Stacey Farrell

I just want to start this off with thanking you for being instruments of God, for listening to Him and obeying Him.

My name is Stacey Farrell and live in South Africa, Krugersdorp.  I was involved in a car accident, 12 September 2013.  A lady skipped the stop street and hit us.  I was in matric  (Grade 12) and was busy with preliminary exams and had two left.  I then missed the matric farewell and my final exams.

I was taken to hospital after my accident, not being able to move or feel anything and my neck hurting a lot.  I knew it was bad and all I could do was trust God.

After that hospital found that their CT scan was broken I was sent to a government hospital near by and there God took over, gave me a great doctor that did the scans and new x-rays and told my mom it's too serious for them and organized for me to be placed in Johannesburg General Hospital, also Government but more advanced.

I was taken there the next day and had a doctor spend the whole day testing me and looking for the fault and how they can help.  I was admitted that night and told the following Tuesday, 17th, they would operate and have to do a spinal fusion and I dislocated my C6/C7 vertebrae in my neck.  I was on traction and had to lie still till then.

I went in for a supposedly 2hour operation, that turn close to 6 because the dislocation was squeezing my pipes and they couldn't get the tunes down my throat.  Then my right lung collapsed and they had to do an emergency tracheotamy.  After a struggle to get me to stabilize, they only did the front fusion and left the back for the Friday.  In the ICU I got double pneumonia and they had to move the operation to the following week.   They told my mom I might not make it through the night abd if i did, I would never move from my neck down.   We said no ways, God is in control. 

The Friday they sent me back to my ward, where a professor was taking student doctors around and saw my x-ray from that morning and told them to cancel my next operation because the bone was setting nicely already.

From there, we hit a few hurdles but every day my hands and arms strengthened and I could do a little more.

The 9th of October I was discharged and went home.  My school organized a physics therapist and she felt God had other plans and organized my into a rehab and people raised money for me to go.  

I went on the 28th October and they told me I would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life and would snuggle with my hands and arms.  I told them no, I'm going to walk.  They told me I am in denial.  So I said, "God now is you can come show off".  They were stunned after 4 weeks, I went further and grew stronger that people there for 6 months.  I was discharged in the beginning of December. 

During the holidays I was in a swimming pool.  When chest deep I could slightly walk.  Excited I went back in January, as an out patient, and told them.  They couldn't believe it and did tests.  I could start to slowly walk!! Praise God!  I went from parrellal bars, to walking frame, to crutches. My time there, I was able to minister to others and tell of how God never leaves us and still hears us.

I completed my exams that March and began studying part time in the July, as a Foundation phase teacher.  2015 I got a job as a student teacher at a Christian school and am still there and studying.   I see a biokineticist now, I am able to balance a bit and walk better and even walk just holding a hand.

God blessed me with family that were my solid rocks and friends too.  He made ways and given me the desires of my heart.

I have seen how God has healed me, done what doctors said can't be done.  Kept me positive and grown my faith. 

Children are constantly telling me that they are still praying for me and look forward to seeing me run like them, in their words.

I have this hope that God hears us, we don't always understand His plans, but seeing these children have unwavering faith, how God has allowed me to use His story (my journey) to touch others, to tell them He still hears us, it blesses me 

So yes, I have a hope that no matter the circumstances, God wrote us in His story and we can live it knowing He is always there and loves us through it all!

God bless you guys and may He continue to use your group to share His story!

Written by: Stacey Farrell