Training Ride Miracle

It’s been a busy 2 weeks of training for my new job in Arizona. I’m sorry I haven’t written more. Getting moved to the new location took more time and energy than I expected. I survived the first week of training which was 5 days of sitting in a refrigerated classroom interrupted by a short trip to the driving course to run over orange cones.

Fortunately, no one was hurt.

I just finished the required ride time with my preceptors, which was… interesting.

The first day was busy and a bit wild. We were hit by another ambulance in a hospital parking lot and our ride ended up on the back of a tow truck. The second day, we had a ventilator that broke. I just wanted to survive the rest of my rides without any major problems.

Today, my preceptor called out sick before the shift began, so I was precepted by someone who doesn’t normally do it. He’s a nice guy who really helped me understand the system and he had some great tips to help me be successful.

Our EMT for the day was a quiet young man, who looked barely old enough to vote. I know he’s had some problems making the adjustment here. Between calls, we talked and I learned that he’s hoping to get hired by one of the local fire departments.

We were in an older, backup truck that had a few “issues”. The major one being a weak air conditioner. In the heat of the afternoon, I felt like a quart of ice cream sitting in the sun. My wife sent a text message asking if she could meet us somewhere for dinner. I told her I didn’t know where we were. For the last three days, I’ve been looking at the hills and freeways of Phoenix through the back window of the rig as we’ve driven from one side of town to the other. I’ve never been so lost in my life.

The other thing about our ambo is that the rear bumper sticks out a little more than most. Our EMT rammed his knee into it halfway through the shift and spent the rest of the day limping.

So at the end of the day, without much explanation, I told the guys that if they ever had an injury, to come see me before they had surgery. Our EMT said, “Hey, what about my knee? It still hurts a lot.”

“Dude…it’s just a soft tissue injury,” I said. “Walk it off.”

I’ve been uneasy about praying with people at my new job. I don’t want to cause problems or have people complain. But I really hate seeing injured people suffer needlessly.

When we got back to the station we had to make several trips to unload equipment. On one of the trips, we ended up at the back of the rig together. I told him to sit on the bench seat and I asked the usual questions – how bad was the pain, where exactly did it hurt, etc.

I placed two fingers on his knee and said, “I command ligaments, tendons, bones, muscles, nerves, and soft tissue to be healed in Jesus’ name. Holy Spirit, bring your power and presence. I command all pain and the spirit of pain to leave in Jesus’ name. Well….how does it feel?”

He stood up and immediately realized all the pain was gone. He looked at me with a smile of wonderment and jumped out the back. His happiness got the best of him as he walked around, dumbfounded that his knee was instantly healed. He gave me a high five and I told him to test it out as much as he wanted because he wasn’t going to wreck what God healed.

So God is still healing people, which doesn’t surprise me. I’m still just a divine nobody doing a normal job. God’s power is available to anyone who knows Him through the cross of His Son. I had a dream a few nights ago about the importance of forgiveness. If you haven’t accepted the free forgiveness of your sins, it’s available. Just ask Him.

This is an excerpt from my book My Craziest Adventures With God – Volume 1.