It was a cold February night. A blue car exciting the highway lost control on a patch of black ice and sliding across all four lanes hit the guard rail hard and flipped. Tumbling down into a ravine it landed upside down smashing the back window and immediately flooding the car with ice cold water, the lone woman inside left to drown, no longer visible from the road, no longer visible to anyone, no one but God.
It was February 13th, Botswana, Africa. The sun was warm and my team and I were sitting around the table drinking coffee and talking about our experiences with our first day of evangelism. Totally oblivious to the nightmare that had already begun over 14, 000 km away in London, Ontario, that was about to crash in on me like a tidal wave.
“What do you know?” he asked me when I finally got a hold of the family friend I was told to call if I couldn’t reach my parents. “Nothing.” I replied, my heart beating faster every minute. “Ashlyn’s been in a car accident; I’m sorry Alyssa, they don’t think that she’s going to make it.” I don’t remember much more of what was said, only that I handed the phone to Andrew, unable to listen anymore. Then I was on my knees, the only utterance able to escape past my lips was “Oh God, oh God, oh God,” over and over again. A cry of disbelief, a prayer for mercy.
Within minutes we were surrounded by our team, God’s army of prayer warrior, laying their hands on us, and praying with ferocity. They prayed all day and all night, taking turns while I continued to beg my God for mercy.
We started our journey home the next day. It took us a total of 70 hours to travel from our host family to our blood family. We were unable to get the full story until we arrived at the hospital; here it is:
Ashlyn, who is my older sister, was visiting our two younger brothers in Waterloo while our parents were away for a few months serving in a refugee camp in Uganda. She was on her way back to her own home in London when the accident happened.
God in his infinite mercy made sure someone saw her car disappear over the edge of the large ditch. That person stayed on the side of the road to make sure that the police would be able to find her. There were a lot of accidents that night so the police arrived rather quickly – God made sure there were no other accidents after hers that night so that the full attention of the police was able to be on rescuing her. The police were unable to rescue her from the car on their own, even an axe to the bottom of the vehicle could not make a way out for her. With the arrival of the tow truck they were finally able to rescue her from the vehicle.
The paramedics told the police not to bother with an escort to the hospital, she had been without a heartbeat for 22 minutes or more, she was gone.
God breathed life back into her!
They were able to resuscitate her on their way to the hospital. Once there the doctors did everything they could but they came to the point where they were telling my brothers and her husband, Brayden, that there was no point in continuing her life support, too much damage had been done.
God had other plans.
The spirit of the Lord moved in my brother as he stood there praying, listening to the doctors, he spoke out, “No! We need to wait for our parents to get here.” They got there 2 days later and by that time they had been able to stabilize Ashlyn, keeping her in an induced coma.
God had saved her from death…again!
A Recent Update
We arrived 2 days after my parents. We have seen God perform miracles every single day in her body. The doctors have gone from believing there was no hope for her, to predicting a full recovery. She is moving all her limbs and gaining strength in her fine motor skills. She is working hard to gain strength in her lungs so that she can be off the breathing tubes. Though she still has the tracheotomy, I was able to hear her voice for the first time today! My prayers for complete restoration and for new mercies every morning are being heard and answered.
Our Decision to Stay
A week ago we had to make a choice; whether to stay here and support Ashlyn and our family or leave them behind and head back to South Africa to continue the World Race. Ashlyn is still in Critical Care and we felt that if God had brought us back to Canada and raised Ashlyn back to life, we ought to be here to support her in her recovery. We are so grateful to everyone who supported us on our journey through the World Race and for everyone who continues to pray for us now. Any money raised that goes beyond what we used on our journey will now go towards N Squads debriefs, lodging and flights.
Prayer and Other Requests
– Our plans have drastically changed and we have some big choices to make about where to live and what to do, pray that God will guide us and we will have ears to hear what he has in store for us
– Continue to pray a full recovery over Ashlyn, that she will gain strength, that the fluid around her lungs will clear up and that there will be no long term damage to her brain
– We no longer have a vehicle as it was our car that Ashlyn was using while we were away. If anyone feels called to give us a financial gift either to help us purchase a car, or for food and support so that we can stay here in London with Ashlyn a little longer without worrying about getting jobs right now please e-mail me: [email protected]
