"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea". Habakkuk 2:14Global Day of Prayer ~ U.S.A. ~ is Hosting Stadium Events
The Global Day of Prayer (May 15, 2005) movement is hosting Stadium events in several large metropolitan city areas. As they come online, we will list them here.
Global Day of Prayer USA website: http://www.gdopusa.com .
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Wayne’s Miracle Story
My name is Wayne Gibson and I am 34 years old. I hope to show each one of you the reality of any student successfully reaching his or her personally set promised goals in school as well as in your lives!
Although most of us are young and I am speaking today in the ‘we’ context intentionally because I want all of you to feel that I am in the same boat as each of you. At least...I use to be! Does any one of us ever feel like you are the ‘chosen’ one that is especially picked-out to receive all of the negatives aspects of life?
We are all provided with the resources that are needed to keep us from getting frazzled, overwhelmed, and being simply full of despair.
When I was a student at Austin High School I most often had an enjoyable time, and I am sure that most of you feel the same way about your educations. I was into various sports, band, the clubs, the senior play, the senior trip, etc...
I think that all of the names that the Teachers ever called me were good names. However, at times I simply thought that I had more important things to do than to concentrate much of my time working on my education! It’s OK to admit, and I want to assure you right off of the bat that I have been down the exact same road that you are going down now when I was in your age!
Not that I mean to get back to speaking of myself again...well maybe I am? At various times before this accident happened to me in my life, It can be said that I at times viewed my personal standing as being just a little below other students. Does this strange feeling sound strange to any of you?
The bottom line is that every person living on ‘God’s Green Earth’ will have these negative feelings and times in their lives! It is just a simple fact of life and we all must always realize it.
Bad things are not ‘meant’ to happen to us, they are simply just ‘going’ to, because they are a fact of life for us all!
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I would like to now tell you a few key pointers of which we all need to learn in life:
WE ALL NEED TO LEARN TO PROMISE OURSELVES GOALS AND TO ALWAYS STRIVE FOR REACHING THOSE GOALS UNTIL THEY ARE REACHED. WE HAVE ALL BEEN IN THE POSITION THAT I AM SPEAKING OF, BUT WE ALL MUST LEARN TO TAKE LIFE TOTALLY IN STRIDE! WE NEED TO LEARN TO TEACH OURSELVES TO OVERLOOK LESS IMPORTANT HAPPENINGS, BECAUSE THEY WILL OFTEN KEEP US FROM REACHING OUR MOST IMPORTANT SELF-PROMISED GOALS IN LIFE!
If any one of us is saying, “How does he know something like that?!” Just let me assure you of this, “My ship has sailed down the same waters that yours is currently sailing down in my life, and probably much more than once!”
– Believe me, I know that what I am speaking to you about may make me sound like a ‘broken-record’ to some of you as well, but I can promise you that what I speak of relates to us all.
None of us should learn to be satisfied with only the ‘status-quo’ in our lives either. We can all do whatever it is that we set our goals to do in life!
I want to speak to you today of the accident that I was in on October 15, 1989, because I had just graduated from high school and I was in the same age bracket as those of you listening today.
On September the 8th I had purchased a totally remodeled 1970 Chevrolet Nova Super Sport from my uncle. Several individuals that had the opportunity to see my Nova in the that I owned it before it got it’s ‘wrinkles’ after what happened to it about 5 weeks later, said that it was one of the nicest cars of its type in southern Indiana.
Now, we all know that this type of comment would never make any ‘mature’ 18 year old hot-rod owner’s head and ego get any larger...Right?
I had a friend at the time who owned a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 that he and his dad had also recently restored. I can already tell by looking at your faces that you can see where this story is going!
2 eighteen year old males + 2 fast cars =
Nothing but Trouble!
At around 11:30pm on the night of October the 15th two of my friends were ‘cruising’ in the Chevy Camaro Z28 that I just told you about on Hwy 256 in Austin. They were traveling at about 90 miles per hour and just having a grand old time cheating the transportation laws! Well, guess who happened to be driving just behind them in a nice and shiny, freshly waxed, red 1970 Chevy Nova Super Sport? That’s right...ME! I was in my car with my speakers blaring “Dude looks like a lady” by we all know (ask the group) Aerosmith. Let me tell you now that after I was found, I didn’t look in any respect like a lady! I also had my windows rolled down so that the enjoyable music that I was listening to could be also shared with the public. I was sure that everyone would enjoy hearing at 11:30 PM at night while most of them were in bed!
