My Mother's Incredible Survival Story!

[00:00:01] Coming up on the Change My Life podcast.

[00:00:04] The impact was just like in the movies.

[00:00:07] You know how it's in slow motion?

[00:00:11] It felt just like that.

[00:00:14] In slow motion.

[00:00:17] And we hit each other head on, both of us.

[00:00:23] And I remember going up in my seat,

[00:00:26] I had my seatbelt on and falling back.

[00:00:31] And as I was falling back,

[00:00:33] I could see myself in the rear view mirror.

[00:00:37] And for some strange reason,

[00:00:40] what came in my mind at that particular time

[00:00:44] was I'll never get married

[00:00:47] because my face was cut up that bad.

[00:00:51] Hey everyone this is MJ.

[00:00:57] Thank you for joining me once again.

[00:00:59] I hope you are having a wonderful day today.

[00:01:02] I just want to send a shout out to all of our listeners and subscribers

[00:01:05] and those of you who are new to the Change My Life family, welcome.

[00:01:09] I hope that you will subscribe.

[00:01:11] There'll be many inspirational episodes that will be coming your way.

[00:01:14] And don't forget you can stay connected with us on social media.

[00:01:17] We're on Facebook as well as Instagram and Change My Life podcast.

[00:01:20] So thanks again for your love and support.

[00:01:23] I am recording on a very special day.

[00:01:25] Mother's Day.

[00:01:27] I won't release this exactly on Mother's Day,

[00:01:29] but I want to say happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful mothers out there.

[00:01:33] You guys are beautiful and strong.

[00:01:35] And so I hope you are enjoying your very special day.

[00:01:38] And I thought it would be very, very special

[00:01:41] to have my mother on the show today

[00:01:44] to share her amazing testimony.

[00:01:46] My mother is strong. She survived a lot.

[00:01:48] And I know this testimony is going to bless you.

[00:01:51] So we're going to call her today.

[00:01:53] Mrs. Brenda, say hello.

[00:01:55] Hello. How's everyone?

[00:01:57] Yes. And so she has something to share with us today.

[00:02:02] And I know this is going to bless you.

[00:02:04] So do me a favor. If this content is good, if you enjoy it,

[00:02:08] I want you to share it to encourage the mothers

[00:02:11] and all the wonderful people out there

[00:02:14] that may be going through a little something.

[00:02:17] You an overcomer.

[00:02:19] My mom's an overcomer.

[00:02:21] And I'm grateful because if she didn't overcome those things,

[00:02:24] I wouldn't be here.

[00:02:26] Amen.

[00:02:27] I would not be here. So let's start.

[00:02:29] She has so many testimonies,

[00:02:31] but we're going to just do a couple today

[00:02:34] that I think will bless you guys.

[00:02:36] So which one do you want to tell first, mom?

[00:02:38] Happy Mother's Day.

[00:02:39] Well, thank you so much.

[00:02:41] Thank you so much.

[00:02:43] Yes.

[00:02:44] I appreciate that.

[00:02:45] She looks fabulous. Okay.

[00:02:47] So, I guess one of the testimonies you would like to share.

[00:02:52] The very first testimony that I would like to share

[00:02:56] is right after I got saved

[00:03:00] and gave my life to the Lord.

[00:03:03] And when I gave my life to the Lord,

[00:03:07] I went full in.

[00:03:08] I went to Sunday school.

[00:03:10] I went to Bible class.

[00:03:12] I went to Sunday night service.

[00:03:15] I just went every time the doors was open because I was hungry

[00:03:19] for the Word.

[00:03:21] So I went all the time.

[00:03:23] And so my testimony begins in one particular night.

[00:03:29] I went to night service.

[00:03:31] And I was, they had dismissed.

[00:03:36] It was time to go home.

[00:03:39] I was in my early 20s.

[00:03:43] Little slight of a thing.

[00:03:46] So they offered me a ride, the pastor.

[00:03:53] And I refused.

[00:03:57] I said, oh no, it was about nine o'clock and it was a nice night.

[00:04:04] I was about 10 blocks from the church.

[00:04:07] So I wanted to walk.

[00:04:10] Now, I don't know how I got away from these people

[00:04:13] because I'm pretty sure that they did not want me walking home

[00:04:18] by myself at nine o'clock at night, but I did.

[00:04:21] I invaded them.

[00:04:22] So on my way home, I'm just walking and walking.

[00:04:27] And I walked the whole eight blocks with nothing happening.

[00:04:33] So now, two blocks from my house, all of a sudden,

[00:04:41] I started speaking in tongue out of the clear blue sky.

