Our dear covenant friend Zephry D'Souza, who travelled along with us, has written this report on what happened to us in the car accident. He also shares some very encouraging insight in how God caused people to pray for us to protect our lives.

This is his report:

I am travelling with Erling and Solveig. Very grateful that God has
saved our lives from a very serious accident. We were travelling on
Thursday, 5th, morning from Warangal to Ongole to meet with an old
contact of Erling , who had invited him to come again. – We were an
hour out of Warangal – 9am – when all three of us felt drowsy and
closed our eyes ( I think in hindsight it was the lord's way of
protecting us from recalling the terror of the accident..),

The driver says that the tyre burst. He was drivin at a speed of at
least 90 kms . He lost control, and the car swerved across the road to
the other side. I woke up and was shocked to see branches hitting the
windscreen! We were on the wrong side of the road! I looked ahead and
saw that we were heading for a big tree that would hit us right in the
middle of the front of the car. I shouted " Jesus" !

I believe that the Lord just shifted the car 6" to the right so that
instead of hitting it headon, we hit the tree on the left side . The
headlights , the tyre and its shaft were smashed. The car continued for
another 30 metres before coming to a halt in a field. I was sitting in
front. I had heard Solveig screaming and literally being thrown up ! I
knew she must be hurt. I tried to open my door but could not. However ,
nothing had happened to the dirver!! . He opened the door on Solveig 's
side but she could not come out easily as she was in pain. Erling did
not have any injuries. My left foot was injured and I could not walk.

We tried to get in touch with our people but there was no
connectivityin that area for quite some time. Eventally we managed to
contact Abraham , who assured us that they would get a relief car to
come and take us . But it was at least 3 hours before the car reached
us and we could proceed to to a nearby village for treatment. The
doctor examined us and told us that we did not have serious injuries ,
prescribed some pain killers and told us we could could proceed to
Ongole , which we believe was the right thing to do.

Erling had examined the site of the accident and took a lot of photos.
( I am sure he will put them on face book!) People who stopped by to
help were surprised to see how we had been saved. You were Lucky!! Not
lucky I said. Jesus our God saved us. They thought we were lucky
because they had seen just how the car had come to be in that spot.

After the tyre burst , the driver lost control and the vehicle swerved
to the right side of the road. It was the goodness of God that no truck
was coming from the opposite direction. There was a culvert for water
to pass under the road. It was approximately 20' wide. the car was
travelling at such a high speed that it went flying over the culvert,
landing on the opposite side of it.That was when I saw the tree heading
towards us! It was a miracle that we were saved. the Lord had
intervened and saved our lives.

He even saved the driver's life because of us. The driver later told us
that he had been driving for 10 years but had never worn the seat belt
! But when I got in , he saw me wearing it and he was motivated to put
it on! That act saved his life!

We got ourselves examined by an Orthopaedic Surgeon in Ongole . While
I have no fractures , Solveig has a spinal compression and has been
advised complete rest for 6 weeks . She has been in touch with their
Insurance company which is arranging for them to go back home as soon
as possible. So we have had to cut short our trip and skip Machlipatnam
, Jaipur and Udaipur as also the graduation of the Bible school.

We are so very grateful to the Lord for saving our lives. We are also
very grateful for our covenant friends in different churches who have
been praying for us during this trip. One of the sisters in our church
was woken up by the Lord at 4am on the day of the accident and told to
pray for the leaders. Moses had a dream 2 nights before we left
Warangal. He saw a car accident in which three persons died. He got
brothers together and prayed. Moses who lives in the area of the
accident, told us that that place was an accident prone place and
whenever there has been an accident there, there were always reports of
deaths!!! But God , who is so great in Mercy and abounding in Love for
his children intervened and saved our lives!! hallelujah!!! Praise his
Name!