On July, 22, 1993, I left my parent's house in Fresno in the early morning and spent the day doing construction work on a roof in Reedley. The next day, July 23, at 6:15 AM, my path in life changed.
That day, a lady had forgotten something at home and was headed back to pick it up before going to work. She was turning left into her driveway off a rural road I usually took on my motorcycle to avoid traffic on the major streets. From the police report (I don't remember that day), I had attempted to pass her, and as her car turned left, I hit her front door post, flew up and over the car, and landed 30 feet down the street. In the collision, I broke both of the femurs in my legs on the handlebars, indented the gas tanks with my knees, hit and shattered my humerus in my right arm on the car windshield post, broke my left wrist, and somewhere along the way received a subdural hematoma from an impact to my head. My right femur break was an open compound fracture (click here if you want to know what that is - I won't gross you out with the details...).
The next days and weeks included 9 hours in surgery, a week in intensive care, additional weeks in the rehab section of the hospital, followed by a year in physical therapy - while experiencing significant pain throughout. Five additional surgeries were needed over two years to fix various issues with rods inserted in the bones, and lack of healing in the left femur and arm.
Within two days of the accident, the bleeding in my head disappeared, which I fully attribute to our great and compassionate God and the prayers of hundreds of His people around the world. For reasons that have unfolded over the past 17 years, the rest of the damage healed over the years that followed.
So why this post today? Because on that day, my life path changed. In July 1993, I was headed to Panama as a short term missionary with MBMSI, to work with a retreat center that was to be established in Panama City there. This accident changed those plans, and led to a job in affordable housing in Fresno a year later, followed by 15+ years in that industry.
Tomorrow, Monday, November 8, 2010, Melissa and I will meet with MBMSI leadership to discuss our assignment for the coming years. In a lot of ways, there are many similarities with the day that my path changed in 1993. We will no longer be residents of communities in North America. We will no longer reside in a place where English is the heart language of most of the people. We will no longer have the "typical" realities of a middle-class, American family. And this time, unlike last time, I have a family that will take part in this life-shift with me.
We welcome your prayers tomorrow and the rest of this week. Melissa and I have felt God leading us clearly in a certain direction, and we hope to share more about that very soon. Our prayer, though, is that God's will will be done in this decision, and that we will be open to His leading.
Take care. May you too hear from God this week in your important decisions in life.
Lowell
