A WALKING MIRACLE!
Suffering from acute depression after an horrendous accident, Mick was desperate for help. But where could it be found?
THE POWERFUL bike roared into the darkness, driven by an angry man. Mick Quartermain had been waiting earlier in the pub for a friend who hadn't turned up. He was not in a good mood. But he's convinced now that it wasn't drink or stress that caused the horrific accident that followed but dark forces at work, determined that he was going to die that night.
"For forty years the devil had no trouble with me. Through a fascination for martial arts and occult biker groups I'd been moving step by step, along His pathway to Hell. But then, in 1996 - three years before the accident - I'd given my heart to God and been baptised after meeting a Christian on community service. I wouldn't describe myself as a wonderful example of a Christian but I was very genuine and I'd started to testify about my deliverance from evil. Now, I was definitely not on the Devil's Christmas card list!"
Mile after mile the bike raced along. Mick says now that he felt taken over in a kind of trance. He moved to overtake a lorry. To his horror he saw another lorry coming the other way, felt the impact as his right leg and part of his pelvis was torn from his body and watched himself hurtling to certain death under the lorry's wheels. Then, a miracle happened - he found himself lying on the left hand grass verge. The lorry driver he'd overtaken gave a statement afterwards that he'd watched something flying in an arc across his windscreen. He told police the only thing he could think of, in his shock, was that he'd just seen Superman. The police measured the distance that Mick's body had 'flown' and found it was 285 feet.
"To this day, it can't be explained," says Mick. "The only thing that makes sense is that angels carried me."
Months of painful surgery followed, starting when a surgeon forcibly brought Mick round from unconsciousness to sign a paper authorizing him to cut off what remained of his mangled right leg, which was fractured in 15 different places.
"If I don't amputate, you'll die," he said, tersely.
Four fractures in his pelvis were treated with bolts. Mick felt like a piece of Meccano. Gradually he got used to an artificial limb. He coped well physically, nursed by his ex-wife, who had taken him in. But emotionally, he felt wrecked. In spite of heavy antidepressants and pain killers, his quality of life was tiny. When it was time to leave and get his own place, black depression set in. He'd humbled himself to ask for the meals-on-wheels service only to be refused. How much more vulnerable could you get than that!?
"I sat looking up at the metal door-closer and wondered if it would bear my weight to hang myself. Then I started to think about my three years as a Christian and my friends at the community house where I'd been baptised. When my Christian friend had first invited me there I'd found it strange. I was scared of the worship - all the arms waving about and the speaking in tongues - but I had such a respect for the love and unity. There was Mike with his Oxford degree and Steve, a scientist - yet there were no class distinctions anywhere. I'd opened my heart to God. But I went into the baptism waters in 1996 still determined to 'do it my way'. I'd made a definite commitment to being a Christian but floated in and out of fellowship meals and meetings when it suited me. Now here I was, a crushed man.
"On impulse, I rang the community house. To my amazement they invited me to come and stay. After the phone call I wept uncontrollably. The world was so cruel but here was something amazingly different. I felt I'd got nothing to offer them - but they wanted me. If they hadn't taken me in, I couldn't have faced living in this world any longer. From that day on, as far as I'm concerned, this life that I've got, belongs to Jesus." Mick lived in community for six months until a flat that was specially adapted for his disability became available in the local town.
"I feel as if I've been watched over by God all my life. But I've been watched by the devil, too. At times, it's seemed like a game of chess. I was drawn to the devil's world because it has power, the ability to get what you want and what looks, at first, like brotherhood loyalty. You don't see the pay off and the violence until it's too late. Then you realise the devil has no friends and only has two plans for men - to recruit them or to destroy them.
"I was in a hopeless situation, but God has rescued me and I'm desperate now to see others freed from their pain and hopelessness. My eyes have been opened to see how Jesus and His kingdom can help people and I just want to help others to find it."
This article has been extracted from Jesus Life magazine, published by Jesus Fellowship
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Jesus Changed My Life
