Christmas 2004 and we were on our way to Manitoba, from our home in Alberta, to celebrate the season with my parents and family. Our four children, aged four to thirteen years old, were all buckled in and ready for the long sixteen hour or so drive to our destination. We did this trip every Christmas and stayed with my parents for about a week. They were expecting us, had prepared for our arrival and were excited to see us all.

Six months earlier we had made a massive move, from one country to another. We lived in North Carolina, USA for seven years when, suddenly, God directed us back to Canada, but to a province we as a family had not lived in before – Alberta. While living in North Carolina, we still did the trip to see family in Manitoba, Canada every Christmas – through snow, ice and various weather conditions. That voyage took us a whopping 36 hours one way with all the stops for bathroom breaks, meals and etcetera. We would drive 24 hours straight, stop for a night and finish the remainder the following day.

As we started our Christmas trip from Alberta to Manitoba, with one province separating the two, Saskatchewan, we thought the journey would be easy and light, compared to what we had done from North Carolina, especially with fewer hours on the road.

We started our voyage in the evening, after my husband had finished work, and planned to drive straight through the night. We loaded our SUV, filled up the back storage area with gifts, luggage and placed a few suitcases in our rooftop carrier. Luggage for six people took up a lot of room and we needed the extra storage up on top. The children were prepared for the journey, with books, movies, a portable TV, video games and various activities to keep them occupied. Since we’d always traveled at Christmas time, the children were used to being on the road for hours at a time. They actually looked forward to the drive. We had taken along pillows and blankets for them to be able to sleep and get as comfortable as possible as we drove through the night.

Since my husband had worked a full day and was tired, I took the first shift driving. Thankfully, the roads were clear with virtually no snow or ice at all. I drove to Medicine Hat and we filled up the tank there. I was feeling tired and so I bought myself a coffee to sip on, hoping the caffeine fix would keep me awake. I was also listening to a Christian teaching series on tapes, with my ear buds inserted so that the rest of the family could sleep. The teaching series kept my mind attentive and somewhat alert.

About forty-five minutes later, with everyone else in the vehicle asleep, we passed into the province of Saskatchewan. Shortly, we hit the rolling hills of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. The number one highway wound around curves with occasional slight inclines and declines. I remember being thankful that the roads were black and appeared clear and free of ice. Because of this I was using speed control to keep my pace steady.

As I weaved around one curve, I suddenly felt the vehicle’s wheels shift, as though spinning on ice. I lightly applied the break to stop the speed control from maintaining my momentum. This only caused the vehicle to react more aggressively, swaying to one side. Up ahead, I could see a vehicle in the ditch to the right. It had clearly hit the ditch and rolled, landing on its roof.  There was another vehicle, a pickup truck, parked on the shoulder close to the mishap.

I desperately tried to readjust our SUV’s trajectory. Every time I turned the steering wheel to redirect, the vehicle responded in rebellion, weaving and sliding in whatever direction it decided to go. I realized I was losing control as the vehicle began to swivel on the black ice, turned around and gradually faced the opposite direction, still sliding and moving along at a tremendous speed. The truck parked on the shoulder was closing in quickly and I realized we were about to slam into it.

Just before impact, I yelled, “Lord!” and then we hit.

The collision caused our airbags to deploy immediately and forced our vehicle back across the highway and into the opposite ditch, where it finally came to rest. I was shocked and shaken as I gathered my wits, turned around and checked on my children. I saw Jeremy, Matthew and Felisha, my oldest three, but Ashley’s car seat was empty. My baby, my four-year-old, was not in her seat!

I yelled, “Where is Ashley? Is she back there? Do you see her?”

The kids looked around but did not find their youngest sibling. I was terrified in that moment as I tried to open my door. It did not open, it was jammed shut. Since it was the driver’s side which had collided with the stationary pickup truck, all the glass on the driver’s side of our vehicle had shattered and also the back glass of the SUV was gone. Ashley’s car seat was located on that side.

