March 3, 2006

Miracle on Interstate 44

By April Rhodes

On September 17, 2004, my parents and three daughters left east Texas for a weekend vacation in Iowa. A little after midnight, Dad was driving on Interstate 44 near Joplin, Mo. While thinking about reaching the motel just 9 miles ahead, he saw the headlights of an 18-wheeler in his rearview mirror. The truck was not slowing down.

Dad sped up, hoping to get out of the truck’s way. A few seconds later, all he could see in his mirror was the grill of the semi. “Hold on,” he said, not wanting to alarm the family, “I can’t lose this guy.”

The truck hit the rear of their Dodge Durango going between 85-90 mph. “Jesus, save us!” Mom called out.

The Durango rolled onto its passenger side and into the ditch. Dad’s Bible, which had been on the dashboard, hit him in the chest. He felt as if God was saying, “I’ve got you!” With one hand holding the wheel and the other embracing the Bible against his chest, Dad prayed as the Durango began flipping end over end.

When the vehicle came to a stop, Dad looked at Mom to make sure she was okay. Dreading what he might see when he turned around, he looked slowly in the back to see if the girls were okay. There in the middle seat were the girls wide-eyed, wondering what had happened. No one screamed during the accident. They were all calm.

Dad attempted to get out of the Durango, but the doors were jammed. He started kicking his door, when through the bloodstained window he saw a man standing there. The man helped pry the door open to let everyone out. Everything in the Durango was thrown out and scattered over 150 yards, except for the five passengers, Dad’s Bible, and my mom’s purse.

Jordan, my 13-year-old, asked Mom, “Did you put my shoulder strap on me?” Her grandmother hadn’t. Jordan had been asleep without the strap on. During all that flipping it was somehow put on her, and she had the cut to prove it. We know that God had His angels with them as well as His hand.

The family was taken by ambulance to St. John’s Medical Center in Joplin. The doctor told my parents usually in a wreck like this, involving a semi, the emergency team members are frantically working to save someone or telling the next of kin they had done everything possible. My parents and three daughters were released within 24 hours with minor injuries.

While in the emergency room Dad shared how his Bible hit him in the chest, and how God was with the family through this horrific ordeal.

When he got home, Dad opened his Bible to the pages stained with his bloody handprint during the accident. Apparently, it was where the Bible had opened when it hit him in the chest. The first verses on the pages were 1 Corinthians 15:54-58.

“So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

April Rhodes attends Trinity Assembly of God in Kilgore, Texas (Roger Hoffpowier, pastor).