Day 6 - Amazing story of faith

Even though this blog is called "My Year of Faith," it's not all about me. Read this amazing story of faith as told by Deidra Ramirez....you will never forget this story.

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Deidra's Story

I am loving Amanda's blog already and was more than happy to share one of my experiences, specifically one that restored my faith in God and people in general.

I have so many things that I could share, but we'd end up with a novel. People always get chills when I explain how greatly God has impacted our lives over the past 3 1/2 years, but I wanted to share something I could make brief...sort of. Let me give you some background to start. A little over 3 years ago I was involved in a near fatal motor vehicle accident that in all honesty, I shouldn't have survived. Looking back, despite my injuries, the best way to explain my survival was that I was in God's Little Bubble and He got me exactly where I needed to be in order to survive. My vehicle flipped 374 yards (yes over 3.5 football fields in distance), across the eastbound freeway and crossed the median, and across the westbound traffic to put me in the path of the one gentleman who would do everything in his power to help me live.

When my car stopped flipping, I was surrounded by many look-i-loos, but not a single person moved to help the unconscious bleeding woman (me) escape a vehicle which was now on fire. Well, almost no one that is.

Headed home from the gym, a man, who turned out to be an off duty police officer, saw my left hand hanging out of the driver's side window and pulled over. He was married too and when he saw my ring, he immediately knew that he needed to do what he hoped someone would do if it were his wife instead. He grabbed a gentleman & after some difficulty in getting me dislodged, proceeded to get me free. 30 sec after he got me out, the entire car became engulfed in flames. Just 30 sec.

He tended to my massive injuries as best he could, applying pressure until the ambulance arrived, but shortly after they arrived, they lost me. With everything being burned to smitherines, any link to my identity was gone. I was a Jane Doe to my hero and the emergency personnel. After the ambulance arrived, my guardian angel left. He didn't leave a general statement so he too became a John Doe hero. My accident happened on a Friday. For 2 days, my hero was beside himself with the things he had seen and experienced. How after everything he had done, could I not have made it? It became a personal struggle. His wife suggested that maybe God could help, and he agreed. They decided to attend a church near their home, one they had never been to before.

As he sat through the service he didn't feel any better about everything. He wondered about the woman he had saved. Did she have children? How was her husband handling the news? He felt like he knew he hadn't risked his life in vain and prayed for some sign to show him that there was a reason he stopped that fateful day.

At the end of the service, he was feeling more frustrated than ever but then God answered! The pastor began a prayer list. On it, he asked everyone to pray for a woman who had suffered a rollover accident just days before on the highway. It was then that my hero's wife grabbed him and said, "I think it's her...the girl you saved!" The pastor went on to describe that I was alive, but fighting to stay that way in the trauma hospital.

After the service my hero approached the pastor full of excitement and curiosity. This wasn't my church, and it wasn't my hero's church either. Turns out the person who put me on the prayer list had never met me, but was a woman who worked for the same company as my husband , but at a different location and had heard the story. The pastor was able to track her down and put my hero in touch with her. He was finally able to learn my name. He gave his phone number to the woman who passed it on to my husband. My husband connected with him immediately, thanked him and shared what had happened since he saved me. He said that he was not supposed to be on that road that day. He said he was supposed to have a schedule change but due to a strange clerical error it was delayed. My husband explained that all the pieces fit...that it was SUPPOSED to happen. His scheduling error NEEDED to happen so he would be off. My car NEEDED to cross the freeway for him to help. He was SUPPOSED to be in that church on that particular day. His response (shared with me later) will forever stick with me. He may have been off duty from work, but no one should ever be off duty from being a good person and doing the right thing. In a random occurence of chance, God literally reunited me with my hero and restored my faith in the kindness of mankind.