HORSE DRAWN VEHICLE COLLIDES WITH DUMP TRUCK

 It is no surprise to see that headline in the Goshen News.  This is Indiana Amish country.  I didn’t expect it to be about us, though.

 Let me bring you up to date on our Hope and Courage Journey Going Home.  After reaching the Statue of Liberty on Sept 12 we spent a few days in the city.  Jeanne, my sister and amazing support person for the summer, flew back home while Darla and I started driving to Washington with Grant and Chanel.  Our first stop was Lancaster County , PA.   We squeezed one day in our schedule to minister to the Amish there.  It was a busy day.  I spoke to four Amish schools and presented my testimony to a group of adults in a cleaned out shop building on a farm.  We would have stayed longer but I had a middle school with 1200 students expecting me in Austintown, OH. 

 From Ohio we headed to Fort Wayne, IN.   A church was having a Disability Awareness Sunday.  They asked me to speak there.  They have a great outreach to the disabled community (mostly developmentally challenged) called One Heart.  We were so honored to be a part of their day.  After the service we went to the hospital to visit one of the group.  He had very recently had his leg amputated below the knee due to a moped accident.  He had a wonderful attitude along with solid support from his family and One Heart.  I was able to assure him the pain would go away and his co-workers (he had a dishwasher job) did not think he was letting them down.  I also told him to make sure he orders his prosthetic foot the same size as his other one.  He’ll save a lot money on shoes that way. 

 From Fort Wayne we moved up to Shipshewana , Indiana .  We arrived on Monday and set camp for the coming week.  We had made friends in this Amish community when we pedaled through in July.  There were several Amish schools on our schedule as well as a Sunday service at Waterford Mennonite Church in Goshen.  Monday evening Darla and I took a short bike ride through the area before the sun set.  It is beautiful here and peaceful.  You can hear the clop-clop-clop of horse drawn buggies just about all the time.  Tuesday morning we went to the Amish school where Marilyn Miller taught.  We met Marilyn and her mother, Ruth, in July and became quick friends.  Marilyn is 15 years old and has a twin brother, Marlin.  After school we went to their home for supper and fellowship.  They invited us to go on a horse and buggy ride before dinner. 

 A pleasant afternoon, quiet country roads, an Amish buggy ride…what could go wrong?  We found our spots in the buggy.  It was actually an open cart with two bench seats.  I sat in the middle of the back bench.  The twins found it fascinating to see me climb to the floor of the cart and maneuver myself up onto the seat.  Chanel and Darla sat on each side of me.  Marlin, the driver, sat in the middle front with Grant and Marilyn on each side.  We had traveled a few miles and were heading back to the house.  We passed an Amish house and a little boy ran out on the porch to wave at us.  He was wearing a “Hope and Courage” button we had given him in the school earlier.  I was watching a dump truck coming toward us in the other lane.  No problem, we had been passed by cars and trucks going both directions during the entire ride.  As soon as the truck reached our cart the horse turned directly in front of it.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  I shouted, “Watch for the truck!!!”, but it was too late.  The truck hit the horse and the front of the cart.  The cart spun as the truck rolled past dragging the horse with it.  I fell to the floor of the cart while all the others were scattered to the road. 

 The cart and truck stopped and for an instant there was an eerie silence.  I made a quick assessment I had not broken anything and pushed the cart debris away and sat up.  Grant was coming toward me and I saw Darla up and moving toward Chanel, who was also getting up.  “I’m OK! Darla? Grant? You alright? How’s Chanel?”  They were all OK.  Then we looked for the Amish twins.  They were both down on the road and they didn’t look good.  I climbed over the side of the cart and lowered myself to the road.  I scooted over to Marlin while Darla went to Marilyn.  Darla was calling out to God as she moved.  Marlin was folded onto the road and at first glance looked as if he had broken an arm along with a lot of scrapes.  Marilyn was still at first, became conscious, shuddered with convulsions and went still again.  Darla was afraid she had died.  More prayers.  She regained consciousness and stayed awake.  Darla and Chanel sat next to her.  An Amish woman came out of the house with a cell phone and I heard her giving directions.  Good.  EMTs were alerted.  I looked up and saw the horse try to stand.  It was seriously wounded and we all became aware of how vulnerable we were if it panicked.  More prayers.  The horse fell back to the ground and never got up again.  Marlin half sat up and I asked him to move his arms.  He blankly obeyed and I could tell they were not broken.  Great.  I asked Grant to stay with Marlin and not let him stand up.  I scooted over to Marilyn to check her condition.  She was conscious but disoriented.  We kept her down and awake.  How long does it take for the EMTs? 

The driver got out of the truck and came around to see the scene.  He was a 21 year old Mennonite and he was shaken up.  He stood in the grass shaking.  Darla got up and went over to him.  She hugged him and told him it was not his fault and everything would be OK.  Another couple came around and offered help though there was nothing they could do.  They considered getting a gun for the horse.  It wouldn’t be necessary.  The horse would pass soon.  We asked the Amish woman to call Ruth, the twins’ mother.  We were close to their home.  Ruth came up the road on her bike just before the first EMT and Sheriff.  We directed them to the twins as they tried to figure out what happened.  The ambulance came shortly after.  A crowd of Amish started gathering behind the yellow tape.  Many were children from the school we had spoken to and their parents.  We saw “Hope and Courage” buttons on most of them.  The Amish community is amazingly geographically close.

 As the EMTs took over we were able to relax.  Chanel came and sat next to me on the ground.  “Daddy, I didn’t want to say anything until the twins were taken care of but my leg really hurts.”  I called an EMT over and had him check her thigh.  He said it would be good to have it checked out.  “Who else was in the crash?”  All of us, I said.  “All of you?”  We rechecked our wounds.  Darla had a pain in her knee and chest.  Grant had a laceration on his heel.  I had a pain in my shoulder blade.  We decided I would drive to the hospital for x-rays.  The ambulance took Ruth and the twins.  We told Ruth we would meet her there and see her through it.  We called the Stoltzfus’, Mennonite pastor friends, and asked them to meet us there. 

 Marilyn was released with some serious bruises and a lump on her head.  Marlin was kept overnight to watch a cracked sternum.  Chanel was bruised.  Grant did not require stitches.  Darla’s knee would swell and still is tender.  I bruised but am OK.  One EMT said it was a miracle. (We are not surprised.)  Typically when a buggy crashes with a big truck they sustain very serious injuries and need to be flown to distant hospitals.  Another EMT told me later when he got out of his truck and saw me sitting on the ground he thought, “This is really bad.  That guy has lost at least one limb.  I better call the helicopter.”  I asked him if he was ready to start looking alongside the road for my limbs.  He said, “Yes, I was!”  I assured him I arrived at the crash in this condition.

 In the six days following the crash we took Wednesday off to comfort our family, spoke in seven more Amish schools, one Mennonite school, preached at a Mennonite church, had supper in three Amish homes and made several visits to the Amish disabled.  It is amazing how we have been accepted.  We had Amish come to the Mennonite church to hear us.  One very elderly member of the church said she had never seen an Amish come through those doors.  Vic Stoltzfus, our friend that took us out to our first Amish acquaintance in July, said he has never seen an outside family so quickly trusted and accepted by the Amish.  I don’t know what all of this means.  I just know that Hope and Courage Across America did not end when we got off our bikes.

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