In that moment I perceived that I had lost my eye glasses. I did a quick search around the front to see if they fell to the floor, but with no luck.

When my husband, Jerrie, realized that our baby was missing, he opened his door and, as he did, I climbed through my window. As soon as I was outside, I could hear Ashley crying. I had no idea where to look for her and I was walking blind. Without my glasses I couldn’t see clearly at all.

Jerrie hurried ahead and walked across the highway, found her lying in the ditch on the opposite side, picked her up and carried her back to our vehicle. I met him halfway, near the highway and saw that rivulets of blood were trailing down Ashley’s face.

I said, “Jerrie! Why did you pick her up? What if her neck is broken or damaged? You should have left her.”

“I couldn’t leave her in the snow,” he said, as he brought her to our vehicle and laid her down on the middle seat.

Ashley was shivering and bloody but alive. We covered her with blankets to warm her up. Thankfully the wind was blowing from the opposite direction of the open windows so we were somewhat spared from the bitter cold breeze.

We tried calling 911 but there was no service in the area. I then began to pray and declare the word of God over her – words of healing and long life, scriptures that declared blessing over my offspring. I desperately hoped she would be okay, with no internal injuries. She must have been thrown from the vehicle when we collided with that parked truck. How could that happen when she was buckled in? I felt so confused.

Someone who stopped because of the accident came around to ask how we were doing. We told him that our four-year-old daughter had been thrown from the vehicle and she needed medical attention.

He said, “Oh wow! We are also trying to get a hold of emergency personal, but we are struggling to get a connection. We will keep trying until we get through.” He then said, “I stopped with my pickup truck to help the couple whose vehicle lost control and rolled into the ditch. The highway is a sheet of ice. My buddy and I had just helped the couple out of their vehicle and were walking them towards the truck when you hit it. The impact pushed the truck towards us. It hit the lady and knocked her down. She’s under the truck right now and in a lot of pain. We need an ambulance.”

I felt horrible but I had not lost control on purpose – it was an accident. Although I was concerned for this lady, my focus remained on my injured little girl.

When the man left, Jerrie followed him to see the state of things. I kept praying. Our two boys went with Jerrie to pick up all the luggage and personal items that had exited our vehicle and rooftop carrier on impact. Our things were scattered in the snow on the opposite side of the highway. They carried our items back until all our strewn belongings were gathered by our vehicle.

Finally someone was able to get through to 911 and help finally came, about an hour after the initial accident. They placed a brace around Ashley’s head and carefully transferred her to a gurney and then onto an ambulance. I can’t remember if our whole family was given a ride to the Maple Creek Hospital in the ambulance. I definitely remember that I was there along with my two daughters. One of the paramedics gave each of my girls a teddy bear. Perhaps Jerrie and our boys were given a ride in a police cruiser. The Hospital was about fifteen to twenty minutes away. The ride felt so very long and drawn out but at least we were en route to some medical help.

One of the paramedics had placed an oxygen mask on Ashley and was holding it. He needed to go get something, perhaps the teddy bears, and asked me to hold it for her. He let go of the mask for a moment as he passed between Ashley and I. Then I noticed my four-year-old reach out and grab hold of the mask to keep it on her face. That was a huge sign to me that she completely comprehended the situation and was very much aware of her surroundings. That gave me great hope.

When we arrived at the Maple Creek Hospital, they first did a thorough exam and x-rays on Ashley to check for any broken bones. As the results came in, shockingly, she had no broken bones and no internal injuries. We were so relieved. Then the rest of us underwent physical examinations to make sure nothing was broken or injured. Jerrie’s knee had slammed up against the dashboard and it was pretty sore but nothing was broken. The other children seemed fine with no injuries.

The first while, Ashley would walk around at the hospital with her head slightly tilted back, as though her neck were compromised and sore. That adjusted quickly and soon her neck was back to normal. I felt so horrible about the accident and the fact that we could have easily lost our little girl.

