The Dream That Brought Me To God
“Something about that day just, just didn't feel right to me. sort of felt like the Holy Spirit was, was dealing with me, was, was nudging me about a warning. My life changed in four minutes that morning dramatically.” Toby Hemphill recalls July 10th 2023 - He says he was driving to work when a red pick-up truck entered his lane while attempting to pass a loaded tractor trailer. He says, “All I saw was him, flying around the tractor trailer he's coming right at me and he's right in my grill. I immediately jerked the wheel to the left and I hit an 80,000-pound tractor trailer truck fully loaded.”
Soon after, Toby’s wife Kim received a call from his employer, wondering why he hadn’t shown up for work. Kim says, “I immediately knew that he was involved in an accident. No one had to tell me. I just knew that if he hadn't been to work on time, that something terribly went wrong. I called our best friend, to have her to pray for me because I didn't know what I was about to encounter and to pray for him because I knew something was terribly wrong.”
As Toby’s body lay trapped in the car, he says his soul was somewhere out of this world,
“I was completely out of my body, my soul was just, through this huge black tunnel running toward this bright light that was not blinding, It was pulling me toward this light. The peace, the love, I knew that I was entering Heaven. And this light was so bright, I wasn't afraid. And I had that peace and, and joy and the love that I felt there was more than the love that I felt here on earth with my, I mean, it was just amazing. And as I got closer to the end of the light, I began to see, arms of people. I felt guided by angels as I'm going toward this light. And as I'm getting almost to the end, the peace was all over me. The love, the nothing to be afraid of. I, I had no fear of anything of that what just happened. I had no pain. I had no pain at all. God had given me a new body. The flowers and the, the, the field, the colors were thousand times brighter than what we see here on earth and I, I didn't wanna leave. It was amazing. And all of a sudden I heard his strong voice telling me it was not my time that I had to return back to my body and then he sent me back to a broken body. And that was hard. That was, that was hard to understand. All the pain come rushing back into my body, I'm trying to really figure it all out about what happened, I just had this peace that was this love that I knew that I was gonna be all right even though I couldn't move. I heard one guy yelling out to one of the firefighters, telling the other firefighter, ‘Hey go get the jaws of life equipment. He is alive. We need to get him outta here.’”
Toby was life flighted to Carolina’s Medical Center where he was treated for blunt force trauma and multiple broken bones. His church community and friends prayed for his survival and recovery. Toby says, “During the 16 days I was in ICU trauma, I just felt the overwhelming peace of God near me and his love and support was just amazing.”
Kim remembers, “I can't tell you how overwhelming the peace was for our family. We all felt it. So many people rallied around us. We just are so very grateful for that.”
Toby faced a difficult and painful recovery but remains thankful for the glimpse of eternity he experienced and god’s presence with him through it all. Toby says, “There is no way I could have gone through what I went through the last 12 plus months of my life without God being the center of my life, of somebody that I can turn to just to help me with the day-to-day struggles of the injuries and the pain. And He has been there. What God blessed me to see was just a glimpse of his greatness of Heaven. And we have so much hope as believers of the home, the life after this life. I'm thankful for God sparing my life that day. And I'm thankful for him sending me back. I still have my family and that God has given me a second opportunity to live here on earth, to witness, to be a vessel, to help others. And I don't want to miss that opportunity, for what God has for me to do.”
