After A Deadly Car Accident, Teen Says It’s Like Nothing Ever Happened

A reporter says, “The boy seated in back was severely injured but may be able to communicate enough to help explain what happened.”

July 1st 1999. Newport news, Virginia. A drunk driver crosses over the median and slams into a car of teenagers at 80-miles per hour. There is one survivor.

Meanwhile, Dyan Gurley is struggling to sleep because she felt a prompting from God.

Dyan says, “I just saw the one word ‘accident.’ I felt that it was somebody that was very close to me.”

Moments later, Dyan gets a call from riverside hospital. Her 18-year-old son J.R. was in a tragic accident.

“I was in shock. I was numb. I mean, it didn't seem real. “

Dyan arrived at the E.R. just as her son was regaining consciousness.

She says, “I could only read his eyes, because his face was so disfigured. He was saying, ‘momma, am I going to die?’"  

J.R. remembers, “She said ‘baby, you're not going to die. God said that you're going to live and declare the work of the Lord.’"

J.R. had a host of injuries including brain swelling, a shattered jawbone, and a crushed left hand.

He says, “They said he may not make it through the night. I could not believe that these words were coming to me that was being said to me. I was saying on the inside, ‘Lord, save my child. Don't let him die.’"

Word quickly spread and people from their church and community began showing up to pray.

Dyan remembers, “They were just huddled around saying you know ‘he's not going to die. God's not going to take him’ and they were praying.”

J.R. made it through the night. The next morning, he went through 8 hours of surgery. Doctors said J.R. would live, but his future wasn’t hopeful.

J.R. recalls, “I would definitely have some brain damage. I would never be able to regain the use of my hand. That I would have trouble speaking and I would probably have to have someone aid me or help me for the rest of my life.”

A week later, J.R. poured out his anger towards God.

J.R. says, “’How could you allow this to happen? How could you let this happen?’ I was honest with him, ‘I don't want to live like this. I don't want to live like this.’"

J.R. recalls, “I remember feeling the presence of the Lord just come in my room. The Holy Spirit told me that he was going to heal me and in doing so it would be like nothing ever happened. Hope and peace came flooding back into my spirit. I was revived. And at that moment I decided that I was not going to be angry, that I was going to trust him and that he was going to do what he said he was going to do.”

J.R. says after that night, he began healing more quickly than even doctors expected.  “It's almost like, you know, my body just began to put things back in order.”

Dyan recalls, “Every day there was a visible change. You could see it.”

The next several months he went through rigorous therapy, depending on God to heal his mind and body.

J.R. says, “I felt literally like the lord was strengthening me. I felt like I had a new lease on life and a new mission and I was determined hold up my end. I was determined to serve God.”

Within the next year, J.R. says he fully recovered from all of his injuries, including regaining full use of his hand.

J.R. says, “There is not anything that I could do then that I can't do. God healed me.”

Today, J.R. leads a young adult ministry in his hometown and shares his story often.

Dyan says, “God answered all of my prayers and he is faithful.”

J.R. says, “Every now and then I laugh, as people look right at me, and they unknowingly repeat the promise that the Lord gave me and they tell me, ‘man, it looks like nothing ever happened.’ And I said, ‘well, that's exactly according to the Word of the Lord.’"