Deliver us from Evil

My friend Crystal and her husband Curtis live twenty minutes away from our acreage. I've gotten to know her over the past four years. She made a courageous video which our church showed during a church service, testifying of her salvation and healing from a tough story. She continues to love and serve Jesus and is an amazing gardener. My husband Bill and Curtis are friends. This is her story without edits of July 13, 2024. Thanks for giving me permission to share your words Crystal!

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the day my husband died.

And I know what you must be thinking ... "But your husband is alive. How can you say that he DIED?"

Well ... it's quite literally because of GOD.

Allow me to explain ...

Last year, Saskatchewan held a free fishing weekend. And I was missing fishing something FIERCE. Especially since my Dad passed ... I always went fishing with him.

And we had friends who were camping out at Thompson Lake that weekend, who invited us to come spend the day with them, with the promise that Dave would take us shore fishing.

So we loaded up our old fishing poles and tackle boxes, some food and drinks, and Curtis, Lily, Rhett, and myself hopped in the Bronco, and headed out to Thompson Lake, hoping to snag some bites on our hooks.

Lily stuck around the campsite with Tammy, because she had made a new friend, and swimming in the pool with friends sounded more exciting than standing around by the water hoping to catch a fish.

Curtis, Rhett, and I headed out with our friend Dave and his grandson to see if we couldn't find a sweet fishing hole, and snag a big one!

We tried a couple of different spots with no luck. Our only catch was weeds. So we had decided as a group that we would go try one more spot, then head back to the campsite.

Well, just before we left that last spot, as we were packing up, Curtis was bitten by what we later determined was a deer fly on the top of his right foot. And judging by the commotion he made, we knew that it hurt him.

But we packed up, and headed back. As we were driving back to camp, doing 100 km/hr down Highway 58, his face turned beet red, sweat started POURING off of him, and he was itching everywhere PROFUSELY.

Curtis has never been allergic to ANYTHING - he does get some nasty bumps when mosquitoes bite him, but it has never been anything more serious than that.

If I'm being totally honest ... in the moment, I thought he was being QUITE dramatic about a bug bite ... until his tongue started swelling up, and he began slurring his speech.

We were almost back to camp, so I texted Tammy to see if she had any allergy pills or Benadryl sticks in her camper, or if we would have to go somewhere to buy some.

But by the time she responded, Curtis said he felt he needed to just carry on to the hospital in Gravelbourg, which wasn't very far from camp.

I asked him to pull over so I could drive, but he said that he didn't want to waste the time switching over. He just wanted to get to the hospital. He said he felt uncomfortable, but okay enough to make it there ... until he WAS NOT OKAY.

He went completely unconscious ... while STILL driving 100 km/hr down an old Saskatchewan highway with an almost non-existent shoulder. With Rhett in the back seat, and me in the passenger seat. Talk about TERRIFYING!

I called his name, trying to wake him up, but he was unresponsive.

I reached over to grab his leg, hoping to get his foot on the brake to get the vehicle stopped ... but everytime it touched the brake, his foot went spaghetti noodle limp. Apparently, his right leg was still responsive ... because he kept putting it BACK on the gas, and his foot was NOT limp there.

As I held the wheel, trying to at least keep us on the road, I knew that I had to find a way to get that Bronco stopped - I tried turning the shifter dial (new vehicles. Ugh.) But that didn't work either.

By this point, Rhett was in FULL PANIC MODE. He had unbuckled his seat belt, and wrapped his little arms around his Daddy's shoulders over the seat, and was bawling and screaming, "Dad! Dad! PLEASE DON'T DIE! PLEASE DON'T DIE, DAD!!!"

(his poor little heart remembered that his Poppa died after losing consciousness while driving just the year before, and that's all he could think about. He truly believed he was losing his Daddy. And that WRECKED ME.)

Because of a sign God had given me earlier in the day (which I'll explain later) ... I just started to pray. I called out to God, and said, "Father ... I know that no matter what happens here, YOU ARE IN COMPLETE CONTROL! I know that no matter the outcome, You have a plan, and it is GOOD, and You will see us through even this. Come what may, I trust you completely. I put my husband and son's lives in Your mighty hands. Thank You that we don't have to do this alone."

