This was awful

Today I witnessed the most awful situation in my whole entire life. And I'm not joking either. Joel and I live off of a small, two lane highway. Our house overlooks a sharp curve in the road. This afternoon Joel and I were in our house when we heard a sound like a car door slamming outside. We checked to see if someone had pulled up to our house. Nobody was there. Then we realized that the noise that we had just heard was a car accident that had just taken place on the curve of the highway near our house. From our house, we could see a truck stopped in the middle of the road. Something was wrong. So Joel and I quickly got into our car and drove out to the scene. As we pulled up, I noticed a single tennis shoe, for the left foot, on the edge of the south-bound lane. The green truck was stopped between the north and south-bound lanes. The the front of the driver's side was bashed in. The front driver's side tire was laying almost parallel to the ground. As I ran out of the car, I quickly prayed and asked the Lord for wisdom, strength, and clarity of thought to help me assist the people. (I know CPR, but tend to forget what to do in an emergency). I ran to the other side of the road (the north-bound side) and saw a black motorcycle laying on its side. It was still running, softly sputtering. And then I saw the man. He was laying on his right side. He was moaning. There was blood coming from his mouth. And then I looked at his legs....and realized he was missing part of his left leg. It was gone. His leg was no longer there below his thigh. His femur bone was exposed. I looked around for the bottom half of his leg, but it was....just gone. It was nowhere around. Joel ran back home for a minute to grab a couple of items (like towels) to use for first aid. But for some reason, his leg was not gushing blood like it should be. The driver of the truck paced back in forth and kept crying out in shock, "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I can't believe this happened." I kneeled down in front of the man laying on the ground, and began to talk to him. I asked him his name, his age, where he lived, etc. He answered my questions in between his anguished moans. He seemed aggravated at the fact that I was asking him questions about himself. I talked calmly to him, and told him that he was going to be ok. Then he began to cry out to God asking for help. I realized that I need to pray for this man. So I asked him if he would like me to pray for him. He said yes. So I began to pray out loud. When I finished, I was relieved to hear an ambulance nearby. I told him that the paramedics were almost here. I continued to talk calmly to him. The ambulance pulled up next to us, and the two paramedics jumped out. One of them swore to himself softly when he saw the man laying on the road. They quickly pulled out a board to load the injured man onto. At that point, I turned my back to the injured man and asked the driver of the truck what had happened. "We just clipped each other, " He answered in a state of shock. After the policeman dismissed me, I ran back to the other side of the road, where our car was parked. As I was crossing the road, I noticed long, stretched out splatter marks on the road, that lasted about 100 feet. It was the man's guts...blood, skin, and other carnage. It was then that I realized what had happened....the truck and the motorcycle were coming towards each other on the curve. They clipped each other. The motorcycle, along with the rider was dragged underneath the front of the truck, until they flew out, off to the side of the road. The reason I could not find the other half of the man's leg, was because it was ground down to his thigh before he finally flew out from underneath the truck...which was why there was little bleeding.

Please pray for both of these men. My heart goes out to both the driver of the truck, and the man who was riding the motorcycle. The driver of the truck was completely devastated over the situation. The man on the motorcycle lost his leg. If he survived the accident, he has a long road of both physical, and emotional recovery ahead of him. I do not even know if he survived...I think he did, but I have no idea what kind of internal injuries he had.

I've been asked if this was traumatizing for me to see something like this...and I'm not sure what to say...Yes, but in a lot of ways no. I feel like the Lord really helped me (as well as used me) in this situation. I feel like he gave me the strength I needed to do what little help and ministry that I did. I think I'm ok. To be honest, my thoughts are more focused on these two men involved in this situation.

We have a motorcycle. Joel and I ride it from time to time. We haven't ridden it in about 10 months. I am well aware of the fact that motorcycles can be extremely dangerous. I know that hospitals call motorcycles "donor-cycles", like as in the people that die from injuries from riding motorcycles become organ donors. I am well aware of the fact that they can be dangerous, and have been aware of that for years. I think about the dangers each time I climb on the the back of the bike, behind Joel. Each time we go for a ride, I ask God to protect us, and keep us safe. I know the dangers. I really do...but now the dangers are a little bit more cemented in my mind.