Phenomena Supernatural

Hi, my name is Olweyn Ace and I'm from South Africa and I want to share a testimony with you guys, actually an encounter that I had that radically changed my life and also the direction in which my life was going, how God encountered me and completely flipped my life upside down and radically had me running after Him just because of one single encounter. Now I want to go a little bit back how the way that I grew up. I grew up on a farm in South Africa and I used to love the outdoors, I used to love sport and I actually wanted to pursue a career in playing rugby, which is a very popular sport in South Africa and during my schooling years I achieved quite well in sport and I wanted to pursue a career in that after sport and how I got certain contracts and invites to go and play professional rugby for a province there in South Africa, but at the age of 21, which is a very interesting age, because you think that you're untouchable, you think that you're invincible at that age, where I just started getting this funny pain and aching on my stomach and in the beginning I just thought maybe it might just be a stomach bug or something less serious, but six months down the line this condition or this thing that I was feeling just wasn't going away. I went to all the doctors, specialists, trying to figure out what exactly is happening and it had such a big physical toll on my body that I was unable to do sport anymore. Now remember that I wanted to do this for a career and it's like everything just stopped abruptly. My life came to a standstill and running certain tests by specialists, they came to this prognosis that I have something called ulcerative colitis. Now at that stage it has been left till the point where it formed these little ulcers in my thick intestine, in my colon, and they had to remove a whole organ from my body. Now I remember going through this time and probably the worst news that I could have gotten was that I would be unable to do sport ever again. And you know, I placed my identity in sport growing up. That was how people knew me, that was how I saw myself even as someone that does sport, although in playing professional rugby. And when this happened it really just knocked me down to the ground. But I also think that it really helped me that I encountered this when I was young, when I was 21 years old, because I had a zest for life, I had a fire for life still. And I just wasn't ready to give up. So miraculously I recovered from this. I had a series of operations in one year. I had five operations, reconstructive surgery in my body trying to fix this condition. And eventually I went back to playing sport, I played rugby again, praise God for that. But in the very last game that I was playing for the team at that stage, I fell skew and someone of my own team fell on my shoulder with their knee. And right at that moment I remember when he fell on my shoulder, all the muscles tore off from my arm, my shoulder and my chest muscles, tore off completely. And you know it's funny, when that happened I knew my career playing rugby is over. Now at that stage my arm is in a sling, I got the operations done, reconstruction on my shoulder. And then one day I was on my way to my girlfriend at the time. Now she lives fairly close to where I am, about 60 miles from my house. And this is a road that I've driven so many times, I mean hundreds of times, visiting her on weekends or during the week or that I had to go pick her up for things. So this is a road that I know so well. But on this specific day, it was just before the sun was setting and I had my arm in a sling and I was driving with a safety belt buckled up. And as I was driving I just put the safety belt just over my arm so it wasn't pressing on my shoulder. And I remember I was going around a bend and I looked at the radio what song was playing, literally something so innocent, just looking at the radio for one split second, taking my eyes off of the road. And I remember I heard a sound that the wheels was catching the gravel next to the road. And I was actually driving off of the road ever so slightly. And that noise caught my attention and it gave me a fright. And at that moment I just reacted a little bit too hard and I plucked the steering wheel. Now at that stage I started hearing the tires were screeching. And at that moment I thought, well, it might be the car behind me whose tires are screeching. Maybe they're braking too hard or taking the turn too fast. Little did I know that it was actually my motor vehicle that was out of control, that the tires were screeching from my car, that I plucked the steering wheel a little bit too hard. Before I knew it, I didn't have control over the car and I was heading down a ditch. Now I remember there was this huge palm tree in the way and I kept on telling myself, you have to miss that tree because I knew if I was going to hit that tree head on, that it would be the end of my life. Now by the grace of God, I just missed that palm tree, but I still went down the ditch. As I went down the ditch and the car started rolling, I remember looking throughout the window and I saw the ground coming closer to me. That's when I realized the car was busy flipping head over toe. At that moment I fell out of the passenger window and as I fell out the window with my head breaking the glass, it knocked me unconscious. Now a few minutes later, about 20 minutes later, I woke up next to the side of the car, which was about 60 yards into a field. When I woke up, a man stood above me, a brown man stood above me, a colored man, and he was touching my shoulder and he told me his name. He said his name is Hosea and he said, Olvay, you have to lay still. You hurt your back really bad. I remember the first thought that went through my mind is how does he know my name and how does he know that I hurt my back? Obviously not listening to his advice, I tried to get up. I tried to move at that stage. I was lying in a fetal position next to the car and the moment that I tried to get up, it was like my legs just weren't listening to the voice in my head, that they didn't want to respond. There was just nothing going on. I remember I thought, okay, well this might just be shock that I had an accident and my body is just in shock because I felt pins and needles throughout my whole body, even my legs. I felt the cold gripping me, but I didn't have any pain, which was very odd because while that man was with me, I had zero pain. And also I was completely at peace in that moment against all odds, against all the circumstances. I was at peace at that moment. Now in the distance, I heard the ambulance coming because he had my phone in his hand and he phoned my father, he phoned my best friend, he also phoned my girlfriend and he