[00:04:46] For people who don't know what that is, can you explain what that is real quick?

[00:04:50] Speaking in an unknown tongue, that's a gift of the Holy Ghost.

[00:04:54] And I had received the Holy Ghost.

[00:04:57] So it's talking directly to God.

[00:05:01] That's who you're talking to.

[00:05:03] So I started speaking in tongue and it shocked me because it came out of nowhere.

[00:05:11] And so I stopped.

[00:05:15] And so what happened was, I walked a few more blocks

[00:05:21] and then I had the same experience.

[00:05:24] I started speaking in tongue.

[00:05:26] Now, something's up.

[00:05:29] So I'm looking around and I'm trying to see what is going on.

[00:05:34] I'm checking out my surroundings and I see nothing and nobody.

[00:05:41] So I continue to walk, get a few steps.

[00:05:47] I started singing worship songs.

[00:05:51] Oh, something's up now. Something is up.

[00:05:54] And then out of nowhere, this man jumped out and grabbed me.

[00:06:01] I was shocked but I was not afraid.

[00:06:08] And so he said, give me your money or I will kill you.

[00:06:15] And I'm looking at him in his face and bewildered me.

[00:06:21] I told him that I wasn't afraid.

[00:06:23] I was just looking at him saying, you know, like what in the world?

[00:06:27] So I reached my hand behind my back and discovered that he had his finger pointed in my back.

[00:06:38] And I looked at him and he jumps back, put his hands in his pocket.

[00:06:44] And then he says, give me your money or I'm going to kill you.

[00:06:50] I have a knife.

[00:06:53] Now, I knew I'm like a block and I have them from my house.

[00:06:57] And so I'm looking at him and I'm still not afraid.

[00:07:05] And so exactly what was going on then I'm looking at him.

[00:07:10] And I was looking at me and I discovered that we're standing right underneath a street lamp where everybody can see who looked out the window, whatever.

[00:07:23] So he discovered the same time I did.

[00:07:26] So he wants to pull me in the dark.

[00:07:29] He said, come on over here in the dark.

[00:07:33] Come on over here and try to pull my arm into a dark place.

[00:07:39] Pull my arm away.

[00:07:41] And I said, whatever you're going to do, you're going to do it right here and right now.

[00:07:48] He looks at me and then he asked me the most bizarre question.

[00:07:54] He said, are you by yourself?

[00:07:58] And I looked at him and said, no, the Lord is with me.

[00:08:04] Amen.

[00:08:05] So he gets nervous.

[00:08:08] And so then he asked me, he said, you don't have any money.

[00:08:12] I said, if I had any money, I would have caught a cab and I wouldn't have ran into you.

[00:08:20] So he's getting nervous enough that he's looking around.

[00:08:24] He's the one that's nervous, not me.

[00:08:26] So then he said, you don't have any money.

[00:08:28] I said, I have $2.

[00:08:30] He looks at me and he says, well, I don't want $2.

[00:08:36] And he walks away.

[00:08:38] So I'm standing up there looking and so I turned around and started walking.

[00:08:44] I walked two doors past my house because I didn't want him to know where I lived.

[00:08:50] And what happened is when I turned around and discovered that he was nowhere in sight.

[00:08:55] I came back home, came in the house, hurt my mother and father sleeping in their room,

[00:09:02] not knowing what was going on with their daughter outside.

[00:09:07] And that's when I got scared.

[00:09:10] But then that's when I started praising the Lord.

[00:09:13] Amen.

[00:09:14] Amen.

[00:09:15] So you told that man, the Lord is with you?

[00:09:18] I told him, the Lord is with me.

[00:09:21] And he got nervous.

[00:09:22] He got nervous.

[00:09:24] Wow.

[00:09:25] That's amazing.

[00:09:26] He got nervous.

[00:09:27] That's amazing.

[00:09:28] That's amazing.

[00:09:29] God is good.

[00:09:30] God is good.

[00:09:32] So, wow.

[00:09:34] What's the next testimony you'd like to share?

[00:09:37] The next testimony later in my walk with the Lord, I was actually in school.

[00:09:48] I was going to Alhavi and they have a long road that leads up to the college from the street.

[00:10:00] It's like a driveway that you get there.

[00:10:04] So, I'm in class.

[00:10:07] I'm getting out of class.

[00:10:09] There was a couple of people that I knew that asked me for a ride.

[00:10:14] I had my mother's car.

[00:10:16] It was a Volkswagen.