And at that moment, the most INCREDIBLE sense of peace washed over me ... I can't explain it fully, but I became calm, and collected in the midst of SHEER PANIC.

I unbuckled myself, still holding onto the steering wheel, told Rhett to hang on tight, and I straddled the center console, and got MY foot on the brake.

The Bronco was FINALLY stopped! (Albeit in the middle of the highway.)

I threw the vehicle into park, turned on our hazard flashers, and immediately called 911 on the Bronco's phone - praying as it rang for God to keep us, and the other highway Travellers safe from harm.

As I was talking to the dispatcher, explaining what had happened, and where we were, my husband was still unconscious, and had lost control of his bodily functions.

Within ONE MINUTE of us stopping (which felt like an ETERNITY, trying to keep Rhett calm, and quiet so I could talk to dispatch) - a car stopped, and out came a woman asking how she could help - she was a REGISTERED NURSE!!! (Thank You, Jesus!)

She told me that she would tend to Curtis, and deal with dispatch while we waited on an ambulance. And she told me just to focus on comforting my son.

I reached out to my friend, Tammy to tell her there was an emergency, and without hesitation, she was on her way to meet us on the highway to pick up Rhett.

As we waited, I wrapped my boy up in my arms as he wept in fear. And right there, on the centerline of Highway 58 ... we prayed.

We thanked God for His love, and care for His children. We thanked Him for His protection over Curtis, and our family. We thanked Him for sending us a nurse to help Curtis. We asked Him to calm Rhett's heart, and to fill it with His peace, knowing that HE was in control.

And Rhett discovered the peace of God that day.

As we stood there praying, a few vehicles passed by, looking at us as some kind of sideshow attraction - I remember Rhett asking me, "Why won't they stop, Mom!?!?!" I had no words. I didn't know what to say. I was wondering the same thing.

Then, a half-ton with a canoe on the rack (certainly headed for the lake) stopped, with a husband and his wife inside. They asked how they could help.

The wife didn't even wait for my response to their question, when she heard me say my husband has gone into anaphylactic shock. She rushed over to the Brinco to check on Curtis ... who was doing the dreaded "death gurgle" that I heard my own Dad do seconds before he passed away.

I prayed some more, "Lord ... PLEASE don't let THIS be the end of my husband's story. How will I tell my kids their Dad is gone? How will we survive without him? I need You to show up for us, God. I can't do this on my own!"

Then my friend Tammy showed up, at JUST the right time to take Rhett back to camp, so I could focus on Curtis.

And at some point between hugging and kissing my son, and encouraging him by reminding him that God sent medical help ... He sent us His ANGELS ... to show us that He is WITH US, and that He is in control, and loading him up in Tammy's car ... Curtis regained consciousness, and the 2 ladies managed to help him as he moved into the passenger seat.

The lady from the half-ton jumped immediately into the driver's seat of the Bronco, and hollered at me to get in the back. She was going to drive us to the hospital, and her husband would follow us in his truck.

She continued to talk to the 911 dispatcher, and explain that we were en route to the hospital in Gravelbourg, when my husband looked over at her, and said, "Sorry you have to sit in my pee ..."

And that dear, precious woman looked back at him and said, laughing, "My husband and I are both paramedics. Trust me - I've sat in MUCH WORSE!"

OF COURSE, they were paramedics! Seriously. I couldn't make this stuff up if I TRIED!!!

At the hospital, Curtis began shaking violently. He couldn't stop.

I spoke to the RCMP officers who arrived at the hospital as the doctor and nurses had pushed me out of the room to help get Curt stabilized.

The nearest ambulance when I called 911 was in Moose Jaw.

When the paramedics arrived at the hospital - they said they drove 140 km/hr down the highway, still knowing they were too far away ... because the time window to help someone in anaphylactic shock is SHORT. They were surprised to see him awake, and talking.

Finally, the doctor came out of the room to talk to me (surrounded by the RCMP officers, and the paramedics), shaking his head in disbelief.