One of the police officers came to the hospital to ask questions and write up an accident report. He told us that when someone is thrown from a vehicle it is usually when a vehicle rolls over. When this happens, a person is thrown from the rolling vehicle and the vehicle then lands on top of them, crushing them. He said this scenario happens in ninety-nine per cent of situations where someone is thrown from a vehicle. That information was quite a shock and reminded me what a miracle we had received.

We stayed at the hospital for the night. At first light, Jerrie began to make calls to rent a vehicle to get us back home. Since it was very close to Christmas and places were shutting down early, it was very difficult to find a place with a vehicle to rent. There was nothing available in Maple Creek. He finally found a big enough car in Medicine Hat for us as a family and he secured a ride with someone to go pick up the rental vehicle. He arrived back at Maple Creek later that day. We piled in and drove back to Alberta to our home near Calgary.

I was thankful to be back home and yet, our children still wanted to go to Manitoba. They were so disappointed that our Christmas plans had been waylaid. Jerrie and I decided that what we all needed was a good night’s sleep first before any plans were made.

I gave Ashley a bath before putting her to bed, washing the rest of the dried blood from her face and head. After her bath, I combed her hair and suddenly felt something sharp on her scalp. Checking more closely, I realized that there was a shard of glass sticking out from her scalp. I carefully removed it and discarded it. There was a significant cut where the glass had punctured her skin. When we hit that parked truck, our windows broke and Ashley went sailing through, must have been the moment that the glass piece punctured her scalp. That it didn’t cause more damage or go in deeper was an absolute miracle.

The next morning all our children, at least the oldest three, begged to go to Manitoba for our usual Christmas family vacation. My husband and I decided to go for it, loaded our things into Jerrie’s four-by-four truck with double seats and started out again. My parents and family were so relieved that we were all okay and that we were still going to come. On our way, we stopped in Maple Creek at some sort of holding area where the police had placed all of our belongings – luggage, etcetera – and continued on to Manitoba.

As I’ve processed this accident and the miracle of my daughter’s supernatural protection, I am so grateful for being spared sorrow upon sorrow that Christmas. She could have so easily been snatched away from us. My son, Matthew, later said that after our vehicle collided with the truck and was spinning toward the ditch, he noticed our SUV surrounded by white light. I am convinced that angels were encamped all around us to protect us. Thankfully no other vehicle hit us as we were propelled across the highway. I believe that an angel guided Ashley to land in the ditch and shielded her from hitting that truck on the side of the road, being hit by our luggage exiting the vehicle, damaged by shattering glass or any of the other items launched into the air and flying around during that accident.

Most importantly, I believe our vehicle was guided to hit that truck, which propelled us in the opposite direction, otherwise, if we had gone into the ditch our SUV would have rolled, Ashley could have been thrown out and our vehicle would have landed on top of her. When I yelled “Lord” it released heaven’s help on that wintry highway. I’m so thankful I didn’t say any kind of curse word in that instant but I called on the name that is above every other name – the only one with the power to save.

Ashley is twenty-three now and she still has a scar on her scalp, a reminder that God divinely protected her that cold and icy night. I will be forever grateful!

 

Colleen Reimer

 

*****

 

Once we get to Heaven and God shows us a reel of our life, we will discover how many times we were rescued, protected or redirected by supernatural means. What a divine privilege it is that, during our time on earth, God gives us snapshots into the supernatural realm, unusual happenings that announce that Heaven is present and involved in our lives.

 

For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways.

Psalm 91:11

 

If you would like to share a personal story of supernatural protection or angelic activity in your history, please reach out. Private message me on Facebook messenger or through my email – collreim@gmail.com – and I will explain the details. I would love to share your testimony on my email newsletter story edition and on my blog as an encouragement to others. As it says in Hebrews 3:13 – Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’.