[00:10:19] So, we came out of the building and discovered that it was a severe snowstorm that was happening

[00:10:29] right at that time.

[00:10:31] So, you know, we have to get home.

[00:10:34] So I got in the car and as I was driving down that long driveway, I was praying.

[00:10:44] But as I was driving down that long driveway, I noticed that I saw some headlights coming

[00:10:54] directly toward me.

[00:10:57] And I pumped my brakes, which did nothing but slid faster toward the headlights.

[00:11:09] The impact, we did hit each other.

[00:11:13] The impact was just like in the movies.

[00:11:16] You know how it's in slow motion?

[00:11:20] It felt just like that in slow motion.

[00:11:26] And we hit each other head on, both of us.

[00:11:32] And I remember going up in my seat, I had my seatbelt on, going up in my seat and falling back.

[00:11:42] And as I was falling back, I could see myself in the rear view mirror.

[00:11:49] And for some strange reason what came in my mind at that particular time was, I'll never get married

[00:11:58] because my face was cut up that bad.

[00:12:02] So, I didn't know what happened after that.

[00:12:08] I was told what happened after that.

[00:12:11] And what I was told was that the car that was directly behind me was driven by a nurse

[00:12:20] that was on her way to work at the hospital.

[00:12:24] Some kind of way they got me out the car and they got me to the hospital.

[00:12:31] There was so much blood that you could ring my fox fur coat and blood would just come out.

[00:12:40] And the weather was so bad, the first thing that I remembered when I came to was that I was cold.

[00:12:51] And when I woke up there was a bunch of gurneys in the hallway of accidents that was happening

[00:12:59] one right after the other and they didn't even have room to put us.

[00:13:04] So, I'm in the hallway with these people and they noticed that I was conscious

[00:13:12] so they came and they asked me for my phone number.

[00:13:17] And then that's when I remember I couldn't talk well at all.

[00:13:22] I couldn't talk well. They had to give me paper and I had to write it down

[00:13:27] and I didn't know why I couldn't talk.

[00:13:29] So, they called my father and I can hear them talking to him

[00:13:35] and they wouldn't give him any information because he was asking was she alright?

[00:13:40] Is she alright?

[00:13:41] And they said, sir you have to come down here.

[00:13:44] So, later my father told me that he went to the accident site first

[00:13:49] and when he saw that car he said tears just came to his eyes

[00:13:53] because he knew either I was dead or I was dying

[00:13:58] because that's how terrible the car accident was.

[00:14:02] So, after that I went through the motions, my jaw was broken.

[00:14:09] That's why I couldn't talk.

[00:14:11] I had multiple lacerations.

[00:14:14] I had my electrolytes, everything just went off.

[00:14:21] They said are you diabetic?

[00:14:23] I said no but my blood test was off. Everything was just off.

[00:14:29] And so, I was in the hospital.

[00:14:32] Now when my friends came by they couldn't even come in the room.

[00:14:40] They come in the room and they look and they go back out.

[00:14:44] I had one particular friend.

[00:14:46] She walked in the room and just turned right around

[00:14:50] and they had to console her because it was so bad.

[00:14:55] I looked so bad it didn't even look like myself.

[00:14:58] So, I went through the treatment.

[00:15:02] I was there for several weeks.

[00:15:05] Were you in a coma?

[00:15:06] I was not in a coma.

[00:15:08] I was unconscious for just that one time at the impact.

[00:15:13] Now, the windshield was broken out by my face.

[00:15:18] My chin was broken.

[00:15:20] My face broke the steering wheel.

[00:15:23] Oh my goodness.

[00:15:24] And the inside of the car was just all messed up

[00:15:29] because of the impact.

[00:15:31] I don't know what happened to those other people.

[00:15:34] I don't.

[00:15:35] But I had to go through several treatments, X-rays and stuff.

[00:15:41] So, they patched me up.

[00:15:43] They did the surgery.

[00:15:45] I got my chin wired and I came home.

[00:15:51] It was a long process to heal.

[00:15:56] And like I said, I didn't think I would ever get back

[00:16:01] to where I am today.

[00:16:03] But the Lord blessed me with some great plastic surgeons.

[00:16:10] They called them in and they were the ones

[00:16:14] who did the sutures on my face.

[00:16:17] And so, thank the Lord for that

[00:16:20] because I don't know if it was a regular guy.

[00:16:22] I probably would have been messed up.

[00:16:24] But they took their time and they considered,

[00:16:28] I guess they just did their job.

[00:16:30] But being in my early 20s and cut up like that,

[00:16:36] they really considered that.

