Saturday, April 26, 2008

My Miracle

As many of you may know I went through the adventure of a lifetime last night. I will go on to explain in as much detail as I can remember exactly what happened.


Last night, April 25, I went to a Starfield concert with 3 of my friends, Cassie D., Jenna Matson, and Stephanie Pink for my birthday. When we arrived there we were at the end of the line with around 500 people in front of us. We weren't too happy that we were so far back so I came up with the idea that we should go searching through the line for someone, anyone, that either of us knew. I found an acquaintance of mine who is pretty nice and let us in line with him. There were around 50 people in front of him. When we got into the church my 3 friends and I got a 3rd row seat on the very left hand side (when looking at the stage). We were so excited for the night to begin!

Bethany Dillon came on stage first and sang around 3 songs (one of which touched me - Beautiful). After she did her thing Shane & Shane came on to do theirs. They also were very good when they sang their 3 or 4 songs. When they were done we had a speaker come up on stage, David Nasser. I thought I was paying attention to what he was saying but right now I can't really recall it so I might have been to excited to process it! I do remember, however, that at the end of his talk we all were given a World Vision child to pray over. Then he gave us the option of sponsoring that child. The four of us had decided that we would sponsor two together. We were then given a 10 minute break to go do what ever we needed to do while Starfield set up. My friends and I went to the World Vision table that was set up to hand in the kids we weren’t going to sponsor and hand in the form of the ones we were. We stood in line for around 5 minutes when we decided that we were never going to make it too the table because everyone kept butting in front of us. So we went back to our seats and figured that we would do that at the end of the night.

The crowd had started forming in front of the stage so we made the decision to go join them. Stephanie is in utter love with Starfield so naturally she wanted to get closer to the stage. At every chance we got, we inched forward. We had settled on being in the middle of the crowd, closer to the front than the back. Then Starfield came on stage. The first song they sang was Hosanna (I will post the lyrics at the end). One of my favorite songs on their new CD (I Will Go). Then they started to sing the next song. From The Corners Of The Earth. They sang the first verse. Then they started to sing the chorus. And we all started to jump. And the ground started to bounce. That's when my mind shut off. I knew that we were about to fall through. I could feel it inside and out.

The Holy Spirit just totally over took me and I started to pray. I don't know exactly what I all prayed, I know I prayed for protection, for peace. That's when we started to fall. I don't remember what happened, only that we fell. I remember the feeling; like I was being let down gracefully. Like I was falling through time. It was the longest moment of my life and I don't think that will ever change. When we landed and I finally realized what happened I started saying not only to myself but everyone around me to just stay calm. Kept repeating that over and over again. I couldn't feel that anything was broken. All I could hear was the screaming of the people around me and the water that was pouring down on top of us. I started to look for Cassie, who was right beside me but lying the other way. She had the most horrified look on her face I can't even describe it. I heard her say "My leg! My leg!" When I looked down at her leg all I could see was her knee, the rest was hidden by 3 guys that had landed on top of her. I helped pull her out and over to a matt that was lying a few feet from the rubbage. Then I saw Jenna sitting right by Cassie with a look of disbelief on her face yelling "Where's Stephanie?!" Seeming to be the only one who wasn't injured I made sure people were with my 2 friends when I went to go look for Stephanie. There were a few people still stuck in the pouring water and rubbage. I saw a few people pulling out an unconscious girl with long brown hair. Stephanie has long brown hair. I couldn't see the face of this girl and There were many people looking after her that I thought I'd be of better use with Jenna and Cassie. Some people had taken it upon themselves to carry Cassie out of the way so I put myself in charge of Jenna. I got someone to help me get her up the stairs where we sat her down on a bench inside the lobby. Within 30 seconds we had people, many with first aid and one doctor that lived somewhere near by, come up to us and ask what hurt and if we were okay. I stayed with Jenna who was mumbling about her leg hurting and where was Stephanie? I felt my pockets for my cell phone and when I found it I called Stephanie hoping that she had it on her and didn't leave it in her bag. She didn't answer. That's when I really started to get worried. I focused my attention back on Jenna and answered some questions. My phone started to ring and I saw that it was Stephanie. "Stephanie!??!!" I asked her if she was okay, where she was. She said she was outside. I told her where I was and waited for her to come find us. She called me again and said that she had found Cassie and I told her to stay with her. When I was sitting there with Jenna I looked over and saw my cousin Chris standing by a doorway. I got up to talk to him, just to inform him of what happened and went back to Jenna. A firefighter finally came to us and started to help her. That's when I was guided outside because having me and others that weren't injured inside made it difficult to deal with those who were.

