phone numbers and insurance stuff. God was looking out for us, my shoulder ached a bit from the seat belt but other than that it was minor. The amazing thing was that Danni had forgotten to put her seat belt on, she could have flown headfirst into the windshield. This was such a testimony to me of how God protects us. Yes, sometimes he allows us to go through things and then other times he keeps us out of situations.

Thank you, Jesus, for keeping us safe today. What a set-back that would have been for her. Thank you that you are completely in control. Amen.