On April 17, 2000, my son Nathan was in a near-fatal car accident. Investigators believe he lost control of the family convertible while trying to avoid a deer. Forty-five minutes later, Kevin Lindow, a young man with emergency medical skills, found Nathan at the scene of the crash and stabilized his neck while his mother called for help. When they arrived at the hospital, Nathan was suffering from a broken leg, spinal cord damage, and numerous lacerations to his body. Doctors began treating him and found he was having trouble breathing due to a collapsed lung. To stabilize him, they decided to drug-induce a coma.

Nathan spent four days in that coma, and doctors at Marshfield Clinic estimated his odds for survival at 1-in-100. Then when they removed the drugs, he didn't come out of the coma. That night I prayed and read the Bible to Nathan, repeating the words Jesus said to Lazarus: "Come forth." I told him, "You've got to fight. You've got to wake up." And the next morning he did, acknowledging me later that afternoon. We were beside ourselves with joy.

But the spinal cord damage was of major concern. Nathan had a fracture in the C-4 vertebra in his neck, the same part of the spinal cord that actor Christopher Reeve injured several years ago. The doctors gave him a protective neck collar to help prevent against further separation of the vertebrae. He was in immediate danger of full or partial paralysis.

Nathan has the practice of reading his Bible and praying before going to bed at night. For two weeks, he prayed earnestly for healing. One night as he was lying still, falling asleep in bed, he noticed a popping sound in his neck. The next morning, physicians performed three sets of X-rays to see if the vertebrae were continuing to separate. Instead, the X-rays showed that the vertebrae had fused back together, stunning the nurses and doctors. There was no medical explanation.

Just three months after the accident, doctors cleared Nathan to resume his participation in athletics, including football, wrestling, and track and field.