Sometime in or around 1971 I hit a tree while operating a motorcycle that belonged to someone that worked for me. I flew over the handlebars, hit the tree headfirst, and was knocked unconscious. I sustained massive bruising over a majority of my body, and injured my neck (bone chips in the nerve canals, disk bulge and spine curvature). While the neck and shoulder injuries were not life threatening, nor required surgery, they plagued me with severe pain that required chiropractic care on almost a monthly basis for the next thirty years.
In late 2001 John and Carol Arnott from the TACF visited The Crossing. During one of the speaking sessions on the topic of Forgiveness and how it can manifest itself in physical pain, John asked if anyone was suffering from the neck and shoulder pain, and for those people to come forward. I felt God prodding me to walk forward and join the group. I ended up in the back row of people who were waiting for prayer. John began walking up and down and came to stop at the spot in the line in front of me, but people were between he and I. He reached between the two people and pulled me forward. He asked me to describe the pain, and explain the circumstance that caused it. He asked me, “Who do you have to forgive in order to be free of the pain?” I told him, “no one, as I was the one who caused the accident so no one else was at fault”. He said, “well how about forgiving yourself?” I had never thought of it, so I did that. Immediately I felt a rush of heat through my neck and shoulders and the pain was gone. I testified to the gathering and continue to testify to it.
