Doug Van Pelt

I'm So Thankful to be Alive

About 13 hours ago I was involved in a car wreck. I was driving along Hwy 79 and all of a sudden there was a Suburban in front of me slowing down to a stop. I immediately knew there wouldn't be time to stop to avoid a collision. At the very last second I tried pulling into the side street, as did the car in front. I hit the passenger side of their vehicle and then sort of slid sideways off the embankment. 'I'm rolling now,' I thought as I held onto the steering wheel. 'I've just thrashed this car.' I'm thinking, sensing immediate regret. Glass was shattering all around and I wondered if I'd have to unbuckle my seatbelt while upside-down, and then the car settled back onto its wheels.

When I stopped, I started looking around for my cell phone to call my wife, as both of us were on our way to eat out. I tried opening my door and it only allowed me a few inches without force. People were there pretty quick, asking me if I was okay. I was picking up pieces of a torn Bible and keys and such. I told them I was okay and was looking for my cell phone, when one of them said, "Is this yours?" It had flown from its cradle on my AC vent to outside the vehicle. They opened the door and I got out.

The people in the Suburban I collided with were all fine, and everyone seemed worried about me, because it was some horrific crash, and they all saw this Volkswagon Beetle fly into the air and flip over. People saw blood on my face and leg, which must've been cut from flying glass. I'm glad none got in my eye. I searched for my sunglasses in vain, which must've flown out somewhere. The family in the Suburban were turning into the street that led to Hutto's Baptist Church. They had some kids in the car that were shaken up by the ordeal. We all mentioned that we were so glad and grateful that no one was hurt. The witnesses were amazed that I wasn't hurt, as were the police and rescue people that saw my car. The windshield was blown out, the roof was crumpled a bit (but held up well) and the driver's side window was gone. I was checked out and turned down a ride in the ambulance. We really avoided a disaster somehow. God's angels must've been watching over us. The kids went into the church to see a play that they were going to, and the husband told his wife that he heard that they were waiting for them before they started the play. I bet they were praying for us, because it happened right before 6:30 and a lot of them probably saw the wreck.

There were a couple of peculiar things about this accident. First of all, my family was going to meet up at the local Mexican restaurant, which I arrived at first and found out that they'd changed their hours and were closed for Sunday evening. When going over our options, I had a funny feeling about driving into Round Rock to get to another restaurant. One of the last times I made a spontaneous trip over to the La Frontera shopping center, where the proposed Mexican restaurant was, I got in an accident where I was hit in the rear as I was on my way to Kinko's to pick up copies of Heaven's Metal fanzine. For some reason I thought of that and was kind of leary of going over there on a whim. I didn't want to be ruled by such a fatalistic thought, so I agreed. It felt fatalistic as soon as it happened, because it was like, 'I knew something like this was going to happen.'

The second unusual thing was that I had received a call from my friend, Steve Rowe, who asked me to keep praying for him, as he was still struggling with some health issues that go back to when cancer almost took his life some 7 or 8 years ago. I felt like praying the prayer about "having restored the years the locust had taken away," but I wanted to quote it from Scripture and my memory of the Scripture was a little fuzzy. So I brought one of my old favorite Bibles with me (that's in a case, but inside is separated in a few places on the spine). I found the verse by looking in the concordance. It was Joel 2:25:

"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten --
the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm..."

I was praying this out loud for my friend,
that God would do this for him,
when 'UH-OH! Car ahead. Collision is imminent!'

The timing of that's just kind of odd...

I'm a little bruised above my left hip (probably from glass, the side air bag, or the seat belt -- or all three), but pretty much walked away with just a couple scratches. I have to slow down a little bit. I was planning another all-nighter at the office to finish this next issue of HM; but I took it a little easy last night, as I had already finished laying out most every article already. I was able to knock out the article CCM wanted me to write for its next cover story on hard music, so I should be okay to have everything finished soon.

I will have the hassle of getting a new car, which is a real drag. I wish I could go back in time and fix this, but I can't. Regret doesn't really help any, but gratitude does. Now I'm even more familiar with the word that actor Stephen Baldwin brought up in his interview for the next issue's "Intermission" story -- "kairos," which is a description of an act in time that changes everything. I can relate to that now.

Praise God that the people in the Suburban and I are okay.