Awakened After a Hard Fall to Share 'Dangerous' Message

“It sounded almost like a gunshot. He landed on...our wood floor. And it was loud. And the first thing I expected to see was blood," says Donna DiChiara.  

She remembers one morning in 2015 when her husband Benny unexpectedly fainted and fell backwards hitting his head on their hard wood floor. Donna quickly realized it was serious.  

She continues, “It wasn't long after that-that he started telling me that his ears were ringing and he saw things in front of his face, and he was having a severe, you know, head throb.”

Donna rushed Benny to the E.R. where doctors determined he had two skull fractures and bleeding in the brain.  

Donna recalls, “They were worried about him having seizures, they were worried about brain swelling. They already knew he was bleeding.”  

She called friends from church and family asking for prayers for healing.

Benny is the lead singer of the Christian rock band "Empowered" and as word of his injury spread, there were hundreds of people praying for his recovery.  

“The prayers were important to me because I didn't know what was going on or what was going to happen” says Donna. “I mean, that's where I turn. I'm going to turn to God first and, you know, and start praying.”  

Three days past and Benny was still in the hospital. Donna continued to pray. “The waiting is the hard part, (it) is really hard...to be in a situation where you don’t know what's going to happen next. And the only thing, I guess, I know to do in that situation is just pray and ask God for guidance and ask Him to be in control.”

Benny was discharged from the hospital and sent home to rest. Donna had to care for him round the clock as his recovery was still uncertain.  

She remembers, “I worried about the aftereffects, was he going to be able to walk and function normally again, and think normally again. He was awake and he didn't always make total sense...when he spoke.”

Benny slept 20 hours a day for an entire month. Donna continued to look to God for peace. "Okay, God, I'm giving this to you. You say lay it at your feet and you're not going to leave us and you're going...to take care of it, that you're in the battle with us. When I truly trusted God then what I consider that peace is just being able to function, for me to be able to do what I need to do and just, you know, the strength to do it.”

Towards the end of that time, Benny heard a voice that awakened him like never before. 

He remembers it like it was yesterday, “One afternoon I became a little bit cognizant, Donna had left the house because she could leave me at that point. I also had a walker to get around in the house, but I was well enough to be left, and I got an audible voice from God in my living room and He said, 'Benny, I have huge and great plans for you coming out of this thing. And this is what I need to come out of that. I need people to know that what I did for you, I stepped in and saved your life, what I did for you, I can do for them if they just press in and call out to Me.' And man, that was a seriously poignant time.”

Donna remembers it clearly as well, “I could tell that it had had a profound effect on him, he got teary eyed and Benny's not one to cry, you know, real often. But it like brought him to tears. I mean, when he was telling me about it and-and talking about God as his father, and you know, and how he came to him and said, you know, 'I have great plans for you.'"

After that, Benny made a remarkable recovery. His experience has strengthened his desire to share God's love. Benny smiles and states, "I'll talk to people about Jesus at any point. And it's almost dangerous now because I have this compelling thing where people have to know what He's done and what He can do for them. So the level of sharing has definitely increased. And the level of intensity in that sharing has increased as well.”

That intensity is felt by audiences during their shows. Benny and Donna are thankful for the prayers and the healing he received during his time of need.

“It's taught me to be grateful, to be thankful for today, to find the things that we can be grateful for even in the not-so-good situations.” Donna continues, “I think that's important for us to remember through all of the craziness, you know, that we can still be thankful for today and to put our thoughts on that instead of on the negative.”

With a certain humility Benny says, “We can sing, 'Our God is an Awesome God' but when you go through something in your own personal life and you experience how awesome our God is...even the rocks will cry out, right? So, you've got to cry out and just let people know what He's done for you and we're doing the Lord's work when we do that.”