My 29th Birthday & the day God saved me!

Well, I think most of you know what happened to me yesterday, but if you don't....feel free to get a cup of tea or coffee, as this note is going to be quite long. First things first...I have to say, "How Great Is MY God!"

Yesterday (October 8th) was my 29th birthday, I have to admit I have been denial of the whole thing..I just want to go back to being 25 again...but after what happened yesterday, I know that age does not matter and I will gladly tell you, I am 29 years old!

So, back to the story....yesterday morning I was heading out to Port Elizabeth with Natasha (she is also a YWAMer and she was driving) we also took Fernando with us. He is also a YWAMer - he is charge of maintenance on the base. Fernando is from Mozambique and Natasha is from Port Elizabeth. Natasha and I have become really great friends in the last couple of months, she is just so sweet! The three of us were heading out as Natasha had to pick up a few things for the school and also, we were picking up a student from the airport at 12:15pm. I had wanted to go to the christian bookstore and pick up a book for my birthday! Fernando came with us because he had to pick up some tools.

The three of us headed out in the kombi (which is kind of like a van) - there are only seat belts in the front, so Natasha and I had ours on, Fernando was just lying in the back seat reading his Bible. While we drove, Natasha and I just talked. I was enjoying the weather because it was raining and there was quite a bit of thunder and lightning and if you know me....I love rain storms! About half way to PE (it's like an hour drive) Natasha and I noticed that we had lost our cell phone coverage. Which was really weird, cause normally you get service the whole way. The rain had started coming down really hard at this time.

At one point we didn't have cell service, Natasha said to me, "just wait til we get pass this bridge, we should have it by then." Then all of the sudden she slipped on a lot of water and I remember as she did, she yelled out "we are going to flip the kombi!" I remember thinking "really? No not really" but then, like it happened in slow motion, (I know cause I can still see it) she hit the water and we spun out, but as we spun out we flipped over and the kombi rolled twice!! It landed upside down! I could see that the front window and the windows on Natasha's side were broken open and water just started pooring in. (what I didn't realize at the time was that we had landed in a creek of water, so the water was very deep) It was coming in so fast and I tired so hard to keep my head about water. I could hear Natasha screaming and all of the sudden my head was under water, there was no way I could lift it up....I thought I was dying right there! All of the sudden, Natasha lifted my head up! She is a bit taller then me and so she was able to keep her head up. Once she lifted my head, I tried so hard to keep it up...I banged on my side window and it wouldn't open at all, then I tried to undo my seat belt. I tried and tried, it just didn't budge. I yelled to Natasha that my seat belt was stuck and I didn't know what to do, she said hers too was stuck...then she started yelling to the people outside (by this time there was a kombi of people that had stopped to help) She yelled to them that we needed a knife to cut our seat belts - finally some one gave her a knife and she managed to cut herself free. While she was doing this all I could think about was Bob and my family back home - I started crying and saying "I'm going to die, I'm going to die" Natasha looked at me and said "Kristy - NO you are not going to die" Then she couldn't get my seat belt undone then a guy (one of the guys that had stopped to help us) he came in through Natasha's window and he took the knife from her and cut my seat belt! I fell right into my arms and he dragged me out by the front window!

After this all I could do was cry, cry, cry and more cry! God spared my life!!! As we were standing outside, they even managed to find my purse floating down the river and so they grabbed it. My whole body was cold and all I could do was cry. As we had no cell coverage, the people that stopped told us we could go with them to PE and then we could call Tasha's Mom from there and she would pick us up. When Tasha's Mom picked us up, she just let me cry in her arms and as she held me she said "it's ok baby, you're alive, it's ok baby" and then she prayed for me. It was like I could feel my parents close to me at that time. Once we got back to their house, the three of us showered and then they let me call my parents...It was so good to hear their voices...I really thought when I was upside down in the kombi that I would never hear them again! Mum and Dad just cried and prayed with me....I am so blessed.

Natasha's Mom is a nurse, so she looked at all three of us, she saw that Fernando had some cuts on his arms and legs and that I was still in shock. So, we headed off to the doctor. I was telling everyone that Natasha was my angel...I couldn't have made it without her. After the doctor looked at me, he just said all I had was shock and so he gave me some medication just to calm down and informed me how very lucky I was. He didn't need to tell me that...I know that God spared my life! I know His hand was watching out for me. I am forever thankful! Fernando did have to get 6 stitches in his leg. But that was all.

Once we got back to Natasha's house, some of the guys from the base arrived. (including Bob) They had gone to the kombi and gotten a tow truck to bring it back to the base. They all said they couldn't believe we had all three escaped with just minor injuries! It's all God's goodness! I was able to call my parents again with Bob at my side and then I was so tired, I went and slept for about an hour.

So, yesterday I didn't not just celebrate my 29th birthday - I celebrated life! God gave me life once again...I am forever thankful! God is so good - all the time!