He said, "This just doesn't make ANY sense! Anaphylactic shock - it's DEADLY serious! We should have had to intubate him. He should still be unconscious! With this much time between the bite and initial reaction ... your husband should be dead, or at least in VERY critical condition. But not him! He came to ... ON HIS OWN? That's unheard of with anaphylaxis! He should have required serious medical intervention to come to, and it CERTAINLY wouldn't have been this quickly! The symptoms you said he experienced ... all of it ... it points to anaphylaxis ... but I'm having a hard time believing that's what it was, because of how quickly he came to without ANY medical intervention. Though, I dont know what else it COULD be!"

As the doctor stood there in complete disbelief, my husband getting up to go to the washroom to clean himself up and change his clothes ... I can still see the ear-to-ear smile on the face of one RCMP officer when I said, "Doc ... Curtis HAD intervention, alright! But it wasn't HUMAN intervention. It was DIVINE intervention! God gets the glory for THIS story!"

Who else but GOD could have had the first 2 vehicles to stop be filled with medical professionals when the ambulance was too far away to get there in time?

Who else but GOD could have given my son and I the peace we experienced in the midst of chaos out there on Highway 58?

Who else but GOD could have heard, and answered mine and Rhett's desperate prayers and woken my husband up without any medical intervention?

Only God!

Only God could have saved him. Only God could have sent me the sign He did that day that reminded me He was in it, and gave me peace in such a chaotic moment.

Only God could have sent us those ANGELS on Highway 58 that day, and within the first few minutes of the Bronco stopping.

ONLY GOD!!!

And looking back, I realize that without God ... this whole situation could have ended MUCH differently.

It was NO coincidence that the only 3 people in our family who have made the decision to follow Jesus were in that Bronco that day. The enemy TRIED to scare us to death ... and he MIGHT have succeeded - if it weren't for God reminding me that He was in control. That He HAD US.

And this sign that He gave me?

It sounds totally silly, and like something that only our family could understand ... but I'll try to explain it anyway ...

It goes back to Friday March 17th, 2023. The day my Mom called me to tell me that my Dad's heart had stopped beating ... twice.

They had him hooked up to machines in the ICU in Thunder Bay, until we could get there. And by some miracle, Dad's body was still living and breathing on its own ... even though his brain had been damaged due to lack of oxygen for too long.

My brother and I were called up ... but there had been a big snow storm that shut down the Trans Canada Highway between Dryden and Thunder Bay, so my brother couldn't even get there.

I remember falling to my knees in front of my couch after I got off the phone with my Mom. I was sobbing uncontrollably as I cried out to God for my Dad.

He had been sick for a very long time. Endured a 4 year long battle with cancer, only to go to war with Type 2 Diabetes. He had to have surgery and get regular injections in his eyes because of the damage the Diabetes inflicted on them. Then his kidneys had begun failing him. He had gone to Thunder Bay to get prepped for dialysis the morning it happened. He went outside to brush the snow off of his truck, and as he was driving out of the hotel parking lot (less than 2 minutes down the road from the hospital), his heart stopped, and he slumped over the steering wheel as he drove my Mom and himself across the expressway, into a snow-filled ditch. People stopped to help Mom out of the truck, and console her while they waited for the ambulance to arrive.

When the paramedics got there, they revived my Dad. His heart stopped again on the way to the hospital. They revived him once again. (And looking back, it kind of feels like this odd reminder that when God wills something to happen, no human effort can stop it.)

So ... back to my prayer. When I was done crying out to God ... I reached out to the prayer warriors I know. I asked them to pray for my Dad - because I knew that no matter the outcome for him - eternity awaited him. And I shared my greatest fear with these women ... that my Dad wasn't a church-going man ... and I honestly didn't know what his relationship with the Lord was. His salvation was my deepest desire. Because I know that this world, this life... it isnt the end. And I just couldn't imagine a heaven without my Daddy in it.

And my cousin from Dryden wrote back to me, and the gist of what she said to me (that gave me SO MUCH HOPE in that time of great uncertainty) was:

"Your Dad is still alive for a reason. He may not have gone to church, but I have no doubt that he is in sweet communion with the Lord RIGHT NOW. Think of the thief on the cross beside Jesus. It isnt too late for your Dad."

