1st Story

When I was 18, I was not religious, even though I was raised Catholic.  My life was going down the drain with alcohol and drug abuse.

I then was in a terrible motorcycle accident.  I had my last rights read, incurred major head injuries, was in a coma.  I thought that life “sucked” and blamed God.  But after time passed (I can't say that I enjoyed the recovery period), I saw that this accident was the best thing that has ever happened to me.  My life turned around by 180 degrees, and I now thank God for this motorcycle accident. 

Afterwards, I didn't join a monastery and in fact I had made other poor decisions. Again, they ended up being best for me even though I did not see it at that time.  Because God intervened again and I am more faithful now than I have ever been.

After the accident, I moved out here to Colorado from Illinois, graduated from CU-Boulder with a Psychology degree.  I also volunteered with adults that had major mental illnesses, and worked with kids on the psych ward at Children's hospital.  Now I am working in the Emergency Department as a registered nurse at Lutheran hospital in Wheat Ridge.

The most incredible thing is that I have no limitations due to the accident.  I ski, hike, bike, skydive, whatever I want.  My thanks goes to God.

Steve Farley (7/28/06)
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2nd Story

In the summer of 1993 I got notice that I was going to be laid off from my job in early October since the jobs got transferred overseas.  My wife was not working at that time.  Since I was going to school part-time, I decided to go full-time and finish up my Bachelor’s degree in the next nine months.  Luckily, my wife found a job before I was laid off.  Two months later, it was now two weeks before Christmas, my wife got laid off from her new job because the person who held that job before her asked to get her old job back.  It was a very sad Christmas that year since we were both unemployed for the first time in our lives.  We ate mostly rice and beans and had coats on in our small apartment to save on electricity.  However, our prayer life never suffered and we had great faith that God would help us through this difficult time.  After about month, my wife found a part-time job while I was finishing up my Bachelor’s Degree.  I graduated in May of 1994 and was very fortunate to get a job.  This was the first time in two years that any company had come to campus to hire Computer Science graduates.  We moved from Oklahoma City to Ft. Worth, Texas.  It is only because of God’s grace, we call it a miracle, that we were able to have our first house built only five months after moving.  There were only 13 months between being unemployed and cold and hungry in our apartment in Oklahoma to our new home in Texas, and that’s why we still call it God’s miracle.
Stefan & Leda Neikes (9/11/06)