It was September, 1966.

I was working as a heavy equipment operator for O.D. Cowart Construction of Albuquerque, New Mexico. We were building the intersection of Interstate 25 and Interstate 10 just north of El Paso, Texas.

Things were going great until I was in a very serious accident on my rig. They rushed me to the hospital in Las Cruces, numbed me, sewed, up my lower lip which was lacerated and hanging down, put me in an ambulance and rushed me to the hospital in El Paso, fully convinced that I would never reach El Paso alive.

When I arrived at the hospital, they X-rayed my head and informed me that six teeth, part of one cheek bone and my palette was torn away. My skull was fractured and gapped open a quarter of an inch down the center of my face. "It's bad, Emory," the doctor said, and had the nurses put my dirty, blood-soaked body to bed. They were probably assuming that the mortuary could clean me up when I got to the funeral home the next morning.

But when morning came I was still with them, so they gave me a bath and prepared me for surgery. I was in the hospital for only a week when Dr. Schaffer, my elderly oral surgeon, came to my room and said, "Young man, in all my years of practice I have never seen anyone heal as fast as you have. You can go home tomorrow." For many months I had to endure more surgeries, but continued to do well.

I hadn't been in touch with any of my family back east for six years because of some foolish problems. They needed desperately to find me to sign some very important papers, so they began to call construction companies in the area where I was, and just happened to call O.D.Cowart.

They said, "Yes, he works for us down in Las Cruces, but was in a bad accident yesterday, and is in the hospital, not expected to live."

Someone had my family looking for me at just the right time. My brother, Delmar, was attending the Cathedral of Tomorrow in Akron, Ohio. He called their prayer chain and hundreds of people began praying for me and more miracles began to happen.

I recalled just a few days before the accident I was singing a gospel song as I worked, when suddenly the most beautiful feeling washed over me and I spoke out loud and said, "Lord, if being a Christian feels like this, I could be a Christian," , but I brushed it aside.

Many times during my recuperation I rejected Him, until finally I visited a little church in Las Cruces, the Holy Spirit drew me to the altar and I surrendered.

Dear Readers, was God in it? Oh yes He was. And prayer DOES change things. So please don't delay. Surrender today. --Emory Somoskey

Written by Rebecca Somoskey