When the Church Prays ...

A story of God's healing and strengthening hand

March 2007

Finding himself laying flat on the ground, and unable to move, Rod Elson was aware that the crowd gathered around him was praying.

It was a two hour wait until the Westpac rescue helicopter arrived to take him to the Royal Brisbane Hospital. Rod remained conscious for the whole time.

"For the first few minutes I thought I was going to die," he said, "I thought, 'God, I have too much to do, and grandkids I haven't seen yet.'"

Just moments before, at around 7pm, Rod had been setting up camp lights when a young 17 year old, in a four wheel drive came past, knocked him over and carried on driving.

"I wonder if he was trying to scare me and lost control of the vehicle," Rod said, as he pictured the scene.

He had been up at Rainbow Beach in Queensland on a camping trip with family and close friends when the hit and run happened.

Coincidentally another church group was camping just down the road at the same time and the response of both groups was to pray.

They sent prayer alerts off to everyone they knew, and gathered around Rod and his distraught family.

Whilst the helicopter headed off to Brisbane, Neuro surgeons, Orthopaedic surgeons and Plastic surgeons readied themselves for its arrival. They were expecting a man with major head injuries, his scalp had been knocked straight off and suspected a broken neck, back and hips.

Meanwhile, the Christians kept praying.

After viewing the CT scans, doctors and nurses alike declared Rod to be "the Miracle Man!"

Amazingly, the major surgery planned for his hips was not needed.

The plate they had planned to put in his neck was not needed.

"Everything had lined up in my neck," Rod said, "they told me that it was a 'stable break,' and I would not need the plate."

He needed a plate in his left arm but the seven crushed disks in his back did not need to be operated on.

"People all over the world had been praying for me," Rod said. "It must have gone out as a telegraph because people have come up to me since, that I have never met before, telling me they have been praying."

"My church prayed, churches in Western Australia, the Salvation Army, and I know that people were praying in America because my brother, who is a pastor, put my name on prayer lists over there."

"I actually fully believe that the reason some of my injuries were diagnosed one way and then the other was because of prayer," Rod said.

"I'm not a super-spiro, I don't go chasing Angels and I don't go chasing demons, but I fully believe there were Angels there that night."

"As I told my church, I believe with all that is within me that God said to me 'hush up, my church is praying."

A New Understanding of the Value of Church

"In the last five years or so I have questioned God about the relevance of church," Rod said, "I love God with all my heart, and that will never change, but I had become skeptical."

"After the accident, my view of church, and I have been involved in church now for 23 years, changed. I am once again fully convinced that if the church moves then God moves."

"I fully believe that God set up this institution, God wants to work through this institution and the way the world will change is if we, his Ambassadors unite together, as we did when the church prayed for me."

Rod and Chris are overwhelmed by the support they received, "It was not just prayer, but the help that I have had since. It reminds me of the first chapter of Acts."

"My church, the Goodlife church, has helped us in so many ways … with cooking, financially, with help around the house … it has blown us away."

Continuing to Believe for Miracles

Rod still has quite a lot of rehab to go through before he could return to his job as Swimming Coach and is still very much in need of prayer.

He has recently been diagnosed with Spinal Cord damage and is numb from his elbows to hands, with no sense of touch, and from his knees to his feet.

"My wife, Chris and I, are really positive that there will be a good outcome," Rod said, "we believe in healing and know that if God had not intervened I would not be here now." "I also believe that everything happens for a reason."

"When I lay on the beach that day I told God that I was not ready to go."

"I believe He honoured my cry and saved my life and I suspect that if he hadn't, I would not have heard him say 'well done my good and faithful servant.'"

"There is more of a purpose in my life now than I have ever had before even though I have been committed to God for a long time."

"One of the big things I have discovered is that there is such a fine line between life and death, it is very fragile and we really do need to stay close to God."

"Whatever God puts on my heart now, or asks me to do, I will never say no to him again."

"We had plans for the future and these have been thrown up in the air since all this happened but we are setting new goals and trusting that God will reveal himself to us in a greater way this year."

"We are also so grateful to the churches and friends who have prayed for us and helped us at this time."

Bev Holmes-Brown lives on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia with her husband Arthur and their two children. In 2001 she began Link-Zone, a Christian resource website with a mandate to “unite Christians in specific interest areas.” Link-Zone seeks to promote the work of Aussie Frontliners, searching out resources and tools that will bless and equip the Body of Christ, as well as providing information that helps believers understand today’s battles in order to engage the culture they are living in. The site is a work in progress and is updated daily. www.Link-Zone.net Email: admin@link-zone.net