After an uplifting afternoon of chapel ministry at a local nursing home, I returned home only to learn that my stepson and a friend had hung our dune buggy below our pasture in a wooded area. I went into the house and got my helmet and headed down into the woods to see if I could free it and drive back to the house. I had discovered that the boys had somehow managed to hang the dune buggy over a fallen tree, and I had my work cut out for me to free it on my own. After 20 minutes or so, I was finally able to jerk it free and begin driving back through the woods and across the pasture toward the house. I noticed a loud knocking and banging sound from the front end and realized that the steering had somehow been damaged.

 

I leaned out to watch the tie rods to see if I might determine what and how extensive the damage was when suddenly I began to tip. Instinctively I reached out with my left hand in an effort to prevent a rollover. The moment my hand touched the ground, my arm was swept behind and above my head and was crushed beneath the roll cage. I lay there pinned under the vehicle in incredible pain, wondering how I was going to free myself and get help. I couldn’t see my arm or feel it at first and actually thought that I had torn it from my body.

 

When I regained my composure, I was able to release my harness and drop to the ground under the vehicle. I squared my shoulders to the ground and used my legs to lift the weight of the vehicle from my arm and with the other reach up and pull the arm down to my side. It was twisted and torn badly and I realized that I was in bad need of assistance. The pain was such that I fought to maintain consciousness so that I could call for help. I don’t really know how much time had elapsed but I was eventually able to reach my mobile phone and call for help.

 

The bone between the shoulder and elbow was completely crushed and the radial nerve nearly severed. I required a seven-hour surgical procedure to piece my arm back together. The pieces of bone were pieced together like a puzzle and screwed onto steel plates and then screwed onto the remaining bone in the arm.

 

As a result of the injuries, my left arm was paralyzed from the elbow down, leaving me with no use of my hand, and I was told that additional surgery would be required in 12-to-18 months in an attempt to restore partial use of my hand. It was explained to me that each of our fingers has one ligament or tendon that opened the hand and two to grip. The plan was to cut one of the two from under the hand and attach them to each digit on top of the hand. After six-to-eight months of recovery and therapy, my brain may learn that these attachments would learn to open instead of grip, and I would regain partial use of my wrist and hand at best. There were no guarantees but this was my only option. At this point, I had to keep a stress ball in my hand to prevent it from locking shut.

 

This was unacceptable to me! I told my doctor that I respected his position and experience as a surgeon but my God promised to do so much more for me than he could. He indicated that he respected my stand but was obligated to give me what his experience as an orthopedic surgeon had taught him and that he did not expect a positive outcome.

 

At Monday night prayer meeting, I desperately sought the Lord for peace and exhortation because fear began to overtake me. It was then I received Matthew 12:13 as witness in my spirit. Matthew 12:13, Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other. My faith had begun to wane so I reached out to my friend and mentor, Brother Dale Sides. We had prayed over the phone on the road in my car and immediately, I felt strength in my arm and tingling in the nerve. This fed my faith in a way that excited me in my spirit and caused me to cleave even tighter to the Matthew record. I am proud to say that my God has had the final say and my arm and hand have been completely restored!

 

On Wednesday, my arm and hand began to hurt like it did the day it was injured. It went on like this for the next three days. On Friday I left my bed for the pain and sat on the sofa in the dark until I eventually fell off to sleep around 4:00 a.m. I was awoken on Saturday morning when my daughter came out to watch television. I caught movement from the corner of my eye and realized that during the night my hand had been restored. It was rather comical because my daughter saw it moving in my sleep but was afraid to wake me. She was anxiously awaiting me to wake up so she could tell me that she had seen it move. God is good! God is still in the healing business! Yes, folks, He is still on the throne of glory, looking after His faithful who will dare to take Him at His word! I am thankful for Bible-believing men of God like Dale who will, with authority, command broken bodies to submit to the word and will of their Creator.

 

As for my doctor, he is stunned! The news sat him down, literally! Praise God for the witness it brought into this doctor's life and the lives of my church family! We have all witnessed a true miracle and demonstration of Father's love and power!