The Twenty three minute Job -By Bill Valley

Lord make me know my end

And what is the extent of my days;

Let me know how transient I am

Behold you have made my days as handbreaths

And my lifetime as nothing in your sight;

Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah

Surely every man walks about as a phantom,

Surely they make an uproar for nothing;

He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.

How it All Started

Honey, I have sharpened the chain saw and it should only take about 7 minutes to take down that tree. I also said, that it usually takes me 3 times as long as I estimate, giving myself a little grace. Stubbornly I figured I would do it myself. It is not like this was the first tree I have felled. Probably dozens of trees in my lifetime and for friends as well. A brother living on the property, Reilly was there to help me. We first had to carve out a trail to the tree through the back yard, so much for the 7 minute job. The hemlock tree was about 150 ft. from the house in our back yard, west of the house. It was not an exceptionally big tree, about 80 feet high and about 2 feet diameter at the trunk where I was cutting. I cut the wedge toward the house and made the falling cut on the opposite side. Unfortunately the tree settled back against the saw. What do you do, go get the come-a-long to pull it in the right direction. Only problem is that I am now between the tree and my route of escape. After the tree started crackling I thought I had plenty of time to run, but it sheared off and now I am feeling like the proverbial rat in the trap. Run, Forest, run!!! As I felt the tree strike my right hip and left leg, slamming my chest to the ground. I cannot begin to describe the sheering pain over my whole body, worse in my hip and left leg. I screamed for help and my wife came out of the garage where she had been painting. One look at me and she screamed and called 911 immediately. Reilly was also jumping around screaming and she told him to go and get the chain saw. He went around to the back entrance to the base of the tree and brought it back. Meanwhile I am still conscious, screaming “cut the tree off of me!!!” In a hurry to do so, They started cutting right over the top of me – NO! not there!!!

Meanwhile, my daughters were just returning home. They saw the tree fall and heard my screaming. Terri gave them jobs. To Leila, age 10, she said go back down the road to the beginning of our driveway to direct the ambulance to the back of the land. The 3 on our mailbox was missing and she feared they might drive on by. After they got here, they told us how they appreciated her help. To Heather, age 14 she sent off to call Terry who is living on our property with Reilly, to tell him that we had an emergency and that he had to use the chain saw to cut the tree off me. He came running out, dressing as he ran. He had been taking a shower. Fortunately she was able to yell at him through the bathroom door. Then she took off down the road to enlist the aid of our neighbor, out of breath and incoherent.

As I look back at this, I see how invaluable my wife was in saving my life. She was painting in the garage and when she came out and saw me she was traumatized, but kept on working to get me free. I believe that if it were not for her help, I would not have life to be writing this blog with ability to move my legs. The efforts on the part of brother Terry and Reilly were almost heroic as they cut through the tree and moved the 300 to 400 lb. log off my body without putting any additional weight on me.

The EMT’s arrived, rolled my body into a nylon pouch and drug me to the gurney and transported me to the ambulance. About 25 minutes later were in the ER at Mason General. They took X-rays and a CT scan and determined a miraculous thing, that although my legs and hip had been smashed into the ground, no legs nor ribs had been broken. However, the transverse processes on my right side of the spine had been broken off, L2 through L5. Muscles were still attached to the tips that were broken off and whenever I would move my hips or any muscles that led to my hips, a sheering, excruciating pain, like a red hot poker being shoved into my back brought a scream to my mouth and tears to my eyes. In all my 73 years I have never felt pain so extreme. Yet I could move my feet and my arms. Had I been another 3 inches up or further away I would have been impaled by the limbs and an agonizing death. Had the tree fallen 1 inch more to the left, my spine would have been severed and I would have either been dead or paralyzed for the rest of my life. That is what happens to most people hit by trees, beyond that, the probability of living a somewhat normal life is rather low.

The EMT’s did a great job but when we got to the ER, they did X-rays on my hip, leg and ribs and I believe a CT scan as well, that was good. But the ER doctor, Dr. Hoffman, never really looked at me, looked at the X-rays, prescribed 20 pain pills and discharged me from the hospital. I got up to leave, the pain was so excruciating that when I got up, my blood pressure dropped to 59/47. I began to faint and sat back down. The RN’s who were helping me get up reversed the doctor’s orders and told me to sit back down. They put me on an IV pain medicine, gave me heparin to help dissolve the 3 hematomas. Six days later I was in shape to leave the hospital. I believe that had I been sent home as the ER doctor directed, I would not be here with you today. God intervened again.

God Answers our prayers!

For those of you who do not believe in the power of prayer. Since this accident happened I have heard of untold number of people who were praying for me. 3 ½ days in the hospital. I went to sleep on pain meds and could not move my hands without it affecting my back, yep – excruciating pain! At 2:30 AM I awoke, my hands were raised in the air and I could move them all around. I actually got out of the bed and walked to the bathroom to pee. One sister in the Lord of over 30 years, who lives in Spokane, WA called us to tell me that she was awakened in the middle of that night to pray for me. The prayers of the saints were answered. My pain was reduced about 60 percent and the healing has continued at a high rate. I was scheduled to go through a couple of weeks to a couple of months through rehab, but when I left the hospital after 6 days they determined I didn’t need rehab and sent me directly home. They said the pain would start subsiding in about 6 weeks or more, but here I am at 2 ½ weeks and much of the pain has subsided.

One last word of thanks. A year ago I married my lovely bride, Terri. She had come out of Mormonism after 25 years was wearing TRUST JESUS T shirts and witnessing to others about Christ. A self proclaimed “Jesus Freak” she wanted others to wear the T-Shirts at our wedding. I took a step back and was wondering if this was a good match. The Lord spoke to me in my spirit loud and clear, “This is the way I want you to walk Son, walk in it.” So I proceeded. It was the best decision that I have made. We are a match spiritually, emotionally and in every way. I still am in love with her. We pray everyday for our brothers and sisters in the Lord and our unsaved blood family. Thousands of people have been affected by our T-shirt ministry, which I have committed myself to support her in. About 500 men have come to the Lord in the Prison ministry and our family is growing closer each day. But just suppose I hadn’t gotten married to her. I probably would have still had the accident and I wouldn’t be here now:

No wife to call 911 and direct things

No daughters to run to direct the ambulance and get help from neighbors

No friends of my wife present to fetch the chain saw and cut the tree up and get it off of me

No one to take care of me as I am recuperating

For these and many, many other reasons I am so glad that I “walked this way.” Thank you God.

Moral to the Story

David, in Psalm 39 asks to know the transient nature of life. This sure did it for me. When we truly know the transient nature of our lives, we can then chose to order our priorities, look at our giftings and serve God with all our hearts. That is what He has led me to do. I used to say that God would use a 2 X 4 to get my attention, this time He used the whole Tree!

Watch the narrated video

#Trustjesus #Jesussavedme