Alive!

It was a day just like any other day, really..except it was better—to start with anyway.. I was excited to finally be going to the North again as it had been several months..we weren’t late—in fact we were on time, as the next set of girls would graduate from their tailoring course that week. On the one hand I felt on top of my game...On the other hand this was the first project to the North that I would conduct without Richard who just moved on to PH. That left a little apprehension as to how the project would go, but nothing that I felt too nervous about, as we’d prayed discussed & planned (all that good stuff).

Things went as planned at the Zaria center, with a slight adjustment. When we discovered that the 20 sewing machines that we had ordered from Kano for 2 centers (Zaria & Katsina) hadn’t all arrived, we decided to push back the Zaria ceremony that was originally meant to take place that day, till 10 days later, since the rest of the sewing machines were technically on their way to Zaria anyway.. This way, we’d take the 10 that were already there with us to Katsina (far North of Nigeria near the Nigeria/Niger border) as it would be a long time till we went that far North again (that’ll prove true), whereas Zaria is only 3 hours from our house…

After assessing the current needs of the old & new VVF wards in the Zaria hospital, we happily went on our way..

It must been about 11:30 when I awoke (first mistake—shouldn’t have been sleeping) to the sounds of tires screeching & the feeling of swerving…I had no idea what had just happened, but it was clear that something had caused Art to lose control of the truck..

I sat up & gripped the handle bar on my right side…Something was pulling us to the left & off the road..the tires scraping made it evident that the brakes were fully engaged.. One swerve & we were now on the complete right lane of the road…but instead of steadying, we now swerved till the back of the truck was facing where we should have been..we carried on swerving till we tipped off the side of the road--as the lane suddenly ended & there was a crooked, 2-foot drop--then flip, flip, & flip again.

Going through my mind at the time were a million thoughts in those 2 seconds, among which were whether I would come out of this alive, if I did which parts of me would be broken & if I didn’t, how how my family would take it, etc. etc. But out of all those 1 of these thoughts was actually processed & came out as a prayer; I shouted out : "LORD! I CALL ON THE POWER OF THE KEYS." We landed between 8-10 meters from the road & a good 45-50 from where we originally started swerving.. (it was later evidenced that when we hit a certain pothole, the left-front tire went, which is when said driver hit brakes hard & the swerving began...)

We stopped rolling (duh!) & I then realized that I was still sitting there, as was Art..we were alive! Not only that, we were ok! I got out of the car, to assess the damage & it was clear that the car had been pretty much totalled, as the roof had folded & torn, the back of the open cabin was in pieces with lights/fixtures shattered, as well as the actual cabin bent severely & the back door partially off...the actual frame of the car was severely "altered" as well & the two back passenger doors were bent/dented harshly...but funny enough the engine was intact..but it was only after assessing these damages that I stopped, looked down at my hands, then felt the back of my head (for blood), turned my neck side to side..felt my legs, wiggled my toes inside my shoes..I was completely ok! Art too! Not one injury on either of us...only an infinitesimal scratch on my right index finger & the smallest of bruises on my left pinkie..Amazing! I would say phenomenal, except for the fact that I know miracles happen every day.

But now I also know that I am one of them! I'm a walking/talking miracle & unless the above repeats any time soon & I don't survive it, I'll be saying that phrase for a long time...

I know that I'm alive today because of the prayers of my family, friends & loved ones..I owe u all the biggest of thanks! Prayer Power works.

I'll close this post w/ e-mails frm 2 of my sisters who brought key concepts that made me think more than just random thoughts about dieing as I flipped off the road in our ex-Nissan Frontier..

Are you back in Abuja yet? Write me, tell me stories..ILY. And am soooooooooooooooooooooo thankful you're alive..even tho Heaven would have been cool too..Ha. But that just shows you have a marvelous destiny to fulfill..mwahaha...looking forward to hearing the exciting stories of what it is. You can't survive something like that w/o a cool reason. TYJ. Wow. Amazing about dad's dream too, huh? It's weird how families are connected like that, no? What a miracle. Ok, WRITE ME!!!! Bye...wow, thank God I didn't have to say that for real. Ok, I love you. You know that right? But of course you do. I love you some more, brother of mine.--Lisa.

Hi everyone, Most of you may have already heard, but Brian was in a car accident about 2 days ago. The vehicle he (and the driver) were in, hit a pothole and flipped twice! Thankfully Brian and the driver came out without even any scratches! Thank God! that was a real miracle and I know that Brian is very thankful, as we all are!I just wanted to remind everyone to keep Brian in your prayers, and all of us! We need to keep eachother in our thoughts and prayers at all times, because you never know what each of us might be going through or needing at that moment.Brian, we love you and we're so glad you're okay!XXXTake care and be safe, ok. Lot's of love to all of you, Phebe