Story of Amazing Forgiveness

Dear Prayer Team,

Roy Collins is a wonderful Christian man from Lodi, California that RESCUE had the pleasure of getting to know during December. He was instrumental in bringing us to his Church, Century for their singing Christmas tree December 8-10, 2006. When my bag of clothes got stolen, Roy was the one who took me shopping. Doreen let us know that she had heard that there was a tragedy in the church soon after we were there but we didn’t understand exactly what had happened. She has since emailed us a letter from Roy explaining the situation and how God was exalted through it. I was very touched and inspired by this letter and thought maybe you’d like to read it too. It is lengthy so if you want to skip down to the praises and prayer requests, feel free.

“The holidays can be so hurried with all we do that sometimes we seem to forget what Christmas is all about. I want to take a moment and share with you something that happened this past month to our church family here at Century.

“One of my joys at Century has been co-teaching an adult Sunday school class called Homebuilders for the last three and a half years with a wonderful couple, Bill and Gerri Harper. On any given Sunday, we'll have between 75 to 90 people in class. Bill and I are pretty much opposites in our styles and methods yet we both have a passion for teaching the Word and we worked great as a team.

“The Monday following the Singing Christmas Tree, Bill was on his way home from work (he was a teacher at the local community college) when he was involved in a head on car crash. I received a call from the local hospital because my phone number was on his cell phone. The nurse informed me that Bill had died as a result of his injuries, and asked if my wife and I could be there when Bill's wife arrived.

“The word of Bill's death began to spread quickly among our congregation and they began to arrive at the hospital. The accident happened because a young man, heading home from a long day on the job, dozed off for just a second and crossed the dividing line. Bill was driving his pride and joy, a 55 Chevy pickup that he was restoring. The young man was driving a Ford Excursion. While Bill received massive injuries, the young man was unharmed, but pretty shook up as you can imagine.

“When Geri arrived at the hospital the nurse told her what had happen, that Bill's body was pretty much crushed and suggested that Geri may not want to see him like that. Now Geri is an extraordinary woman, and she wanted to see her husband one last time. We went into the emergency room area along with Pastor Edwards who had just arrived. Bill's body was covered with a linen shroud. We cried and prayed and released Bill's spirit to the Lord.

“Then the most extraordinary thing happened.

“It is standard procedure in these types of things that a police officer remain in the emergency room to stop any type of confrontation that might happen between victims. The man from the other car was in the room next to Bill. His family had arrived, including the man's wife, mother and father. Geri told the policeman that she wanted to talk to him. At first, the policeman refused, but pastor sensed the spirit of God in the place, and told the policeman that it would be all right. The policeman asked the family if Geri could come in and they said yes.

“The man was lying on a hospital bed, weeping because of what had happened and the guilt he felt. Geri walked up to him, leaned over to him and told him that she bore him no grudge. What had happened was just an accident. She told him that her husband believed that every man has an appointed time to die. Today was Bill's. Then she told him "God has spared your life to love your family, be a husband to your wife and a father to your children. You need the love of God. Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior?" And there in the emergency room she led that man and his family to Jesus! She prayed with them and invited them to come to church with her.

“As she left that room, the hospital staff was stunned. The policeman, who had tried to stop her at first, was now in tears. He told pastor that in all his time as a cop, he had never seen or heard anything like that. What a woman. Only a CHRISTIAN WOMAN, in the most devastating time of her life, could find the courage to stand as a witness for Jesus, when many would have folded.

“We had over 900 people show for Bill's memorial service on the Monday before Christmas. Among those people was the family of the other man in the accident. It was a loving testament to a wonderful guy and a great lady. Who knows? Maybe through this tragedy, a family will be saved for the kingdom.

“Bill would have liked that.”

Thanks for this amazing story Roy. Geri has taught us something about the depth of God’s love for us.