I then started to think: There are not many cars traveling this late in the evening, it was a fact that I could see other cars by their headlights so I can easily get away with it...What does anyone think that I did? Exactly, I proceeded to pass my friends traveling at more than 100 mph...LARGE MISTAKE!!! Just as my car was directly beside of my two friends in his car and the 2 cars were side-by-side, something made a ‘snapping’ noise in the rear of my car. What snapped was the positive-traction rear axle in my car! If anyone does not know what this part of an automobile that I am speaking of is, the name ‘positive-traction’ means that instead of just 1 tire generating ‘pull’ like most cars have, it means that both tires on the rear axle actually did the pulling of the car.
Better traction meant more speed for my car!
Does anyone have any ideas of any positive things that someone going this fast in a car would have if they were traveling at such a high speed? EXACLTY...NONE!
-- I have since been told that rather than my Nova flipping in a horizontal fashion like cars commonly
do, it flipped virtically end-over-end six to eight times before stopping!
-- The impact of the wreck tossed the entire engine block totally out of the car while it was flipping end-over-end as well.
-- At that time in my life, I did not wear my seatbelt. I THOUGHT just as I am sure some of you think at times right now that wearing my seatbelt was only for the ‘wussy-crowd.’
--Let me tell you of a fact that I am now quite proud to share with you, I am now a proud 16 year member of the wussy-crowd!
--In fact, I now wear my seatbelt even when I am not traveling in a car since this has occurred!
Getting back to my story now, I did not have any sense of stability after my rear-axle broke since I wasn’t wearing my seat-belt, therefore I was just simply thrown out the passenger window when the car started to flip.
–I had done this same thing before, but that was when I was driving my Hot-Wheels cars and pretending!
My newly restored 1970 Nova Super Sport that I had recently purchased was no more. No longer was it considered to be one of the nicest cars in southern Indiana. It now just simply looked like a crunched up red poster-board!
After my two friends had located me in the field, I was not breathing and they assumed that I had ‘kicked’ the bucket so to speak, of which I assume is a total possibility! Within about 15 minutes an Ambulance picked me up to take me to the Scott Memorial Hospital in Scottsburg, IN. I was in a coma and the Stat-Flight helicopter picked me up and flew me to the University of Louisville Hospital in Kentucky. I remained in surgery from around midnight until about mid-morning there.
I spent the first month of my hospital stay in the University of Louisville Hospital. After I was there for one month and had all of my surgeries, I was then transferred to the Frazier Rehabilitation Center for the next two-and-one-half months. Although I was still in a coma, the transfer to Frazier Rehab was done for a very ‘good’ reason. Although they only had told my parents that I had only a 5% chance of living and that I would only be a vegetable if I did live, their reason for moving me to The Frazier Rehabilitation Center was so that if and when, Wayne does regain consciousness he will then begin to have certain forms of physical therapy.
Although I was not aware of anything nor was the right side of my body even aware of anything at all for that matter, I felt simply over-joyed to be ‘allowed’ to go to therapy at least twice a day and seemingly 8 days a week!
Yes, I was smiling each time the Physical Therapy Nurse and my mom would literally lift me out of the bed of my hospital room and take me to physical therapy, let me tell ya’!
I have tried to think of a situation or an awkward feeling to compare what I just explained to you with today and I honestly do not know of anything equivalent to this.
I will now tell you some of my main injuries from the accident:
*I was left in a total coma for 6 to 8 weeks
*My right ear was nearly entirely torn off, of which I have no scars
*A liver laceration had to be performed to repair a portion of my liver, of which I have about an 8” scar
*The right side of my body was paralyzed
*A tracheotomy had to be performed so that I could continue to breath and more or less allowed me to continue living
*My entire body was black-blue and very swollen
–It was thought that my right arm had been broken, but after doing several X-Rays the hospital found that it was not. I actually had no broken bones!
*Two brain surgeries were necessary because of the brain pressure that I previously told you about.
– My head was tapped as they call it, once on the left side and once on the right side to decrease the extra pressure that I had on my brain.
– This was one of my more attractive times for me, because my head was not only swelled, it was also shaved bald. Very handsome!
With all of the technological advancements of our time, I must wonder if any type of brain surgery exists that would help to lessen the pressures that marriage places on your mind? I seem to have been feeling extra forms of pressure since the date that my wife and I were married!
I have literally had to relearn just simply the basics of life. It was similar to a total rebirth at the age of 19! (I had a birthday in the hospital)
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I WILL NOW TELL YOU SOME ACTUAL TRUTHS ABOUT SOME OF THE ASPECTS I HAVE GONE THROUGH DURING AND AFTER THE ACCIDENT:
What would it be like for any of you to have to totally 100% make new friends in your lives? I have had the ‘benefit’ of having to do this.
Do any of you know how it feels to be physically capable to walk anywhere that you desired to go, then to suddenly have that ability of which we all take for granted to be totally taken away from you for about 8 months leaving you in a wheel-chair without having this ability any longer? My good fortune has enabled me to do this also. I didn’t know if I would ever even be able to walk again in life!