So, as the day wore on, we had gone into Moose Jaw to put gas in the Flex (the car we were driving at the time), and get some supplies so we could start the journey home to my Dad first thing the next morning (which ... by the way. The roads had cleared so much as we drove, you couldn't even tell there had been a storm that shut the highway down!)

And as we drove home from Moose Jaw ... that vision my cousin spoke to me came into my mind's eye. I saw my Dad, sitting at the feet of Jesus, and I heard the words, "By this, you will know they are my disciples. That they LOVE one another." Followed by, "You will know them by their FRUIT'. And y'all ... my Dad was a SERVANT-HEARTED MAN. If anybody in my life had ever loved me like Jesus ... it was my Dad!

And I INSTANTLY started thanking God for that beautiful, and precious vision, as the tears streamed down my face. I began worshipping and praising Him out loud as I drove with my kids in the back seat ... because I was in ABSOLUTE AWE of what our God could do.

And then ... all of a sudden ... a pure white Ford Flex pulled out beside me to pass me (because I was more concerned with praising God in that moment than I was about getting home quickly. )

It caught my eye, and a whisper filled my soul ... "Look at the license plate."

So I did.

And you know what that license plate said?

It said, "ALIVE"!!!!

My sign from God that told me He heard my prayers, and the prayers of the faithful prayer warriors who prayed for him with me. God DIDN'T forget my Daddy.

It showed me that we can NEVER know a person's relationship with God, or who God chooses to save, or WHEN He chooses to save them.

And since that day, we've seen plenty of white Ford Flexes - and we ALWAYS check the license plate now ... but we had never seen that "ALIVE" license plate again ... EXCEPT for the day my husband was resurrected from death by God on Highway 58!

When we had finished paying our entrance fee on July 13, 2024 ... as we pulled into the park at Thompson Lake .. on the very first corner, in the very first lot, parked so that we could clearly see the license plate ... sat a pure white Ford Flex with a license plate that read, "ALIVE".

I was SO excited to see it again! Only ... I didn't understand in that moment WHY I was seeing it ... until my husband passed out behind the wheel later that day, and that car flashed before my mind's eye - and reminded me that God was with us. That He loves us, and that He would take care of us. That if I kept my eyes on Jesus, instead of what was going on around us - we would all be okay.

We walk by FAITH. Not by sight holds a WHOLE new meaning for our family now.

I have seen miracles in my life, because of our faithful God. And by His grace, I will see more.

Our God is such an awesome God!

"Show me ONE THING He can't do.

Show me a mountain He can't move.

He's the God of the breakthrough, and ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

Show me ONE THING that's too hard.

Show me waters He can't part.

He's the God of the breakthrough, and ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!"

And look ... I KNOW that people might look at the miracle God did for my husband, and say, "Well, why didn't He do one for your Dad?"

And I get it. My husband lived ... but my Dad still died.

And I understand the confusion, when people think that this life, this world is all there is.

But ... even though my Dad's body passed away ... the truth of God's promises STILL STAND.

While us humans may tend to think that a miracle for my Dad would have meant keeping him here (even as he suffered, and struggled with his health) ... which, to my believing heart is really such a selfish way to look at it.

God spared my husband's life because He still had work for Curtis to do here.

God STILL performed a miracle for my Papa Bear. It was just different. His miracle for my Dad was MERCY. It was peace and rest for a long-suffering heart.

Where the world sees death, we believers see REDEMPTION, RESTORATION, peace, joy, and perfect relationship with the God in heaven who created us, because He LOVES US.

Where a lot of people think they saw my Dad's life END that day ... I say, my Dad had only just BEGUN the life he was created to live that day!

He's in a place so beautiful, no human mind can comprehend it. He's in a fully healed and restored immortal body that will never hurt him again. He's in a place where sin no longer exists, and no tears will ever fall from his eyes again. The heavy burdens of this life are over for him. Now he knows only peace, and joy, and the GREATEST LOVE OF ALL!

And by God's grace, we will see him again. And next time - it will be FOREVER.

I say, "GLORY, HALLELUJAH!" to that!

But for now ... we're still here, and there is much work to be done. And we are grateful for it ALL.

Glory to God!