[00:16:38] And so, I did get married.

[00:16:41] You did?

[00:16:42] I did have kids.

[00:16:44] Yes.

[00:16:45] And then I look all right.

[00:16:46] You look beautiful.

[00:16:47] I look all right.

[00:16:48] But the Lord really just blessed me

[00:16:51] because that was a life and death accident right there.

[00:16:56] I should have been dead.

[00:16:58] I should have been dead.

[00:17:00] I should have been dead.

[00:17:04] I'm a little emotional right now

[00:17:06] because this is my first time really hearing this story

[00:17:09] in its full detail.

[00:17:12] I should have been.

[00:17:13] I'm emotional too because I should have been dead.

[00:17:17] But God, but God married kids, grandkids.

[00:17:24] So let me ask you this.

[00:17:26] Why do you think I kept you here?

[00:17:29] Evidently it was for a purpose

[00:17:31] because if you weren't purpose to be here,

[00:17:35] you would have been gone.

[00:17:38] So why do you think?

[00:17:39] You know, I know a lot of people saying,

[00:17:44] oh the Lord kept me here

[00:17:46] because I had work to do and blah, blah, blah,

[00:17:48] just in that.

[00:17:49] But truthfully speaking

[00:17:53] and even now in my late stage of life,

[00:17:57] I'm a learner.

[00:17:59] You are.

[00:18:00] I had a lot to learn.

[00:18:03] I was just newly saved.

[00:18:05] I didn't know enough.

[00:18:06] And God knew the desire of my heart.

[00:18:09] He knew I wanted to know more about him.

[00:18:12] I want to know all about him.

[00:18:14] I know that's not possible,

[00:18:16] but I want to know as much as I can.

[00:18:19] So I wasn't ready to go.

[00:18:21] I wasn't ready to go.

[00:18:23] I was ready to go.

[00:18:24] I am still learning.

[00:18:26] I just love it.

[00:18:28] I love to learn.

[00:18:30] And you know, whatever the Lord had me to do,

[00:18:33] I have experienced several types of experiences

[00:18:37] of doing things for the Lord

[00:18:40] that he helped me

[00:18:42] and I didn't know what I was doing.

[00:18:45] But the Lord had his hands on me

[00:18:47] and I would just look back and be amazed.

[00:18:50] I said, I didn't know what I was doing.

[00:18:53] But God will show me.

[00:18:55] He said, do it this way.

[00:18:57] Get this.

[00:18:59] Pick that.

[00:19:01] And it all worked out.

[00:19:03] But as far as what my knowledge was,

[00:19:05] I didn't know what I was doing.

[00:19:08] And that just, it amazes me

[00:19:12] and I get great joy out of that.

[00:19:15] Knowing that God has his hands

[00:19:18] means that he allowed me to do

[00:19:20] through my life.

[00:19:22] That is amazing, Mom.

[00:19:24] Very good.

[00:19:25] Oh my goodness.

[00:19:26] This was so good.

[00:19:27] So awesome.

[00:19:28] I had to share this.

[00:19:29] I felt led to share this.

[00:19:31] This is something that just came to me to do.

[00:19:33] I was just like,

[00:19:34] I gotta interview my mother

[00:19:36] and let her tell her story.

[00:19:38] So I hope you all enjoyed her story.

[00:19:40] I definitely did

[00:19:41] and I hope they encourage and inspire you.

[00:19:43] So like I said,

[00:19:44] please share this with someone.

[00:19:46] Share with the mother

[00:19:47] or share with the woman

[00:19:48] or share with just someone that you love.

[00:19:51] Is there anything else

[00:19:52] that you would like to say to the audience?

[00:19:54] Any words of wisdom

[00:19:55] before we close this out?

[00:19:58] Actually, I appreciate my daughter

[00:20:01] for extending herself

[00:20:04] and stepping out

[00:20:07] in unknown territory

[00:20:09] to do what the Lord tells her to do.

[00:20:11] So I appreciate that.

[00:20:13] The love, the love, the love.

[00:20:15] Okay.

[00:20:16] So you guys, we're out of here.

[00:20:18] I hope you all enjoyed this episode

[00:20:21] and don't forget

[00:20:22] you can stay connected with us

[00:20:23] on social media.

[00:20:24] We're on Facebook as well as Instagram

[00:20:26] and Change My Life podcast.

[00:20:28] And again,

[00:20:29] I just want to wish all of the mothers

[00:20:31] out there a very happy Mother's Day.

[00:20:34] Hope to catch you in the next episode.