Doing God’s will for each of us every day of our lives.
| Miracle Account #1 (MA#1) |
Copyright © 2009 by
Miracle Club International Inc. |
My Daughter Was Fading Fast While Driving Herself to the Hospital.
Then God Stepped in…
In 1996, our daughter Julie Weisenberger was single and lived in north St. Petersburg, Florida. Her father, Jim, and I were living in Bradenton. This small city lies about 10 miles by road south of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge that crosses Tampa Bay into that much larger city. In the middle of the night then, our telephone rang and woke us up. We were afraid to answer the call, because a 2 A.M. phone call is usually not good news.
I finally answered the phone. Our daughter was crying loudly and sounded truly in distress. Julie was so upset that it took me a while to get her calmed down and to stop her crying, so I could understand what was going on. Finally, in between sobs, she said she was alone, trying to drive herself to Bay Front Hospital in St. Petersburg. Julie was in bad shape, suffering from some major sort of allergic reaction to something, but she did not know what.
Julie had had a lot of swelling and numbness while at her apartment. That had frightened her enough to get her to start driving to the hospital for immediate help. Right then, just before calling me, she had been feeling faint, afraid she would pass out while driving and crash her car. But if Julie did not keep driving, she felt she might die of the massive and worsening allergic reaction. She was desperate, caught “between a rock and a hard place.” So she called me, her mom, on her cell phone.
At this point, I needed Julie to tell me what street she was driving on and what part of that street. She told me. Because Jim and I used to live in St. Petersburg, I did know about where she was located at the time she was calling. I was even more frightened now, because I knew the area she was in was unsafe.
If I was right, I thought that on the very next corner there would be a Kash & Karry grocery store. Julie looked ahead and told me she saw the store. I told her to drive into the parking lot and pull right up to the front door. She did so. I told Julie to start banging on the front door, and she did that too. She said the store was dark and could see no one inside.
At this point, I was really praying earnestly: “God, we need your help, and please have the right people there to help do what is needed to save Julie.” I prayed that some night crew of the store would be re-stocking the shelves for business when the store opened in the morning. I prayed with full confidence that God would do this for us, as strong Christian believers who tried to live our faith in daily life.
Jim and I had gotten dressed hastily while I was talking to Julie on the phone. We were about to get in our car and drive to the hospital in St. Petersburg that Julie was heading for.
Right at that moment, two men came from the back of the store to the door, opening it to see what the problem was. They could see right away that Julie was in deep distress and failing physically, about to drop.
One of the men took her phone and spoke to me at my home in Bradenton. I quickly explained the situation and the need for their immediate help, because we were so far away but about to come to the hospital. One man took Julie’s car keys, locking and securing it. The other man put Julie in his car and drove her straight to the hospital.
By the time Julie was wheeled into the Emergency Room, the still-swelling tissues of her throat had begun to close and to choke her to death. The ER staff identified the problem and took immediate life-saving action. They made it possible for Julie to breathe, inserted intravenous tubes, and began giving her fluids and medications.
Slowly Julie began to respond to the just-in-time treatment at the hospital. About this time, Jim and I finally arrived by car at the hospital. If we had gone instead to try to help Julie where she was about to faint at the grocery store because there was no one there to help her, she would have been dead by the time we got there. Because of God’s help, His answer to a mother’s prayer in time of greatest need, our daughter was alive in the hospital not dead outside an empty grocery store.
No matter how old your kids are, they are very happy to see Mom and Dad when they are in big trouble. Julie was very grateful for the help she received from the two men, the hospital staff, her mom, and God. When Julie was healthy enough to be released from the hospital, we stopped at the grocery store to get her car on the way to her apartment.
We had no time then or afterwards to seek out the two men who saved Julie's life. I think they were angels---who can seem just like ordinary people (as noted in the Bible in Hebrews 13: 2). I don't think we will ever know for sure. But those two men, angels or humans, were surely God-sent to be where and when they were and to be willing and able to help save my daughter's life by getting her very quickly to the hospital when she was about to faint and close to death in the middle of nowhere.
In my short but heartfelt mother’s prayer that helped save Julie’s life, I simply asked God to please take care of our beloved daughter. AS I PRAYED, I HAD COMPLETE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND TRUST THAT GOD WOULD TAKE CARE OF JULIE. AND HE DID! This was no “random coincidence.” God’s hand was in this, I believe. God had those two men placed in that grocery store at just the right time when they were needed to save my daughter’s life.
God answered my prayer right away! He took control and made near death become a saved life. Julie is now 50 years old, single, and a work in progress. But she is alive and well. My own faith in God and Christ became even stronger, as did Jim’s. We now spend most of our time in retirement helping others through our church, joyful in our service.
Jo Weisenberger, Miracle Witness
Bradenton, FL