communicated with the ambulance that they need to come and help. As my dad was rushing to the hospital, ready to meet us there, the ambulance came and they picked me up on a stretcher. And I remember the moment that they started to move me, the moment that they picked me up on the stretcher and I moved away from this person that found me, away from the wreckage. That's when the pain started kicking in. Now those details of the story are extremely important because, I mean, how does he know my name? Where did he find my phone? If you've ever seen a car wreck, everything is scattered throughout the area. Now I had no idea how he found my phone, how he unlocked my phone and also knew who to call at that moment. As I was driving in the ambulance to the hospital, the pain started increasing in my body. And I remember I was laying in that ambulance, looking up at the ceiling, feeling the life literally being drained from my body. And the last thing that I remember is calling out to God, saying, Lord, if you will save me today, I will give my life to you. And I blacked out and I only woke up the next day in hospital. When I was in rehabilitation, I was there for three months, rehabilitating, trying to get my life back. Just trying to make sense of everything that happened, you know, on this emotional rollercoaster that it was. But every single night I used to look at the photos of the wreckage because Hosea that found me, he took photos of the wreckage. And in one photo, you can see me in a fetal position, lying so close to the wreck that the dust was scraped off of the car and I was lying on the driver's side of the vehicle. Now, remember, I fell out on the passenger side, 60 yards back on impact, and they found me in a field. The car was rolling. It was tumbling and it was pressed like a little Coke can that was pressed together and you can't even open up the doors. Only the window was broken through which I exited on impact. But they found me next to the car in a fetal position, almost like someone had just placed me there. Now, as I was looking at these photos every single night, looking at these photos, trying to make sense of what just happened. If I could only be a fly on the wall to know and see how this had happened, I might have peace of what had happened to me. Doctors came in and they told me that I'm paralyzed from my chest down. I completely shattered my T8 vertebra, completely shattered. They had to take bone fragments from my hip and other parts of my body to reconstruct the T8 vertebra within my body. Now, as I said, as I was looking at these photos, I started having this conversation with the Lord saying like, can you just please reveal to me how did this happen? How did I even survive this? And what kind of grace is this to keep me alive in a wheelchair? Someone that used to love sport, that used to be so active. But now I'm alive, but I'm paralyzed. Wouldn't it have been better to just have died that day? And I would have been with the Lord. But I knew that God had a plan with this. I knew that it is just too coincidental that I'm still alive. Looking at these photos, nothing made sense to me. Now, Hosea also gave me his phone number. He put it in my phone. He also gave it to my father because he spoke to him on the phone while he was driving to the hospital. And one day I thought, well, I'm just going to phone this Hosea, who I don't know, who found me and trying to figure out what did he see? What did what did he perceive? What happened? Did he move me? Did he, you know, I just wanted to find out more. And as I was looking for his phone number on my phone, his number was just gone. Also, I phoned my father. I said, Dad, do you have his number still? And his number was also gone out of my dad's phone. So clearly there was no way of contacting him. And then I felt the Holy Spirit say, go and have a look. What does Hosea mean? By a simple Google search, I went on on Google and found that Hosea means he saves and he helps. Now, I know for a fact that God has sent an angel that day to preserve my life for a certain purpose. What that purpose was at that time, I am not sure. But I knew that God's hand was upon me. God's hand was in this situation to keep me alive that day, that no weapon formed against me on that specific day will prosper. Now, I went home from there and it's not that everything was just fine. I had to deal with some real emotions. I had to deal with what happened to me, something that so radically changed my life, leaving me paralyzed in this wheelchair at the age of 24. Now, one day I was cleaning my rifles because I live on a farm and we're very passionate about conservation and hunting and, you know, being in the outdoors. And I was cleaning rifles that day. And the thought went through my mind, what is the purpose of living? What is the purpose of still being alive? Why am I still fighting? Why am I still even trying? And maybe today you're hopeless. Maybe today you're at that point that you're asking those exact same questions that, God, why am I even here? At that moment, I had this thought going through my mind that, why don't I just end it? And I remember taking a pistol that was in the safe at that time and I held it under my chin. And I asked the Lord a question. I said, I need a very good reason why I should not take my life today. And I felt the inner witnessing of the Holy Spirit speaking into my heart, Jeremiah 29, verse 11, saying, Alvin, I still have a plan with you. I still have a hope for you. I still have an expectancy for you. I have a future for you. And you see, that is where trust comes in. Even though we cannot see what lies ahead, we cannot see all the beautiful plans that God has for us. I can assure you that He has a plan for each and every one of us and for you listening to this right now. And that moment, I just realized that how can I give up upon myself if God hasn't given up on me? If God has a purpose for my life, if He has sent an angel to preserve my life that day, how can I give up on myself? I want to pray for you that hope be restored in your life, that you will know that God still has a plan with you and that He may reveal that and that His glory may shine upon your life. So if that is you, I want you to just put your hand on your heart and I want to pray for you. So Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask every single person under the sound of my voice, Lord, may you encourage them and stir hope again within their hearts. Father, I pray that the fire of the Holy Spirit may touch them right now and reignite dreams that they have laid aside, Father, that they thought have expired, that you have forgotten about. Father, remind them of the beautiful promises that you still have for them, Lord. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.