When I went outside I had no idea what I was going to do because as far as I knew Cassie was still at the bottom of the stairs. Thanks to God, she had been transported outside and was just feet from the door that I exited. Stephanie saw me and immediately ran up to me and gave me a hug. We went over to Cassie, who was hooked up to an oxygen tank and covered in blankets. Her face had calmed down since I saw her last and that made me feel calmer. I started talking to Stephanie about what I don't remember. We called Cassie's dad and informed him of what was going on. Then I called my mom and had apparently started with the worst sentence a child could ever say to their mother; "Mom, don't panic." I went on from there to explain what happened and the whole time she wasn't saying anything. When I finished she spoke and hearing her voice somehow took away all my fear. She called Stephanie's parents for her as Stephanie knew that if she would have heard it from her they would have been more scared. Cassie was soon put onto a stretcher and we were told that she was going to be taken to Langley Memorial Hospital. Relieved that she was going to a hospital close to home Stephanie and I turned our attention to finding Jenna.

We stood at one door for a while, waiting to see if she was still in there. Then we were told to leave that door free so we went 5 feet down to the next door and stood there waiting. Stephanie had meanwhile gotten a call from her parents who were on their way to come get us. They were pulling people out on stretchers and I made sure to look at every one of them. I didn't see any of their faces but I did see things that told me they weren't Jenna. A neck brace, blood etc. Then I saw a stretcher being put into an ambulance. All I could see of the person was their feet. Those were Jenna's feet. How I knew that I'm not quite sure. We ran over to her just in time to hear them say she was going to Chiliwack Hospital. Then I heard her soft voice say "Phone my Dad!"

Stranded Stephanie and I decided to go to my cousins Julene and Chris' house which was literally just behind the church. Being the amazing people that they are they let us interrupt their evening. We waited there for Stephanie's mom and dad to come. Thank you Julene and Chris for making us warm! Stephanie's parents soon showed up and together with my cousins we watched the 11 o'clock news. Sure enough the event was on it. After that we figured we should go to the Langley hospital to see how Cassie was doing. We got to the hospital around 11:45 and found 3 more of our friends waiting there to see Cassie (most had called me, I told them where she was). We weren't aloud to visit her until she had a room. At the moment she was just on a bed in the hall way. Her boyfriend and parents came out to the waiting room and said that "She's just through that door." So we all broke the rules and went through the door and down the hallway to where she was. From the look on her face I could tell that she had completely calmed down. She had gotten some X-rays but the doctor hadn't talked to her yet. My mom was wanting me home and Stephanie's parents also wanted to leave. So they brought me home.

Sleeping was rather difficult as I woke up almost every hour not really knowing what was going on. I woke up at this morning at 8:30 with a what I think is a bruised muscle in my right shoulder. Other than that and a bruise on my other arm and the expected aches I'm totally fine. God protected me and my 3 friends last night. I have never in my life felt closer to Him. I only have a bruised shoulder, Stephanie has a bruise on her leg and a scratch on her hand, Jenna has a torn or stretched muscle in her right thigh, and Cassie may have a fracture in her left leg. That fact right there is my miracle from God. I cannot describe how I feel right at this very moment. Just that I am eternally grateful, and I will forever more declare Him as King.



"Hosanna" Starfield

I see the king of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes
The whole earth shakes

I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing
The people sing

[Chorus]
Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest x2

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees
We're on our knees

[Chorus]

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to Eternity

[Chorus] x2

Hosanna in the highest!



"From the Corners of the Earth" Starfield
(what we heard of it)

From the Corners of the Earth
From every nation, God is calling out His own
A saved generation, that will not be overthrown
And we’re not backing down, no way
We’re finally seeing it clearly
One body, one church one savior,
One call to praise

Chorus: Hey, from the corners of the earth
We will sing of your great worth
And around the world proclaim
Our God Reigns!