By Sue Dean
We never know what a moment can bring. God, through Daughter’s of Zion has been a rock for the protection of my children. Although my husband and I have prayed for our children before the inception of DOZ, the focused prayer has been powerful and we have seen many miracles!
We were blessed with four sons and one daughter. Each of our sons has been in terrible accidents. Our second son, Billy, at the age of 17 was on his way home from work, approaching a five-way stop sign with a railroad track in the middle. There was a tall building on his right, which inhibited his view from any oncoming traffic in that direction, but the light was green and there was not sign or a light indicating a train was coming.
Suddenly, the lights of the train were upon him. He could do nothing. The train cut the Nissan Sentra in half. The back half and roof ended up across the street and around the corner. The front half with Billy in it, ended up on the center divider. It was severed from the passenger side front window to behind the driver’s side seat. He witnessed a miracle that moment. He was still in the driver’s seat. The only injuries were under his right ear where the rear-view mirror had wrapped around and hit him and there were also bruises and abrasions from his seat belt. They found his Bible in the middle of the street.
We thanked God for His protection upon our children.
Our oldest son, Eckard, was bending over on the side of the road with some officers cleaning a deer that he and his dad had accidentally hit with the car. A motorist in a pick-up truck was disoriented by the flashing lights of the officer’s cars and hit our son and two other officers. It just missed my husband, but he witnessed Eckard fly about twenty feet through the air. He ran to our son and began praying for him. He witnessed Eckard take his last breath and go limp in his arms and he cried out to the Lord with all his might.
He knew Eckard was not ready to meet the Lord. Eckard then gasped and began to breath again. The accident crushed the bones around his eye; broke his hip and he had bleeding on the brain.
Within a day, the fracture in his hip healed and the bleeding stopped. The doctors compared the x-rays and verified the miracle. One x-ray showed the hip broken; the other showed it was healed. That was ten years ago. God spared him and although he did not make his heart right with the Lord immediately, he has been making a start recently.
The Lord had been his protection and we again thanked Him for this!
Our third son, Aaron, works for the Arizona Railroad. He and the conductor were traveling in the engine when Aaron noticed the track in front of them swaying. There was no ground beneath it. He yelled for the conductor to brake. When you have fifty cars behind you, you don’t just stop when you put the brakes on. They slowed, but still went over the cliff. The cliff had been created by a flash flood that washed out the area. Fifty feet the engine fell.
Another miracle had taken place. The Lord stopped the cars behind them or they would have fallen on top of the engine one by one. Aaron helped the conductor who had hit his head and made sure he was okay, then hiked back up the hill and secured the cars. Thank God for DOZ and the focused, unified prayers.
This story is not in chronological order. I wanted lastly to relate the story of our youngest son, Dustin. The following story happened before the previous story.
We knew Dustin just wasn’t quite where he should be with the Lord. We had seen some signs of this during his senior year. But even with this, he was the most loveable boy. Everyone loved him and his humor. He turned eighteen in April and graduated in May with intentions of going to college locally. I remember him coming to me sometime after graduating and saying, “Mom, I’m not going to live very long”. I was shocked and said, “Dustin, don’t say that, I couldn’t handle that”. He stopped short and didn’t say anymore. I forgot about this.
We planned a vacation and were happy because at the last minute Dustin decided to go along. When we returned from vacation, he decided instead of going to college locally, he was going to move to California where his older sister and two brothers were. We didn’t mind because Bellflower church had a wonderful youth group and we wanted him to be involved with them.
In September he moved. He got a good job and God blessed him financially. We saw him often and knew he went to church, but still wasn’t quite where he should be with the Lord. DOZ continued to pray. Then after the holidays, near the middle of January, Dustin decided to move back home. He had come to pick up our truck so he could bring his belongings home. He had also visited us the weekend before that. There was something different about this weekend. He was very submissive and loving. Previously, he had been going through the rebellious stage like most teenagers. This particular weekend, he was just different. He sat in the third row of the church, praised the Lord, wore a suit and asked to take pictures of us together with him.
Little did we know what would happen the following weekend. Saturday had come! Dustin was coming home today! We were excited! He called and left a message on our telephone answering machine that he was on the way. He was going to stop by Phoenix to visit someone, so if he was a little late, I wasn’t worried. I had no feeling, no indication, no intuition of what was about to take place.
It was getting late. I was listening to Jeffrey Arnold’s preaching, “To experience the dream, you must endure the nightmare”. A knock came on the door. That is unusual, I thought, Dustin wouldn’t knock. When I opened the door, there were two officers and two other people. Something went wrong, no, it couldn’t be. “Is it Dustin? I said.” The officer said, “Is your husband home?” I said yes, in bed”. He said, “Go get him and come and sit in the living room”. I was numb, this couldn’t be happening to me. My husband came in and sat down in the den with the two officers, two of the town’s local clergy members and me.
One officer said, “Your son has been in an automobile accident and has been killed”. My husband began to cry immediately. I began to ask questions and began to violently shake inside. I was in shock.
“What happened?” I asked. “An old man entered the off-ramp of a rest stop 52 miles this side of the California, Arizona border and hit him head on”.
This can’t be happening to me. It’s not real. The emotions are unexplainable, but the peace of the Lord is also unexplainable… it passes all understanding. All I could think of is my son was all alone. I couldn’t be there for him. This was my baby, the youngest.
DOZ, let me tell you, God was there for me. This was a different story than all the rest. This time, God wanted to take my son. Thank God for our district ministers, Bro. & Sis. Hudson, who came early Sunday and stayed all day. They made phone calls and took phone calls. We didn’t even realize how much we needed them. That night, I was crying because all I could think of was my son needed me and I couldn’t be there. No one at the scene knew him and he died. You may say I’m crazy, but a light came into my room, I looked up and saw Jesus standing there holding my son in his arms. I knew then that Dustin wasn’t alone. Jesus himself picked him up.
Many things happened during this week that let me know Jesus was my best friend and I could trust Him. Bro. Butler preached the “going home” celebration. As he preached, he related a story of an evangelist, Bro. George Guy, who came to Bellflower almost two weeks before Dustin died. Bro. Guy stood on the platform and told the congregation that the death angel was there and God was telling someone to prepare their heart because the Lord is going to take someone within two weeks. Dustin was there that night. It was the following weekend he was with us in service and so submissive. I knew in my heart he had made things right with God.
Thank God for DOZ! How often does a miracle like that take place? God loved me so much that he warned my son before he took him. I had forgotten about the incident when Dustin told me he wasn’t going to live very long until about a month after he went to be with the Lord. Now I say, “How did he know?”. God’s mercy… that’s how!
Editors Note: Sis. Dean is the Ladies Secretary for the Arizona District. She is the wife of Rev. Eckard Dean, Pastor in Globe, AZ. They were blessed with five children and have eleven grandchildren.