Have any of you ever had any type of injury that may have ‘held-you-up’ for a time, but after you have regained most of the abilities that you formerly had you actually see what it is like to be totally alone in life?(besides your family)
I have not only had to do all of these things during my recovery, but I can honestly tell each of you that you would not wish these types of injuries on your worst enemies!
Although the next statement is funny; has anyone actually ever had the sick desire to wear diapers again at the ‘non-diaper’ age of your life? Although you probably think that it is embarrassing for me to say, I have even been through a few Adult Huggies Diapers too!
Putting all jokes aside now, my reasoning for telling you such points as these is because I want you all to hopefully be able to just ‘grasp’ the all-in-all reality of the accident that any one of us could be in at any time in our lives.
Although the stated things that I have told you are both enjoyable for me to tell and hopefully funny sounding in some of the ways that I told them, there exist many more aspects of recovery that have also been necessary for me. We simply do not have enough time in this one day!
HOWEVER, I MUST THINK OF HOW I HAVE NOW LITERALLY GONE AGAINST ALL OF THE ODDS AND SHATTERED THE PROFESSIONAL NEUROSURGEON’S AND THE PROFESSIONAL DOCTOR’S RECOVERY EXPECTATIONS!!!
There is actually one statement that I will make in agreement with the Neurosurgeon’s vegetable statement though:
Do vegetable joke
However, I must ask myself this question: How is the story that I am sharing with you going to help you?
Closing remarks
On January 29, 1990, my parents came to pick me up at Frazier Rehabilitation Center to return to my home. When we were coming by Clarksville on Interstate 65 we stopped at the Green Tree Mall to purchase me some clothes.
--Yes, I thought then the same thing that you are thinking at this very moment!
It is a sad fact to realize that it would take something like a ‘death-defying’ car accident in your life to enable to have things to be purchased for you by your parents! Ha Ha
When my dad pushed me in the wheel-chair into the front door of the mall, I honestly felt as though all of the stares coming from all of the other people in the mall were just as though they were spears being thrown at me and every ‘look-spear’ was actually hitting me!
From that point in my life on, I actually felt the sense of anguish that I am sure most individuals in wheel-chairs feel at times in their lives.
I don’t care if the person in a wheel-chair has other disabilities or not: all of the stares, the disregard, the simply just being looked over most of the time does affect them!
When my parents took me to eat later that day, what I made this promise to them and I meant every word of it when told them, “When I begin to walk again, I will help the less fortunate individuals in life and this wheel-chair will be trashed!” I would like to ask that you notice my use of the word ‘when’ in making this promise to my parents too. My promise did not contain any form of the word ‘if’ in it at all. I did not tell them, “If I ever begin to walk again...”
I am telling you this because my focus was not ‘if’ I would ever walk again, it was simply ‘when’ I was going to begin walking again! I had set this goal in my life from that point on to my parents as well as myself.
Several months were necessary for me to be in a wheel-chair after I came home from the hospital. Sure, my recovery has literally taken me several years before I was able to regain all of my abilities again too.
But, I realized that I had promised a goal and I continually had the needed desire for reaching it!
My primary focus was when I would do these things.
When each of you listening to me today have a set goal to get well educated in your lives and have a true goal of a much better future, this thought process will take you far in your lives! On the dates that you earn yourselves good educations, the doors to your future will then be opened!
In closing I would like to proudly say that my promise to my parents has been fulfilled, that I have received a second chance at life, and that I have made a 180 degree turn for the better in my life, because I do help others most every day. How?
1. I help children get to school as a school-bus driver
2. I work for Special Services Unit help a young man with Cerebral Palsy to also get his education in life.
3. I assure those of you listening to me today that I will gladly help any one of you with getting your educations in any way that I can also.
I have been married to my wonderful wife Hilliary for 6.5 years and we have a wonderful 5 year old son and a young daughter that is nearly 5 months old.
Yes, I realize th
I will end with a quote that I recently made that relates to what I have just spoken to you about:
“Always striving to reach your promised goals will in turn bring you success!”
PLEASE ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS AND
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
I would love to come to your Church, School, or camp to share my miraculous story with them. This is merely a description of my accident, and that is the reason for it’s length. My actual speech is in a much shorter format and it can be arranged to fit any chosen time. Group size does not matter nor does it matter what their ages are, my story is quite a life-changing story that will help many individuals at your gatherings. I have received a total blessing of life again from our God and I greatly anticipate speaking to others about it, to literally show everyone that they to can have a positive road-map in their lives too! How individuals can feel the sense of achievement in their lives is the same as it was for me in my life. The need to learn to set and continually strive for reaching those promised goals is a requirement for an optimistic life.
Beginning to speak of Him is my prayer!!!
Wayne Gibson
4686 N. Brumett Lane
Austin, IN. 47102
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